Delhi-based artists Rahul Chaudhary and Pankaj Saroj are travelling across the country as part of a four-month-long project, titled Yarn Yatra, to celebrate the weaving tradition of the country. They speak to Saritha Saraswathy Balan about how it has transformed their lives
While you are traveling in a train or roaming around in a city, don’t be surprised if you find yourself surrounded by colourful threads of yarn wrapped around window grills, door handles, or tree branches. Two young artists have been travelling in the country for what they call “Yarn Yatra”, wrapping yarn in public places, to remind and retain the rich weaving tradition of the country.
Collaborated with weavers, artisans and artists of the hinterlands to produce art that celebrates weaving traditions in the country, Yarn Yatra is an effort to bring into limelight the historical and social significance of yarn weaving. The journey is to highlight the relevance of dying weaving traditions of India and to honour the lives of numerous weavers who keep the tradition of weaving alive in the counrty. The canvas of the artists are various public platforms and places: trains, tea stalls, hotel lobbies, art institutions, other landmark structures and even tree branches.
“This project carries within it a cathartic drive, one that will pave the way for bringing in a better understanding of art in India. Our culture is embedded with various intangible memories that somehow have been abandoned for lack of their discovery. Through the journey, these memories will be awakened and re-embodied in all those who witness and interact with the project. We intend to use the processes of wrapping and macramé to weave our narratives,” said the artists, who are carrying piles of yarn in duffle bags.
Chaudhary is a self-taught visual artist and a theatre person where as Saroj has a strong foundation in visual art; in performance and installation. The artists, in total, will cover 13,000 kilometers through the eastern and western coasts of India, mostly by train. They covered western India; Jabalpur, Bhopal, Ujjain, Baroda, Ahmedabad and Mumbai in the first phase of the journey in September. They visited Bharat Bhavan and Tribal Art Museum in Bhopal as well.
In the second phase, began in November, the artists are traveling to the east coast of India: to lucknow, Bhadohi, Varanasi, Kolkata, Bolpur, Guwahati and Majuli, the last river island of Asia and hub of Assamese weaving. They call yarn warpping ‘yarn bombing’ and they did it at lucknow College of Arts and Crafts, Benaras ghats, Government College of Art and Craft in Kolkata, and the forest area in Majuli, to mention a few. In December, they will travel from Delhi to Panipat, will cover several locations on the way, to finally stop from where it all began.
“The journey so far has been both tough and easy. Tough because this is the first of its kind, and everything new, it takes time for people to absorb, experience and accept the idea,” said the artists. “Who are you and what are you doing is the prompt reaction of people when they see us. But they understand our purpose when they see colourful yarn coming out of the bags. And then the questions would come, about the material, the texture and why we are doing this,” they added.
Explaining to people that they are celebrating the legacy of weaving is tough, the artists agreed. So how effectively the message of honuring the life of weavers, and weaving as an art could be communicated to the people through the journeyIJ “Sometimes actions speak louder than words, I think simple things like the tea stall vendor offering us a free cup of tea, or a rickshaw puller offering us money to decorate his rickshaw are more meaningful. It means that they are attracted to the idea and want to participate in it, in their own way. They may not know the art of weaving, but they have captured an image of it for life,” they said.
If they can initiate a thought process, how will they be able to retain it and take to the next levelIJ “When we started our journey with experiments in Delhi, we were solely focused on wrapping yarn and strictly following process of yarn bombing, which is basic wrapping of a surface. But later, we realised our canvas is limitless, and so wrapping can also be limitless, it doesn’t have to run in concentric circles, it can run in any direction, it can be totally abstract”, they observed.
“The weavers would rather move away from craft traditions and focus on migrating to the urban cities. Through this journey the Indian and International community will begin to understand the relevance of a tradition that has a legacy which goes back in time to our ancient civilization,” they said. The artists hope that, all this is a long way off, as they have simply initiated a process, which they hope will reap in time. They also believe that the journey has enriched their experience not just as artists, but also as individuals. “From the sights, sounds, smells, smiles, it all seems like a fairytale journey which we couldn’t have imagined doing ourselves,” they concluded. Raj Art Initiative (TRAI), a cultural initiative by Panipat-based Raj Group, has developed the concept.