Fatehpur
Sikri was built by Emperor Akbar as his palace and royal headquarters
during the Mughal Empire. Located not far from the Taj Mahal, it
sees busloads of tourists yet is overshadowed by one of the most famous
monuments in the world that sits only an hour away. Every
sandstone surface at Fatehpur Sikri is intricately carved with floral
and geometric patterns; every wall, column, ceiling and window is
carefully decorated. As I wandered through the different palace
rooms and courtyards, it was these carvings that begged me to stay
longer, to look closer, and to imagine what the palace had been like
during its use. As the carvings are worn away and nature begins
to take over the palace, the rooms and courtyards are transformed into
a secret garden; vines cover the sandstone, trees twist up through the
cracks in the stone floor, nature and human influence grow and decay
side by side.
While in India, I apprenticed with a block printer, learning how to carve the intricate wooden blocks and print textiles by hand. For centuries, Sanganer had been the block printing capital of the country. Today, screen-printing is taking over and camels pull cartloads of cheaply and quickly made textiles. The artisans that carve the traditional wooden blocks and print the textiles by hand are losing their industry. Just as the palaces at Fatehpur Sikri are overtaken by nature, the traditional art of block printing is being overtaken by technology. When combined, these two fading art forms support each other: the disappearing designs at Fatehpur Sikri are preserved through the dying art of hand-printed textiles.
My installation consists of a quilt, with each square inspired by an architectural detail at Fatehpur Sikri, and a tree, unfurling in the center of the quilt. The carved, curling wooden tree echoes the wooden blocks used for block printing, and each square of the quilt is hand printed and sewn together. The two fading art forms of stone carving and hand printing are combined within this secret garden; they are intertwined to create something new, preserved together, connected by their eventual and almost certain disappearance.
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden tells the story of a place separate from the activities of the outside world. When Mary Lennox is forced to leave behind her home in India to live with her uncle in England, the Secret Garden becomes a place of solitude where she can escape from her new life, remembering the splendor and happiness of her childhood.
The intricate designs of the printed quilt and curling tree create a new sort of secret garden. In this space, nature and art are not competing with each other, but are intertwined. The unfurling tree and the surrounding quilt take the architecture of Fatehpur Sikri and give new life to the fading carvings, creating a new art form from the old, preserving the details. The prints, an art form normally seen in a more static setting, are sewn into a quilt that encompasses the space, filling it with the details of Fatehpur Sikri.
Inside this secret garden, each art is revived and enhanced, each one drawing from the beauty of the other for its own survival, protected from this new world where nature and technology compete with art.
While in India, I apprenticed with a block printer, learning how to carve the intricate wooden blocks and print textiles by hand. For centuries, Sanganer had been the block printing capital of the country. Today, screen-printing is taking over and camels pull cartloads of cheaply and quickly made textiles. The artisans that carve the traditional wooden blocks and print the textiles by hand are losing their industry. Just as the palaces at Fatehpur Sikri are overtaken by nature, the traditional art of block printing is being overtaken by technology. When combined, these two fading art forms support each other: the disappearing designs at Fatehpur Sikri are preserved through the dying art of hand-printed textiles.
My installation consists of a quilt, with each square inspired by an architectural detail at Fatehpur Sikri, and a tree, unfurling in the center of the quilt. The carved, curling wooden tree echoes the wooden blocks used for block printing, and each square of the quilt is hand printed and sewn together. The two fading art forms of stone carving and hand printing are combined within this secret garden; they are intertwined to create something new, preserved together, connected by their eventual and almost certain disappearance.
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden tells the story of a place separate from the activities of the outside world. When Mary Lennox is forced to leave behind her home in India to live with her uncle in England, the Secret Garden becomes a place of solitude where she can escape from her new life, remembering the splendor and happiness of her childhood.
The intricate designs of the printed quilt and curling tree create a new sort of secret garden. In this space, nature and art are not competing with each other, but are intertwined. The unfurling tree and the surrounding quilt take the architecture of Fatehpur Sikri and give new life to the fading carvings, creating a new art form from the old, preserving the details. The prints, an art form normally seen in a more static setting, are sewn into a quilt that encompasses the space, filling it with the details of Fatehpur Sikri.
Inside this secret garden, each art is revived and enhanced, each one drawing from the beauty of the other for its own survival, protected from this new world where nature and technology compete with art.