[Music]
[Applause]
good evening everyone I’m Gunsan Aurora
and I’m a textile innovator or you can
even call me an artist now here on
behalf of myself and my fellow artists
Rahul Jain and I’m going to take you
through my journey of faith belief and a
lot of hard work through the journey of
threads you know we’re living in times
where words like pollution and
greenhouse effect and and waste these
are these are things that even you know
very young school going children are
talking about nowadays and when we go
back to times in the 70s 80s or 90s like
like the time then somebody like me was
growing up these were terms or things
that were about to happen these were
things were which was starting to worry
us and in a span of 20 years now these
have become harsh realities for us we
words like upscaling sustainability
repurpose going green these are not
groundbreaking concepts any longer these
are our harsh realities this is the only
way to go for us now sadly where we’ve
reached the stage where unless we change
our outlook unless we decide to change
cares in our mind
nothing will happen I’ll take you
through my journey of becoming a textile
artist I wasn’t trained to be an artist
by any means having started fashion in
the in the mid 90s I started to pin over
a time where even fashion was a very
novel concept in terms of learning I had
to fight within the family for the
longest time to even let me go out and
study fashion no one knew they all
raised their hands we don’t know what
we’ll do in life
but I mean I had to fight that Murphy
here so after working as assistant
designer and as consultant designers to
many many brands and doing a lot of
textile research I was like gradually
moving and then my parents worries were
poor to reassert you know he do
something in life so that time you know
when when you are young when you just
starting out you have the energy to take
up whatever things so so my only aim in
life was to take up work that made me
travel work that would make me travel
into zones where I could interact and
experience the rich Indian textile
heritage and somewhere down I did not
realize when but there was a time when I
was starting my own business I mean I
had started a label and I had a small
little set up enthusiasm was there and
and so as a habit I would get to work
every day really early much before the
rest of the staff would come in just so
that I could set the pace for the day
for every one for every department I
would like you know whether to come
early in the morning and start playing a
certain kind of music so everybody comes
in happy and they’re all in this so that
was my that is how I started my day on
one such day I was just trying to you
know clean up some spaces and I came
across a very intriguing li entangled
cluster of threads in a tailor’s basket
it was rather interesting in terms of
the color the accidental color
combination was so strong that I just
had to pick it up not knowing that it’s
going to hit me and change my life many
years later so I pulled it up pulled it
apart I just wanted to see what you know
I was wondering how this ever got
entangled in such an interesting way
when I spread it out it was a vision it
was a vision that still stayed with me
and what was even more endearing was to
understand why that tailor
had collected these threads I was
wondering and and the baby when he
walked in the first thing I asked him I
understood that he was saving these
threads so he could stuff a cushion to
sit on so that he could work comfortably
so if someone way less educated way less
exposed could think of a purpose out of
a waste why could I not do it that
thought stayed and I kept I saved those
threads as a reminder on my desk I could
see them every day and not knowing what
I’ll do with it
but I had that as a reminder habitually
I started to collect you know it became
a mission within the office and the
factory that every bit of the thread had
to be waste I almost made that
compulsory for a lot of other fellow
designer friends of mine and I started
to collect threads from wherever I would
go I mean I’ve picked up threads from
dirty streets also let alone you know
going to factories and spinning mills
and handloom beavers so you know I I
wherever I would go I would collect
threads
till I reached a stage where I had so
much thread in my factory a factory that
ar.drone to to be you know being I had
about 100 people employed at that time
in a span of two three years I had so
much thread that anybody knew who would
walk in would think that this is like a
dump yard for threads and I had no other
option but to deal with it so I had to
wake myself I knew that I had to you
know do something about it how do you do
this I couldn’t have thrown it away
because I had made this whole mission
for everyone around me to to to this I
could have silently thrown these away so
I started to experiment
the most obvious experiments were to
stick them together to each other or or
you know finished them which is you know
old traditional Indian technique I was
getting somewhere things were looking
interesting but I still knew I had to
push this further till I reached a stage
where I managed to sandwich way
threads between transparency layers of
fabric and saw them into a layer and it
became a fabric which was very
interesting I extensively made garments
out of it and and it was quite popular
but my mind knew that this was not the
end of it I had to free those threads
