Nila and The Art Lab Studio’s Corona Quilt Project brings pandemic to heal
- 15 Mar 2022
Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer
Non-profit initiative Nila and creative hub The Art Lab Studio have unveiled a public art installation titled “Nila x Corona Quilt Project: Stories of Healing in Cloth”, conceived by leading Indian contemporary artist Dia Mehta Bhupal and Neha Modi. The exhibition is being displayed in Jaipur, Rajasthan State, India (Mar. 9 - July 31).
The installation is comprised of a patchwork of individual textiles handmade by over 200 artisans across Rajasthan, with contributions from students, craft enthusiasts and experts. The idea is to create opportunities for connection between people and their stories and to bring about a healing pause in ordinary people’s days, by creating artworks with their hands.
The public nature of the piece, it is hoped, will instill uplifting narratives into the fabric of the city, with the beauty of the collective work of art encouraging people to take the time to slow down, watch and reflect.
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Realised in collaboration with Healing Arts Jaipur — the Indian chapter of an international initiative engaging with art as the new frontier in healthcare and well-being —the project presents a textile art piece that embodies the spirit of healing through gestures of creative expression.
As a part of the growing, pan-India Corona Quilt Project — a project spearheaded by Bhupal and Modi — the installation carries a multitude of 15-inch textile squares, representing the range of textile craft traditions.The artwork carries Rajasthan’s iconic, heritage crafts of hand block printing, dabu mud-resist printing, kantha and tagai stitch, appliqué and ralli embroidery, leheria and natural indigo dyeing. Each square represents an individual’s interpretation on the themes of ‘Nature’ and ‘Rhythm’ — a contemplation on ideas of regeneration, growth and harmony. The Nila Corona Quilt aims to bring a focus on the potential for collective catharsis through creative expression, using crafts that are an organic, everyday part of life in India.
The artwork also celebrates the vast and historically deep textile-based craft ecosystems that were made particularly vulnerable during the global pandemic, yet remained resilient and sustained through community-focused initiatives. The artwork developed through the project emphasises the abundant capacity for community healing through creative expression and ancient knowledge systems that remain at the core of traditional crafts.
Nila organisation sits at the intersection of craft, design, sustainability and community empowerment. A ground-breaking initiative, it is worldwide in its scope, and encompasses most of the stages of the Indian craft value chain. The foundation addresses the core needs required for the survival of a progressive, thriving craft industry in today’s global economy. Nila’s vision and work finds its physical manifestation in Nila House, Jaipur; it is an interactive space,honouring and celebrating the craft traditions of India, within one of India’s oldest craft centres.
A restored 1950s home, Nila House is a hub for the craft and design community, inspiring innovative thinking about the future of heritage conservation and sustainable design. Founded by New York based, Indian-born entrepreneur Sana Rezwan, The Art Lab Studio specialises in the development and implementation of experiential programmes through innovative partnerships and collaborations with local and global luxury brands, non-profit institutions, galleries and artists. With over 15 years of experience in fashion, marketing and buying at Stella McCartney, Giorgio Armani and Liberty department store, Rezwan has also founded three businesses involved in luxury marketing: (23 Carat), retail (Maison) and ethical fashion (Indelust).
Her previous endeavours have been profiled in publications such as Forbes, The Financial Times, Architectural Digest, Vogue and The Huffington Post.
She is active in several charitable organisations and sits on the Advisory Arts Council of Harvard University’s South Asia Institute, besides being an Honorary Acquisitions Committee Member of the Jio World Centre (Reliance Foundation) and belonging to the Committee of The Magic Bus Foundation, The Artwalk and The Camera Club at Baxter Street.
An avid art collector, she is also a patron of the South Asian Modern and Contemporary Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bhupal is one of India’s leading contemporary Indian artists, with a practice that focusesextensively on photography with an emphasis on redefining everyday images as commonly interpreted by society. Her artworks have been exhibited at galleries and art fairs across the world, finding a place of prominence in
prominent art collections worldwide. Born in Mumbai, she studied photography at The Parsons School of Design in New York. She currently lives and works between Mumbai and Hyderabad. The Corona Quilt project is a community engagement initiative inspired by quilting traditions around the world. It began during the coronavirus pandemic to give people an outlet to express their personal experiences through the designing of a ‘square’.
Today, it takes tangible form as each of these squares comes together in a community art installation.
The project has seen input from over 25 cities across India, partnering with social enterprises, schools and corporations to create site-specific installations of mammoth quilts that have been painstakingly put together, using works of art from the local communities. Each installation represents solidarity and collective catharsis through the medium of creative expression. Healing Arts Jaipur is the Indian chapter of a global art initiative
established in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the World Health Organization (WHO) Arts and Health Program and produced by CULTURUNNERS and New York University Arts & Health with the vision to engage with art as the new frontier in healthcare and well-being.