The film constructs the tension between the practice of weaving and the rise of modern India. Acting like a woven document, it layers footage of a woman winding wool with photographic evidence of the renovation of the main hall of an ancient Palace in Bhuj. As she winds her warp, the building work threads its way across the screen. After several repetitions, they both become interwoven in the scaffold that holds them up, persistently entwined, written into a history.
The action takes place in the district of Kutch on the cusp of change as communities rebuild their social and economic selves after devastating earthquakes in 2001. Reporting on the aftermath and amnesia in Gujarat, Edward Simpson in his book, The Political Biography of an Earthquake, states that unlike other local towns Bhuj ‘possessed a written history’, which intertwined politics and power. Simpson notes, there was ‘a disproportionate amount of time and money spent on rebuilding Bhuj in relation to other towns’, that ‘palaces and other buildings became the focus of a national campaign to preserve the heritage of the region’, and various organisations worked to resurrect musical and artisan crafts.
The winder of threads in Bhujodi and the ancient Prag Mahal Palace have very different identities, but co-exist in close proximity. Textile tourists, academics and others often visit both locations in a single day.
The Palace was originally commissioned by King Pragmalji (1860) and designed in an Italian gothic style. The Indian tourist board suggest ‘little about it seems Indian’. The restoration work on the palace involved personal interest by a Bollywood superstar. In contrast Bhujodi is a centre for woven textiles on the edge of the town. Their business is a family enterprise centered around their community. They work together producing cloth celebrating the heritage of the region. As well as local markets their work has been promoted and sold through visits to America, UK, China and Japan. They appear on facebook and visited Trish in Winchester. Cloth has formed a scaffold for social and economic development of Bhujodi.
Trish Bould
Originally trained as a weaver, Trish has an interdisciplinary focus to practice and research. Recent projects include: Creative Director 10daysCHALK Winchester 2015; Sites of Exchange: materialising conversations (University of Portsmouth 2014); Making Conversation (‘Situation’ RMIT Melbourne 2014). Published works include: papers on drawing, practice-based research and collaborative method. www.drawingplace.co.uk
Kathy Oldridge
Kathy is a marketing practitioner and film-maker. She is founding partner of Barnstorm, a consultancy which designs interventions to bring about change: her work aims to find ideas to unlock solutions, drawing inspiration from the world of communication, improvisation and art. Clients include Tate Galleries, Unilever and Heineken. https://www.barnstorm.group