from a surface those threads which which
had which was such a beautiful vision
had to be independent and and make a
sense on their own and eventually three
more years of experimentation and I
managed to create a fabric which kind of
look like look like the original vision
of just threads put together and not not
a woven fabric it’s quite thrilled when
you reach that stage when you when you
make something interesting any creative
person would look for appreciation
validation and they’re always very
scared of you know I hope nobody really
takes away my idea so another kind of a
parallel journey began where I started
to look out for people who could
validate what I had done I came across a
lot of textile experts who some of them
agreed and some of them kind of thought
it was an okay idea till I really found
some very senior technical validation
for the technique of it then I found and
I met up with the noted Indian textile
historian this is just leaned amiga
whose first reaction was this is art
this is like a new textile so why are
you why are you not happy about it I
said I am but you know I’m still still
accepting it he said no need to accept
it it’s already a part of you just go
with that flow it so happened that right
away and right after we started to you
know we graduated and to becoming a
designer who would debut at the India
Fashion Week started sell clothing
started to make clothing out of whatever
waste we were collecting
it was it not only put us into a
category of those almost no designers
who were dealing with textile waste or
were developing textiles on their own
other than weaving it was also accepted
equally by the conscious people and the
fashionable people so that that gave you
know it brought us into a very unique
identity of our own what also followed
was a lot of foreign collaboration where
we started to retail and create special
line of clothing in in partnership with
a lot of a very well-known foreign
branch but till now our our shapes and
our forms and and whatever we were
creating was largely being governed by
the way the threads were if he would get
a certain shade entangle we would just
spread that so we were creative about
the technique yes but the colors were
still being derived other shapes forms
was still being derived by from the from
the way the threads were to us we
started to in a lot of our work started
to be exhibited a win win wind you know
it’s actually it’s a good learning here
because this idea of converting this
into an art was somebody else’s vision
which I’d accepted when I realize that a
lot of people were buying our art our
thread works or shawls
and stretching them as as art for wall
and making screens out of it why would I
not do it that was that is what came
through we were brought to this question
what next you’re already reaching the
stage where you know you think you’re
done enough you done enough of whatever
you’re doing for the last two years it
had to go forward no one else to push
but you you know you just had to create
your own push yourself and I even till
date ask this question myself every time
before every new project I sit down with
myself and just ask this what next
it has to any any idea has to have that
kind of life so that it can just you
know our first attempt was to create a
visual in terms of a human form or or
give it a form and not just abstract
random images this image not only gave
us the confidence to to create more or
in a wait more this image kept adding
with more images and in six months time
it became a 22 meter long narrative done
in threads which we learnt later that
nobody else had ever done though we in
India have a very long history of having
narratives being written in you know
which I which are printed or
hand-painted on threads and Rajasthan is
a big base for that so the amount of
confidence that came through this it
just instantly now this was only
possible because there was belief there
was belief in our own work and the fact
that we realized that one had to you
know in those body else will come in and
push you unless you push yourself so the
biggest learning tyll tyll tyll that
point was that you have to reinvent your
own your own work the time our form
started to become much better the forms
became clearer we started to get a lot
more experimental with the materials and
and the kind of formations we were doing
so much so that some of the leftovers
from the frames was also being put back
into the work so the reused stuff was
being reused further with time and and
the push we had no choice but to
improvise ourselves you know in India we
do not you know protection of
intellectual property or an idea it’s
it’s not a very easy process there are
various ways to bypass
and you know you can see the
applications of your own work so the
only way we could outdo that race was to
outdo ourselves if I keep innovating
myself constantly it will take someone
else to follow and reach where we were
so that was our you know pushing
ourselves to improvise was actually in a
way we trying to protect our own selves
input improvisation came new
applications suddenly we could realize
that our work could be applied not just
as art for wall we were doing ceilings
we were doing decorative niches the time
came confidence to you know create just
the scale become much larger we started
doing layered works and it got us to a
lot of new arenas with these came a lot
of exposure a lot of feedback so that’s
