Here are artistes who seek art in the spools of threads and the prick of the needle. They are those whose art finds expressions on a piece of cloth. For, they believe in making art their reflection and hence living with it every moment. "Instead of making art hang on walls, it's better to drape it around. That is what I believe reflects one's love for art," avers textile designer Mala, whose exhibition Art on Silk was on display at Ishanya. Mala whose paintings on silk sarees provide art a wearable form feels art should be taken around with oneself.

Be it cotton or silk, handloom or spades, the base as well as the means have been adding another dimension to art for a long time now. And the city will revel in the feel of this arty treat when artistes from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal exhibit art works in two different exhibitions in the city. From the contemporary to the traditional, the exhibitions have a lot on offer. So loosen your purse strings to indulge in shopping some artful clothing.

Bai Lou
Indira Broker, a handloom lover who has been wearing only handlooms for the past 20 years now, brings to the city the husband-wife duo of Bappaditya and Rumi Biswas from West Bengal. Bappaditya and Rumi own Bai Lou, a design studio in Kolkata and will be exhibiting for the third time in the city. "People should realise that there's more to handlooms then just khadi . It can be a luxury accessory too," says Rumi, who works with about 300 weavers in West Bengal. But he also adds. "In the West, they do not have weavers anymore. Here, we have our weavers and yet we do not value it," he says. Bai Lou, which won the Seal of Excellence from UNESCO for one of its weaves attempts varied texturisation. The husband wife duo will be exhibiting on February 6 and 7 at Indira Broker's studio at Abhimanshree Apartments 2, Aundh Pashan Link Road.

Dastkar
To the five artistes from different belts in Andhra Pradesh, handloom is an amalgamation of art and science. To Venkateswar Rao, a zari artist, it is conceptualisation of patterns that engages his creativity and the process of giving the abstract a concrete shape on cotton is what involves science. "The various yarn counts and geometrical shapes have to be kept in mind while weaving. And when it comes to conceptualising designs, it is our creativity that is put to test," says Rao.

For natural dye weavers Bhaskar and Chandrashekhar, creativity lies in looking around their environs for colours. "Every plant is a dye bearing one. The bark gives you brown colours and pomegranate gives you shades of red. For us, apart from deciding the colour scheme, creativity also lies in extracting colours from the environment," says the duo, who recently discovered some flowers which on boiling produce a natural yellow colour.

The annual exhibition this time has come up with exclusive khadi varieties in vegetable dyes - Kuppadam 3 shuttle borders in yardage, and dupattas woven with mugha thread from Srikakulam district.