When infinity turns inspiration – Rahul Mishra’s Fall 17 collection

“The Sunflower is mine, in a way” – Vincent Willem Van Gogh.

The infinite galaxy of stars in the universe appears dot like on a dark sky and lights up to form patterns when seen from different points on earth. An artist’s impression, be it with a brush and colors, or needle and thread, creates a galaxy of their imagination that captures a moment in time eternally.

A midnight walk through the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou – on the White Night in 2016, that treasures the finest European collection of art from 19-20th century left Rahul Mishra mesmerized and dazed. The awakening visit left a deep impression on his mind, and to see his craft and craftsmen in a new light. The inherent artists in his weavers and traditional embroiders and the ideas to explore their infinite skills to conjure graphic designs and impressions has given birth to the Fall 2017 collection, Infinity, that attempts to decode the boundless creativity of human skills. The collection explores the creative sphere of traditional artisans equipped with centuries old hand techniques to create a modernist yet naiveté composition of nature that was largely seen in 19th-century art movement in Europe as Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Pointillism.

Experiment with scientifically juxtaposed small dots of pure color, intended to combine and blend not on the canvas but in the viewer’s eye, the defining feature of Pointillism, is how embroidery is treated on hand woven textiles to etch colorful imageries of trees, flowers and cherries. Deep insight may reveal interpretations to The Pine Tree at St. Tropez by Paul Signac or Sunflowers by Van Gogh in a contextual manner; yet bring to life a dimensional
approach singular to the brand Rahul Mishra.

“I see a visual zealot in each of my hundreds of artisans, and it’s through them that I see the materialization of my ideas and impressions finding language and voice”, says Mishra in his ode to the master artists of the earlier era. “The ‘Handmade in India’ collection is a collective effort of nearly seven hundred traditional artisans and a realization of their techniques painstakingly crafted to create the visual imagery, sewn to perfection into an art impression like an artist.”

The depth and layer of multi-dimensional hand embroidery with interventions to traditional forms explores infinity of craft and human skills to present the Fall 2017 collection.
“It is all about making it mine. Even the sunflowers.”