where we learned to value the reactions
well biggest I would say the component
for for for for us was to understand
that we were also being guided by a lot
of other people’s reactions sometimes
what others see in your work has a
completely new meaning and you you know
you yourself also don’t see that
so between hearing the others and
hearing our own voice because your own
voice or your inner reaction to your own
work is always the purest your first
reaction to yourself is always the true
and then we try and you know we try and
manawa selves and say no this is this is
alright the forms became more
experimental became more energetic the
scale as I said was was much larger we
were finding a lot of corporate
clientele and acceptance till now we
were designers who were trying to be
artists so we were neither designers and
nor the artists but now we were finding
a little footing in in the art world and
this is from one of the recent shows
where you know again that the form and
the shapes
something like this has now been
commissioned by a very big corporate
house in England and the work is going
to be four times larger than this and
you know we’re working on it already and
that that’s going to come through in two
years newer ways of seeing your work and
now this is again somebody else’s
that’s an interesting story we’ve done a
very large art force for one of our
clients and I had envisioned a very very
specific kind of a lighting to make that
work even more effective we tried
everywhere the client looked everywhere
and nowhere could we find the right
lighting and I just blindly offered that
I will create the light that I want for
my own work I had no technical idea how
to do it
lighting couldn’t have been a flat
fabric I had to give it some sort of a
dimension for it to look like a light
and yet a piece of art the courage was
the only tool that I had here and no
other idea and this is what came out of
it how did so how did the structure come
in this came in when I saw a tattered
car tire which had some steel jutting
out of it started to hunt around where
that’s fine quality steel thread could
come in the minute we we managed to
integrate steel into our work we managed
to sculpt it when we when when the form
started to shape the lighting happened
and now we regularly do a lot of
this was only possible because we had
now learned to enjoy our work and with
with that enjoyment you know it was bit
bit of it was natural but sometimes we
had deadlines and we had to push
ourselves to like it you know he one had
to one had to push from within again and
believe me that the way to enjoy you can
actually learn this was actually a
biggest bonus that we realized and I
mean we realized only now when we look
back that during this entire journey and
this process we managed to also do a lot
of social payback we now have at least
60 individuals and close to 200
factories and mills who contribute their
variants to us in various forms through
the year we’ve created employment for
the unskilled sector where there are
people who who just can spare two or
three hours in a day they hunt around
collect the yarns for us from various
horses wash them clean them pack them
and just last year itself we managed to
convert thousand kgs of waste yawns
yawns which were as small as just five
or six inches which are considered waste
and you know it just goes out and the
dust every day was converted into wall
art and installations and functional art
and it’s going forward still so this was
our journey of learning to be learning
to stay inspired and finding you know
within within your own journey to find
ways the courage to change gears in our
own small little way through threads
thank you [Applause]
[Applause]
good evening everyone I’m Gunsan Aurora
and I’m a textile innovator or you can
even call me an artist now here on
behalf of myself and my fellow artists
Rahul Jain and I’m going to take you
through my journey of faith belief and a
lot of hard work through the journey of
threads you know we’re living in times
where words like pollution and
greenhouse effect and and waste these
are these are things that even you know
very young school going children are
talking about nowadays and when we go
back to times in the 70s 80s or 90s like
like the time then somebody like me was
growing up these were terms or things
that were about to happen these were
things were which was starting to worry
us and in a span of 20 years now these
have become harsh realities for us we
words like upscaling sustainability
repurpose going green these are not
groundbreaking concepts any longer these
are our harsh realities this is the only
way to go for us now sadly where we’ve
reached the stage where unless we change
our outlook unless we decide to change
cares in our mind
nothing will happen I’ll take you
through my journey of becoming a textile
artist I wasn’t trained to be an artist
by any means having started fashion in
the in the mid 90s I started to pin over
a time where even fashion was a very
novel concept in terms of learning I had
to fight within the family for the
longest time to even let me go out and
study fashion no one knew they all
raised their hands we don’t know what
we’ll do in life
but I mean I had to fight that Murphy
here so after working as assistant
designer and as consultant designers to
many many brands and doing a lot of
textile research I was like gradually
moving and then my parents worries were
poor to reassert you know he do
