New Exhibition Trace Honors Women's Hidden Legacy in Textile Traditions
A new exhibition is putting the spotlight on women's long-overlooked role in preserving textile traditions. Trace, the debut solo show by the Chanakya School of Craft collective, explores how women have used cloth to record histories—even as their contributions often go unrecognised. The exhibition opens with a simple but powerful idea: while women have woven shared stories into fabric for centuries, they have rarely been part of the celebratory narratives themselves.
The collective's work brings together indigenous textile knowledge, artistic expression, and the autonomy of women who keep these traditions alive. For generations, women in regions like Kutch, Gujarat, have embedded symbolic motifs into embroidery and weaving. These designs carry cultural identity, rituals, and folklore, turning everyday cloth into a living record of community life.
At the heart of the exhibition is a sculptural piece inspired by the circular *bhunga* houses of Kutch. It represents women gathered in domestic weaving circles—spaces where labour, learning, and connection have long intertwined. In these circles, skills passed from hand to hand, linking one generation to the next. The show highlights how textile work has reinforced more than just craft. In Kutch, cooperative production fostered economic independence, social bonds, and the transmission of knowledge. Women's stitches did more than decorate fabric; they held communities together.
Through Trace, the Chanakya School of Craft collective gives visibility to women's unseen labour in textile traditions. The exhibition connects past and present, showing how cloth has carried knowledge, culture, and resilience across time. By centring these stories, it challenges the erasure of women from the narratives they themselves have woven.
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