Say Art, Aestivation and Aplomb!! Special Edition News Letter Q1 2025 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
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Say The  Three 'A's - Art, Aestivation and Aplomb! - A special edition newsletter Q1 2025

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Hope was and is the word for 2025. As we approach the Islamic New Year I wished to update you with some key events of the first quarter of this year. 

Working on my own can be quite overwhelming at times and updates are slow. I am trying to be better at this, I 'hope' to succeed. In the meantime I may have to write an update each along the lines of projects rather than chronological updates in one newsletter. This is a special edition newsletter focusing on Q1 2025

 Let me lead you through the events so far in the life and times of Traditional Ateliers! Well thus far it has been quite an adventure.

In January 2025, a sudden opportunity to travel meant I was able to perform Umrah and spend sometime in Medina in the resting place of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (sallalahu alai he wasallam). Alhamdulillah a beautiful surprise beginning to the year. Somehow Allah intended for me to be whisked away and removed to a brief spiritual retreat. Medina was blissful as expected. The time went too quickly but nonetheless I was grateful it happened at all. I felt it was time to retreat and so like the sepals in a plant in aestivation, I went into a silence of mind and body.

The reason for travel was that  I was invited to participate in the Dhara Residency, Dec/Jan. A month long residency, partly remote and partly on site with master weavers. What was the Dhara Residency about? It was the coming together of a team of Bangladeshi artists from the diaspora and in Bangladesh. The directive was to look at the ancient craft of Jamdani muslin, a weaving method that is an iconic heritage of Bangladesh, to create an experience that puts the weaver at the centre of the project with a focus on its enduring sustainability. My expertise in pattern analysis provided an idea of looking at motifs under the banner of renewing tradition, whilst keeping rooted to the heritage of jamdani. So came the idea of Symbols of Power, a composition of contemporary motifs that are rooted in the islamic and Vedic traditions of Bangladesh. Such motifs needed to capture the heart of the Bangladeshi feminine identity, acknowledging that the Bengali woman is ultimately the patron that will help sustain this endangered craft. After all, it is she who will wear the sari. The residency culminated in a workshop and exhibition hosted at Alokhi, Dhaka. The reception to our ideas was extraordinary and the vindication of our efforts was the resulting commissions given to the weavers. I will update on those later. If you want to know more about the Dhara residency please click Dhara instagram and also Tasleema Alam on the Art Broadcast

 

Meeting with experts like Shahidul Hassan Shamim and Chandra Shekhar Saha was in valuable in advising us what the dos and dont's of jamdani are. Below is an interview with the Art Broadcast with me at the Loomscape exhibition. My contribution was to create two samples on 300 and 200 count muslin with a complete new motif that had not been done before, yet had strong links to jamdani motifs in the museum collections, eg the VnA. 

 

I worked with the master weaver, Rajon Miah, whose skills are extraordinary and though my ideas were challenging, his masterful skills saved the day. The two motifs I created are pictured below - the tulip with indigo,  and the tiger stripes. I call them symbols of power and below is a transcript of my audio :

Symbols of Power is a collaborative  journey, my journey with the jamdani weaver, exploring  the nature of motifs that may change just like the ‘dhara’ or flow of time. So I remind myself of the quote from my teacher – tradition is new ways of doing old things and this statement can be instrumental  in allowing change so that tradition can thrive and not just survive. How can this approach help both myself and my fellow artisan, Rajon Miah, in creating a wider berth for newer ways to present Jamdani?  I reflected on the woven garment, the weaver and the patron- these dots had to be connected. Jamdani is synonymous with the Bangladeshi feminine identity and so it  raised the question of who is she now, But the Bangladeshi woman that I remember is markedly different to the Bangladeshi woman of today. A new age has dawned and new feminine  identities are formed within the cradle of the old DNA. These are the future patrons of the Jamdani weaver and how can we “speak” to them in a way that preserves the craft and sustains the weaver communities.

As a practitioner of sacred art the answer lies in rootedness. Sacred geometry understands that long before language existed, our ancestors communicated through symbols or archetypes. Symbols of Power is an exploration of how such simple marks make powerful statements, and say much about our cultural identity.  I understood as a resident of Dhara, the plight of the Jamdani weaver is  because he lives in the world of archetypes and symbols, and when he weaves he becomes a transcendent phenomenon himself. Days in the residency taught us that his education is memory, poetry and maths. So when Rajon and I  discussed together the possibility of different motifs that have meaning to the present generation, he was willing to listen.

