Graphite soluble à l’eau sur papier khadi fait main, impression au bloc sur coton industriel et teintures naturelles, 2017
Using handmade khadi paper, I started with the idea of the grid and used geometric patterning found in phulkaris embroideries (made by women in Punjab, a state that straddles India and Pakistan). Traditional phulkaris include an intentional mistake, or nazar, that protects the wearer from the evil eye. I am considering this form of embroidery as one that defies political borders. It has only ever been taught by the women in a household to one another and has never been commissioned by the royal courts; therefore, it has always been a domestic art. The drawing is presented on a background of block-printed cotton with a motif of the brise-soleil from the facade of the Mill Owners’ Association Building in Ahmedabad, India, designed by Le Corbusier.
Swapnaa Tamhane is an artist, curator, and writer. She centres drawing, making handmade paper, and working with textiles that encompass the material and colonial histories of cotton and jute.
She has exhibited her work at Patel Brown (Toronto), Green Art Gallery (Dubai), The Sculpture Park (Jaipur), the Stewart Hall Art Gallery (Pointe-Claire), Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montréal), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (Dundee). She had solo exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), the Surrey Art Gallery, and the Mead Art Museum (Amherst). Tamhane was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2025 and was a Visiting Artist Fellow at Harvard University in 2026. Her work is held in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the National Gallery of Canada.