Banners for the Commons

These banners were created in India on a Fulbright Fellowship, while conducting research on local textile production and techniques. To create these works, I obtained organic Kala cotton from the Khamir Craft Center in Bhuj, India, where it was grown, spun, and woven. I designed wooden printing blocks, and, working with “dabu” a historic mud resist printing method and indigo dye, I created these banners. I employ the image of two halves of a circle to suggest a yearning for coming together and being whole, my visual representation of solidarity. These half circles are surrounded the "mark of the stitch" which symbolizes human interdependence.