Jamdani muslin is a unique story that starts off as a duet between the Brahmin weaver and the Muslim weaver from the moghul court. This was important for me to consider. You would not get muslin if it wasn’t for the Hindu weaver and Jamdani only exists once the muslim courtiers arrived. Not forgetting that the predecessors of the Mughals, Timur’s courts also brought with them a Mongolian Chinese aspect to the  cultural legacy of Jamdani motifs.

I was familiar with the history of Islamic motifs  in Jamdani but the question was how could I connect the past to the present? I sought to look at nature as does the weaver, and what is identifiable as Bangladeshi. The tiger and the water lily and the Buddhist trio of circles known as Cintamoni started to fill my sketchbook. I knew that the Turkish sultans wore tiger stripes or leopard spots as emblems of power whilst the Buddhist cintamoni appeared as a nod to balance and  harmony.  I knew that the ‘kolka’ or paisley is derived from the yin yang and this also appears heavily in Ottoman visual lexicon. I also knew the ottoman tulip represented the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for whom muslin has an illustrious connection. The tulip is rendered to resemble a waterlily that encases a rumi/paisley motif. With all of this  in mind I prepared the drawings. In the midst of the residency, we visited Demra and Alem Miah, Rajon’s father, the master weaver shared his insights on introducing new motifs, there was always room for change. What could not change was the grammar of jamdani motifs.

I developed the floating tiger stripes and the trio cintamoni symbols to represent emblematic symbols of Bangladesh– rooted in its native tapestry. Harmony and balance are depicted by simple curvilinear strokes. The challenge was for the weaver to translate this to the loom. And I witnessed a sacred craft in action. The weaver’s mind is busy with calculations whilst his loom is silent. He tells me that the hands must be nimble of the weavers, and they must work in silence, from dawn until night. The motifs I chose were not the issue, he is resilient but time is the key factor. They worked round the clock to complete the samples and the design board story depicts the transition from artist to artisan weaver and finally the woven cloth. The cloth samples show his initial attempts on the motifs and how they ‘improve’ as he progresses across the cloth. This exchange has created a deep trust between designer and weaver. We are connected by the delicate yet strong threads of our collaboration and despite our parallel worlds we are united in meditative art.

Here is a link to a video showing the process  From Compass to Loom

 

  The two samples here were created for this residency. They took many hours and extremely fine threads. The one on the left is the tulip motif with an embedded yin yang and the one of the right is the 300 count fabric with tiger stripes and tiger mask motif I designed and Rajon wove into being. Here is a glimpse of the show .   Loomscape Dhara

Jamdani is an ancient weaving craft that still exists today in the outskirts of Dhaka where communities of weavers continue the tradition of muslin woven entirely by hand. Muslin and Jamdani can be traced back over a thousand years. The Mughals gave muslin and jamdani special patronage which reached its zenith, until the East India Company arrived, which eventually saw its demise.

 

The exhibition then travelled to Berlin for a successful interactive exhibition under the guidance of curator Samira Syed and her incredible team. The Subkontinet caller is a cosy South Asian melting pot of art, culture and  blended experiences. We were in Ramadan and we had Iftar, sitar music, workshops and lectures amidst the different diverse disciplines of the Dhara artists. Loved regrouping with some of the creatives here.  

One of the developments from this has been that the weaver has received a commission for four pieces and one of his works has found its way to the Royal household of Jordan. Alhamdulillah!

Whilst all this is happening my dedicated students carried on their diligent work on the drawings as part of their TAO of Islamic Art Certified course. They will be attending their graduation soon;-). Click on the image on the left to see their work

Whilst all this is happening my dedicated students carried on their diligent work on the drawings as part of their TAO of Islamic Art Certified course. They will be attending their graduation soon;-). Click on the image on the left to see their work

As I conclude this letter you might like to know that while I travelled to Dhaka, the painting on the right is a special work that had travelled to Indonesia to be part of the exhibition organised by The Bukhari Creative Group. This is called the Burdah and is made with indigo and spirulina and 24 kt gold in the  borders. It is sitting on a background of red earth from France. The red represents the favourite garment of the Prophet Mohammad pbuh, the indigo is an earth pigment that has alchemic symbolism whilst the spirulina is sourced from the sea. I am honoured to be collaborating with them on this project and although I could not be there in person , destiny had other things planned for me. Please wait for the next edition of these special newsletters that will be published soon InshaAllah. Harmony Istiqlal.  

Sending loving energy and good wishes to you all, 

Salaams

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