something in life so that time you know
when when you are young when you just
starting out you have the energy to take
up whatever things so so my only aim in
life was to take up work that made me
travel work that would make me travel
into zones where I could interact and
experience the rich Indian textile
heritage and somewhere down I did not
realize when but there was a time when I
was starting my own business I mean I
had started a label and I had a small
little set up enthusiasm was there and
and so as a habit I would get to work
every day really early much before the
rest of the staff would come in just so
that I could set the pace for the day
for every one for every department I
would like you know whether to come
early in the morning and start playing a
certain kind of music so everybody comes
in happy and they’re all in this so that
was my that is how I started my day on
one such day I was just trying to you
know clean up some spaces and I came
across a very intriguing li entangled
cluster of threads in a tailor’s basket
it was rather interesting in terms of
the color the accidental color
combination was so strong that I just
had to pick it up not knowing that it’s
going to hit me and change my life many
years later so I pulled it up pulled it
apart I just wanted to see what you know
I was wondering how this ever got
entangled in such an interesting way
when I spread it out it was a vision it
was a vision that still stayed with me
and what was even more endearing was to
understand why that tailor
had collected these threads I was
wondering and and the baby when he
walked in the first thing I asked him I
understood that he was saving these
threads so he could stuff a cushion to
sit on so that he could work comfortably
so if someone way less educated way less
exposed could think of a purpose out of
a waste why could I not do it that
thought stayed and I kept I saved those
threads as a reminder on my desk I could
see them every day and not knowing what
I’ll do with it
but I had that as a reminder habitually
I started to collect you know it became
a mission within the office and the
factory that every bit of the thread had
to be waste I almost made that
compulsory for a lot of other fellow
designer friends of mine and I started
to collect threads from wherever I would
go I mean I’ve picked up threads from
dirty streets also let alone you know
going to factories and spinning mills
and handloom beavers so you know I I
wherever I would go I would collect
threads
till I reached a stage where I had so
much thread in my factory a factory that
ar.drone to to be you know being I had
about 100 people employed at that time
in a span of two three years I had so
much thread that anybody knew who would
walk in would think that this is like a
dump yard for threads and I had no other
option but to deal with it so I had to
wake myself I knew that I had to you
know do something about it how do you do
this I couldn’t have thrown it away
because I had made this whole mission
for everyone around me to to to this I
could have silently thrown these away so
I started to experiment
the most obvious experiments were to
stick them together to each other or or
you know finished them which is you know
old traditional Indian technique I was
getting somewhere things were looking
interesting but I still knew I had to
push this further till I reached a stage
where I managed to sandwich way
threads between transparency layers of
fabric and saw them into a layer and it
became a fabric which was very
interesting I extensively made garments
out of it and and it was quite popular
but my mind knew that this was not the
end of it I had to free those threads
from a surface those threads which which
had which was such a beautiful vision
had to be independent and and make a
sense on their own and eventually three
more years of experimentation and I
managed to create a fabric which kind of
look like look like the original vision
of just threads put together and not not
a woven fabric it’s quite thrilled when
you reach that stage when you when you
make something interesting any creative
person would look for appreciation
validation and they’re always very
scared of you know I hope nobody really
takes away my idea so another kind of a
parallel journey began where I started
to look out for people who could
validate what I had done I came across a
lot of textile experts who some of them
agreed and some of them kind of thought
it was an okay idea till I really found
some very senior technical validation
for the technique of it then I found and
I met up with the noted Indian textile
historian this is just leaned amiga
whose first reaction was this is art
this is like a new textile so why are
you why are you not happy about it I
said I am but you know I’m still still
accepting it he said no need to accept
it it’s already a part of you just go
with that flow it so happened that right
away and right after we started to you
know we graduated and to becoming a
designer who would debut at the India
Fashion Week started sell clothing
started to make clothing out of whatever
waste we were collecting
it was it not only put us into a
category of those almost no designers
who were dealing with textile waste or
were developing textiles on their own
other than weaving it was also accepted
equally by the conscious people and the
fashionable people so that that gave you
know it brought us into a very unique
