Tihayi : Cosmological maps of protest
This site specific textile installation at the Great dining hall of Goodenough College in London is a triptych hung from chandeliers in the ceiling all facing the Empire Clock on the wall above. These three textile axis mundi stand facing this vestige of exploitative British Empire as an ongoing protest to injustice. Women performing artists of late 19th century in India were stripped of rights, freedom, agency, private owned properties by force and dislodged by the empire from being the highest taxt paying citizens to prostitutes for British soldiers. These women turned to warriors to support the war of independence alongside carrying the teachings of Indian dance form of Kathak. In this installation the movement topological maps were created by digitizing movement vocabulary using motion capture technology. These maps are made in hand dyed indigo cotton textiles referencing the empire’s exploitation in trade of cotton and indigo in the colonies.