After graduating from Ahmedabad’s CN College of Fine Arts in the early 90s, Sangita Khalsa plunged into business, setting up a firm that designs soft furnishings for clients that include the city’s 5-star hotels. Then during the Covid pandemic, when business came to a standstill, Ms Khalsa decided to bring her sensibilities to play in creating a series of textile artworks.
The result is Threaded Chronicles, an exhibition which opened at the Hutheesing Centre on Wednesday. The chief guest at the opening was Dr Suresh Sheth of CN College, who guided Ms Khalsa in her endeavours to return to the art world. “As my former teacher, he was quite tough on me. In my first few attempts, I went a bit overboard using too many materials. He told me to be more controlled,” she says with a laugh.
Dr Sheth, 87, seemed pleased with the result. “Sangita has chosen a range of themes in her work. Some of the themes are unusual, like the interiors of factories,” he says.
Indeed, most of Sangita’s works are inspired by the city. Using “achadiya” (the dropcloth that block printers lay over their tables prior to starting the printing process) as the base fabric, she has used overlays and threads to create buildings, doors, bridges, factories. There is also a rather interesting series featuring masks and one kantha-work piece from her visit to a small town near Munich in Germany, where her son lives.
The most striking works are her abstracts, with indigo and dark hues. Then there are some patchwork quilt pieces, pleasing to the eye. In one corner of the exhibition there is an elaborate installation piece (see photograph, where the artist poses with Umang Hutheesing). Some of these pieces have been borrowed for the exhibition from their owners, who bought them directly from Ms Khalsa’s studio).
Ms Khalsa certainly brings a fine sensibility to her work, gained over years of working with high end clients. “I have done commissioned work before but this is my first ever solo exhibition. It was quite a challenge to create a body of work large enough for a solo exhibition,” she says.
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