Jubilee is a word on peace and social justice. By re-valuing the humble human work of stitchery, the work itself has taught me the socio-economic pattern of global justice. As seamstress and outsider artist, my own story is stitched to so many others as a patchwork. In order to survive, my life experience has shaped my art. I am honored to be a stitch in the ancient practice of story-telling in stitchery - a part of the lexicon of folk language, of women all over the globe as well as men in many cases. tribal communities employ the humble stitch as a visual voice, such as in India, the practice of piecework is called Katha – a combining of fragments of cloth to tell a story, document a life passage. This work continues my relationship to this story, herstory. It is a mending of the broken human spirit, evoking heroic images of humanity - enveloped in the metaphor of the quilt. These works are receptive objects, a covering of grace, protection, shelter, a sacred scroll to contain the book of life.
Assemblages of over-dyed, vintage salvaged household linens are pierced and marked ceremoniously in the way that tattoo or mendhi is to skin. messages written as prayer on the body as a sacred book. With inks, beeswax, dyes and encaustics I uncover the figures buried in the shroud and revive them with a blessing of stitchery. The visceral action of this work is a liberation of prayer - Prayer whether the spoken word as it manifests truth through mantra and affirmation or by any sound, movement or task which is drawn out of the body. -
The galleries below are each an archive of images spanning 3 decades. To see the few works which are still available now for sale go to: www.723.com/niradhara
