Old Routes New Journeys II
The Museum and Archival Fellowship, IFA
at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalay, Bhopal 2017
Curated by Abeer Gupta
The main bazar in Leh has been witness to the transformation of Ladakh from a epicenter of Himalayan and central Asian trade networks. A group of objects, the Bogh, a colourful cape worn over the long woolen garments by women, the Pabu and Lapul, locally made warm shoes and the Tibril and Melang, a local utensil for serving warm tea, were chosen from the collections of the IGRMS, to map this transformation. The process of their making, patterns of circulation, and modes of use today reveal a variety of stories.
Chemat Dorjay a contemporary artist from Ladakh, responds to these stories through two installations which becomes a conversation between art and material culture.
The past century has been witness to, on one hand, several diasporas due to the political redrawing of borders creating several nation-states; and on the other, vast migrations to commercial urban centers in the footsteps of global capitalism and economic neo-liberalism. These have often, on one hand, resulted in the severance of cultural continuities, created large gaps in knowledge systems, while on the other, produced vast commodification of cultural artifacts.
The main bazaar in Leh has been witness to the transformation of Ladakh from a significant center of Himalayan and Central Asian trade networks. In the past few decades, the material culture of the region has become inexorably part of mainland India and has reconnected with global circulation through tourism.
A group of objects, the Bogh, a colourful cape worn over the long woolen garments by women, the Pabu and Lapul, locally made warm shoes, and the Tibril and Melang, a local set of utensils for serving warm tea, were chosen from the collections of the IGRMS, to map this transformation. These objects of daily life are found commonly in homes across all regions of Ladakh, both in rural and urban spaces and across social and religious groups. The process of their making, patterns of circulation, and modes of use today, reveal a variety of stories.
The Bogh, a Tibeto-Himalayan item of clothing, has developed a unique range of visual identity within Ladakh. It was and continues to be a product of trade textiles, and points to the convergence and assimilation of various textile traditions into the region.
The Pabu and Lapul, are inexpensive yet extremely functional warm local footwear and are products of a cultural recycling of a range of leftover textiles. A range of contemporary footwear from national and international markets supplement local needs.
The Tibril and Melang exemplify the continuity of local craft production, defined by the need to store and serve warm drinks, such as sweat and butter tea into widely used industrially manufactured thermos flasks imported across the border from Tibet, China.
This set of objects also locates itself in the Chansa, the Ladakhi kitchen, which is the epicenter of the Ladakh material culture, the site of conversations, storytelling, and human interaction in Ladakh.
The photographs by Gulzar Hussain have been used to illustrate the setting in which these objects are made and used today.
The Artist and the Collaboration
Chemat Dorjey is a contemporary artist, who is trained as a sculptor and has been exploring local materials and techniques in his work. In the past years, he has worked closely with stone carving in Turtuk in the Nubra Valley and with the potters in Likir. He has also been exploring the form and idea of the spindle, which was a recurrent motif in his first solo show at the Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi in 2017. Chemat was familiar with my research in Ladakh and was part of many conversations around this project, and in the summer of 2017, we decided formally to collaborate. We decided to focus on a particular set of objects, i.e. the Bogh, the Pabu & Lapul, and the Tibril & Melang, and discussed the ideas that connected them. We decided to develop two existing themes in this work into the project: first to relocate the idea of the spindle and second to re-explore a sculpture he created during his BFA, at the Institute of Music and Fine Arts, Jammu.
Artist’s note
Welcome to Ladakh II
Fibre glass cast, digital screen displaying photo montage.
The form of Welcome to Ladakh I was derived from three objects, the hat, teebhi, the beer pot, chab kyanand the shoe, paabu. These are essential items of clothing worn during a formal reception by Ladakhis. The current installation quite literally attempts to break this form and take a look inside it. A set of screens display a photomontage on the making, use, and circulation of the Paabu & Lapul, and thetibril & melang. The external surface is adorned by traditional motifs to contemporary brands related to these objects.
Mother Spindle
Installation, in wood, wool, and papier-mache.
Spinning and weaving are imagined as a source of life in Ladakh. In historic times it was a common skill, to spin yarn and weave. The installation is created using different elements of spinning, from the raw wool, the haa, and phang the male and female spindles which creates yarns, the nambu which is the fundamental fabric, it alludes to the process of dyeing the yarn into the seven colours of the rainbow strung on a hundred phangs. The rainbow symbolises the varied cultures that have converged into the region. The threads converge onto another previously made artwork titled, Recycling Spindle, in papier-mache.
