Scrolls of embroidered textiles sway in the air. As they catch the light, their threads glimmer, revealing an array of images: branches of trees unfurled, peonies blooming in quiet symmetry, deer frozen mid-step beneath a canopy of palm and peepal. At the heart of this visual language lies a centuries-old motif, called the Tree of Life, a symbol that has travelled across cultures. In The Art of Embroidery by Atelier Nandini Sawhny and Aisha Jameel, the motif returns through a contemporary lens, reimagining the lost elegance of 18th-century palampores. Once hand-painted along the Coromandel Coast and exported by East India companies to adorn European homes, these cotton textiles are now revived through embroidery.
Created now in collaboration with master kaarigars, the palampores here feature intricate aari work from Kutch, Gujarat. The two artists behind the work bring together decades of expertise and sensibility. With them, a second generation of embroiderers from West Bengal carries forward their legacy. “Aisha’s father has been into embroidery, and I have worked with him, and that led to the two of us collaborating,” says Nandini.
For the artists, the exhibition is as much about reinterpretation as it is about reverence. “The stitching techniques here are not new to India,” Nandini explains. “The zardozi and aari work are in the hands of the artists; we have not recreated them or invented new techniques, but have only given them the framework of art and texture, depth, and dimension.”
The results are stunning. Some scrolls unfold with thick Victorian borders that hint at colonial aesthetics; others resemble the ornate medallions of Persian carpets. Peony motifs evoke the refinement of Chinese wallpapers, while elephants and deer lend an Indian presence.
“We have to think about the tiniest of details, including the colour and stitch that works in a certain area,” Jameel says. “And sometimes what is in our mind doesn’t translate well onto the fabric.” Before the first thread even meets the cloth, each piece is screen printed to achieve a subtle base of shading. Over this foundation, layers of embroidery build texture and dimension.
The colour palette includes muted sage greens, dusky pinks, and shades of cobalt blue—hushed tones that replace the exuberance of traditional Indian embroideries. Threads of slightly varying shades are used to create gradient and nuance. Running stitches ripple across water, cross stitches climb the bark of trees, and clusters of tiny French knots bloom like pollen-laden centers of flowers. Step closer and you see the minutiae; step back and the picture deepens—some motifs become clearer only at a distance.
At the heart of The Art of Embroidery lies a quiet challenge: to see embroidery not as ornamentation, but as art. “We need to see embroidery as an art form beyond clothing,” Sawhny reflects. “It is important to have it represented in an exhibition format to see the beauty of its sheer precision and intricate detailing. We are not seeing Tree of Life palampores commonly anymore.”
The exhibition features a work-in-progress stretched taut across an adda—the wooden frame on which embroidery is done. The most intricate of these works demanded over 800 hours, while the exhibition took two years to curate. Yet, for the artists, time feels less like a cost and more like a medium, woven into the threads as tangibly as silk or cotton.
Ultimately, The Art of Embroidery is a conversation between tradition and reinvention, between artist and artisan. It invites viewers to pause, to lean closer, to lose themselves in the rhythm of needle and thread. Each stitch is an echo of history brought back to life—one shimmering leaf, one patient hand at a time.
When & Where:
The Art of Embroidery; Till November 15;
Gallery Art.Motif, Delhi