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Sharan Apparao: Pied Piper of Artsy Textiles

The Voice of Fashion - 27th December, 2024

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Why the Chennai-based gallerist, collector and storyteller mattered in the textile renaissance of the art world in 2024

 

In August, gallerist and textile connoisseur Sharan Apparao curated ‘Entwined: Edition II’. Works of almost sixty artists, ingeniously arrayed, were hauled under one roof at Delhi’s Bikaner House. They veered away from traditional sculptures or large-scale paintings. Rather, they paid homage to the humblest materials: fibre and textile. Sometimes, the works meditatively incorporated yarn, jute, twine, velvet and wool; and sometimes, they treaded into esoteric realms with fishnets, feathers, wire and medical gauze.

 

Indian galleries are experiencing something akin to a fibre-blitzkrieg. Gallerists and curators are orchestrating revelatory textile-driven shows, giving the long-awaited yet much-deserved nod to textile creativity. From ‘Sutr Santati’ curated by Lavina Baldota at the NGMA, Mumbai last year and ‘Vayan – The Art of Indian Brocades’ helmed by Mayank Mansingh Kaul at the National Crafts Museum, Delhi to the more recent, ‘When Indian Flowers Bloomed in Distant Lands – Masterworks of Trade Textiles 1250-1950’ from the TAPI Collection in Ahmedabad—textiles are finally being taken seriously in the art world. It’s a great time for artists who’ve been engaging with the versatile medium.

 

Sharan’s ‘Entwined: Edition II’ was a sanctuary of sorts–a respite for the viewers from the un-sensory flat screen surfaces and an invitation into the slow-paced world of deft craftsmanship. Whether it was Shivani Aggarwal’s delicate canopy-like crocheted copper-wire work; Aparajita Jain Mahajan’s amorphous works formed using fabric scraps (inherited from her late mother’s apparel practice), or Manish Nai’s telling yet spare canvasses that gestured towards his family of barbers and jute craftsmen, the artworks served as potent capsules, bridging themes of memory, history, family legacy and identity. 

 

Certain tactile artworks also functioned as registers of protest. Take, for instance, Nandita Mukand’s exhilarating sculptural ‘paintings’ made from medical gauze. They were visual metaphors for healing and recovery that could also be construed as a politically relevant nod to the Palestinian city of Gaza, where the word ‘gauze’ is believed to have originated. Or Megha Joshi’s ‘Hair Series’, which depicted ‘drawings’ made using black thread. The threadwork contoured real or mythological female figures whose tresses had become a symbol of resistance or oppression.

 

“India is one of the few countries that has a vast heritage of textiles; it’s an important part of our culture,” explains Sharan. “Through ‘Entwined’, I wanted to explore the significance of textiles in our history, especially with a reference to Gandhi, who used textiles as a tool for the independence movement. I had this collection of Gandhi drawings and embroideries, which was a part of an earlier show I had done, and had kept 10-15 of them for myself. I used that as a starting point.” 

 

For ‘Entwined’, Sharan’s curatorial instinct gravitated towards artworks that stood out for their materiality and technique. She chose the narrative of ‘mind, body and soul’ to categorise and divide the works. “In some works, textiles are an incidental medium, while in some works fibre is part of the narrative,” she adds.

 

Textile Intelligence 

 

At 62, founder and owner of Apparao Galleries, Sharan is a walking repository of textile intelligence and a raconteur extraordinaire. Her nuanced eye can single out quality fabric from piles of pedestrian renditions, like a goldsmith can discern the purest metal. Although an admired and respected contemporary art gallerist for the last four decades, she unapologetically calls textiles her “greatest love affair”. Sharan grew up “surrounded by beautiful things,” the influences of which deeply assimilated into her being. She recalls admiring the saris that elegantly swathed her mother, and watching her paternal aunts (who ran one of the first sari boutiques in Chennai called Varnali) drape themselves in crisp Venkatagiri saris every evening. 

