He/Hem

Vida Heydari Contemporary is pleased to present “He/Hem,” an exhibition showcasing eight innovative female art-practitioners who uniquely employ stitching with thread onto paper in exchange of conventional fabrics, and redefine traditional techniques, mediums, and modes of artistic expression. The artworks, which tread along critical eco-feminist thought, seek to erase lines between high art, and skill-based crafts, while engaging with tropes of identity, care, body, and ecology, to present reflections on our contemporary conditions alongside proclamations for a sustainable, and socially just future.

Anshu Singh effaces the distanciation made between artistry, and artisanship, refocusing our attention onto the artisans' agency and labour, especially that of women belonging to Muslim working-class communities. Repurposing economical materials like clothing, and plastic, her artworks blend traditional weaving techniques conceptually within contemporary contexts while upholding the need for the preservation of tangible crafts heritage.

For Kanan Koteshwar, acts of feminine caregiving, and nurture, guide her artistic ventures. By experimenting with neglected materials, while making minimal, restrained interventions, she organically integrates embroidery as a humanising factor into her chosen mediums. This approach not only lends meaning into the mundane, and restores its value, but adds a layer of sentient significance to her pieces. In a similar vein, drawing from instances of her own personal experiences and memories, alongside reflections on the world around, Aparajita Jain Mahajan’s pieces hint towards the necessity of collective human care, and responsibility that can safeguard our ecological futures on the planet. Her works present themselves as tangible spaces of thought actively sifting through notions of death, decay and renewal with time. Extending this notion of care to the individual self, Debashree Das' works probe into essential linkages with the unconscious, reflecting changes in our inner being as we age. Inspired by the versatile adaptivity of the multiple identities she inhabits, which simultaneously overlap, and dissolve through different stages of being a woman, her embroidered canvases become instruments towards a distinctive archival process that record her transitions in life.