Exhibition

2024 / August 30 - September 15 / DakshinChitra Museum

Can a 36x36-inch woven piece of fabric represent Indigenous handloom weavers, global trade and exchange, colonialism, slavery, capitalistic profit-making, imitation, identity, and ingenious marketing gimmicks?

The short answer is yes. Introducing Madras Checks, also known as Real Madras Handkerchief, Injiri, Rumal, or Bleeding Madras.

“Lineage: Past Forward” is an experimental exhibition set to launch in Chennai before travelling to North America, connecting historical trade routes from southern India to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. This exhibition will delve into the 500-year history of Madras Checks and its intricate ties to the Trans-Atlantic and Cape Route trade routes.

The exhibition explores the trans-oceanic cultural legacy and future of Madras Checks. The exhibition merges traditional weaving techniques with generative models, enhanced by computational interlace algorithms, creating a unique platform for visitors to interact and co-create.

Visitors will be able to act as designers to design their own Madras Checks patterns and colours, which will be included in the exhibition’s expanding online digital collection. These designs are later to be co-created with handloom artisans and will travel to North America for a parallel exhibition, representing the creative synergy between Chennai and the global audience - fostering an interactive cultural exchange.

The exhibition addresses the impact of Generative Art on Madras Checks production and its potential to support small-time weavers. Through a collaborative effort between Karthik Prema Rajakumar, supported by the Thinai Foundation, India and Designer Vignesh Hari Krishnan, supported by the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) and the Tsai Centre for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY), United States - the exhibition launches an open-source website. These tools will empower handloom weavers and artisans to navigate global fashion trends and experiment with new designs, supported by mathematical modeling of warp and weft.
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The first leg of the exhibition will be hosted at DakshinaChitra museum, Chennai, in the last week of August, coinciding with the Madras Month celebrations of 2024. Supported by the Tsai Centre for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY), the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), and the Thinai Foundation, this exhibition promises to be an interesting event in the crossroads of the fashion world and cultural heritage.