 

A passionate collector, she has gathered precious textiles (Jamawar jackets, Uzbek ikats and kurtas fashioned from exquisite Japanese shibori), as well as other extravagant oddities through her curious, peripatetic lifestyle. You’ll often find her visiting flea markets and antique dealer stores across Paris, Egypt, Japan and New York, with eyes peeled for ensembles that carry untold stories. “Once in Egypt, I found a long Syrian dress with the most beautiful cross-stitch embroidery and a Bedouin wedding dress,” she says. “The latter was black, free-flowing and was full of mother of pearl buttons.”

 

Long before textile-based exhibitions became popular, Sharan was curating woven tableaux in her gallery. One of her first shows celebrating such artworks was in the late 1980s on the notable fibre-artist and craft scholar, Nelly Sethna. “She used to make these beautiful wool and cotton tapestries,” says Sharan. “Nelly, her husband Homi and her associate Roshan Mullan, attended the exhibition. She was still alive then and in a wheelchair.” Soon after, Sharan featured the works by designer-educator MP Ranjan. “I remember one of his extremely stunning artworks: it was a woven lotus pond,” she says, rummaging through decades’ worth of memory. 

 

An ardent collaborator, Sharan held a special trunk show called ‘Nayaab’ with textile revivalist Rupa Sood, showcasing tasteful silhouettes (think tussarjackets carrying sujani embroidery and long-sleeved chintz cloaks) from 2016 to 2023. 

 

You’ll often find her visiting flea markets and antique dealer stores across Paris, Egypt, Japan and New York.
 
Clubbing With Yarn 
 

Sharan carries a zest for learning, and discovered a schism in the art world very early on. “I wondered where adults who were keen to learn more about textiles could go,” she says. In 2012, it led her to use her gallery as a space to host talks. This was the beginning of the Yarn Club, a monthly gathering for textile aficionados, design enthusiasts and collectors to gain insights from experts. 

 

Enriching conversations on handlooms, the effect of natural dyes on fabric, and even the remarkable similarities between Balinese and Indian weaves filled her gallery. Nothing was off the table. Sharan invited “almost everybody whom you can think of in the textile world” to give a talk, including crafts expert and founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti Jaya Jaitly, Dastkar’s Laila Tyabji, Jean-François Lesage (founder of Chennai-based Vastrakala), Peter D’Ascoli (founder of Talianna Studio in Delhi), Frank Ames (a dealer and consultant in historic textiles), and curator Mayank Mansingh Kaul. 

 

The Woven Path 

 

In November, Sharan curated art patron Saloni Doshi’s private collection of textiles, titled ‘The Woven Path’ at Space 118, Mumbai, exhibiting about 80 artworks across five viewing rooms. It was a collateral exhibition held alongside Art Mumbai. Each room was given an identity: The Source, Crystallisation, Alchemy, Transformation and Realisation, which looked at a journey from creation to culmination. “Textile is in vogue right now,” says Doshi, standing in her office surrounded by a constellation of multi-coloured saris (from the decorative Ashavali, Andhra’s narayanpet to a double ikat patola), which are part of the exhibition. “I had put a post on Instagram saying that I was looking for a textile-based researcher for the show, and Sharan instantly replied,” continues Doshi, who has known the Chennai-based gallerist for almost two decades now. Sharan viewed the works and curated the show in three visits, shares Doshi, stunned by the gallerist’s prowess. 

 

From Jayeeta Chatterjee’s 'The Story is True' which is a quiet, monochromatic depiction of fisherwomen in Pochampally weave, to Deena Pindoria’s poignant indigo-hued 'Peace and Violence' on modal silk characterised by ominous warplane motifs, to Viraj Khanna’s surrealist, hand-embroidered ‘painting’ with deformed, animal-like figures—Doshi’s eclectic collection needed a story to tie it all together. “Hats off to Sharan because it’s hard to make meaning out of a pre-existing collection,” says Doshi. “But she saw a thread that bound my collection together,” where Sharan used the idea of the seed as a metaphor. 

 

The veteran gallerist is currently gearing up for an extensive paper-based show in Chennai to be held in January 2025, which, knowing her, will be a thoughtfully curated experience. However, the art and textile world is also looking forward to her next textile-based show, which will offer another compelling insight into the cultural fabric of our country.

 

 

Banner: Sharan Apparao at 'Entwined: Edition II' in front of Bobby Agarwal's 'Moon Shadow 03.' Photo by Rishabh Batra.

December 27, 2024