identity of our own what also followed
was a lot of foreign collaboration where
we started to retail and create special
line of clothing in in partnership with
a lot of a very well-known foreign
branch but till now our our shapes and
our forms and and whatever we were
creating was largely being governed by
the way the threads were if he would get
a certain shade entangle we would just
spread that so we were creative about
the technique yes but the colors were
still being derived other shapes forms
was still being derived by from the from
the way the threads were to us we
started to in a lot of our work started
to be exhibited a win win wind you know
it’s actually it’s a good learning here
because this idea of converting this
into an art was somebody else’s vision
which I’d accepted when I realize that a
lot of people were buying our art our
thread works or shawls
and stretching them as as art for wall
and making screens out of it why would I
not do it that was that is what came
through we were brought to this question
what next you’re already reaching the
stage where you know you think you’re
done enough you done enough of whatever
you’re doing for the last two years it
had to go forward no one else to push
but you you know you just had to create
your own push yourself and I even till
date ask this question myself every time
before every new project I sit down with
myself and just ask this what next
it has to any any idea has to have that
kind of life so that it can just you
know our first attempt was to create a
visual in terms of a human form or or
give it a form and not just abstract
random images this image not only gave
us the confidence to to create more or
in a wait more this image kept adding
with more images and in six months time
it became a 22 meter long narrative done
in threads which we learnt later that
nobody else had ever done though we in
India have a very long history of having
narratives being written in you know
which I which are printed or
hand-painted on threads and Rajasthan is
a big base for that so the amount of
confidence that came through this it
just instantly now this was only
possible because there was belief there
was belief in our own work and the fact
that we realized that one had to you
know in those body else will come in and
push you unless you push yourself so the
biggest learning tyll tyll tyll that
point was that you have to reinvent your
own your own work the time our form
started to become much better the forms
became clearer we started to get a lot
more experimental with the materials and
and the kind of formations we were doing
so much so that some of the leftovers
from the frames was also being put back
into the work so the reused stuff was
being reused further with time and and
the push we had no choice but to
improvise ourselves you know in India we
do not you know protection of
intellectual property or an idea it’s
it’s not a very easy process there are
various ways to bypass
and you know you can see the
applications of your own work so the
only way we could outdo that race was to
outdo ourselves if I keep innovating
myself constantly it will take someone
else to follow and reach where we were
so that was our you know pushing
ourselves to improvise was actually in a
way we trying to protect our own selves
input improvisation came new
applications suddenly we could realize
that our work could be applied not just
as art for wall we were doing ceilings
we were doing decorative niches the time
came confidence to you know create just
the scale become much larger we started
doing layered works and it got us to a
lot of new arenas with these came a lot
of exposure a lot of feedback so that’s
where we learned to value the reactions
well biggest I would say the component
for for for for us was to understand
that we were also being guided by a lot
of other people’s reactions sometimes
what others see in your work has a
completely new meaning and you you know
you yourself also don’t see that
so between hearing the others and
hearing our own voice because your own
voice or your inner reaction to your own
work is always the purest your first
reaction to yourself is always the true
and then we try and you know we try and
manawa selves and say no this is this is
alright the forms became more
experimental became more energetic the
scale as I said was was much larger we
were finding a lot of corporate
clientele and acceptance till now we
were designers who were trying to be
artists so we were neither designers and
nor the artists but now we were finding
a little footing in in the art world and
this is from one of the recent shows
where you know again that the form and
the shapes
something like this has now been
commissioned by a very big corporate
house in England and the work is going
to be four times larger than this and
you know we’re working on it already and
that that’s going to come through in two
years newer ways of seeing your work and
now this is again somebody else’s
that’s an interesting story we’ve done a
very large art force for one of our
clients and I had envisioned a very very
specific kind of a lighting to make that
work even more effective we tried
everywhere the client looked everywhere
and nowhere could we find the right
lighting and I just blindly offered that
I will create the light that I want for
my own work I had no technical idea how
to do it
lighting couldn’t have been a flat
fabric I had to give it some sort of a
dimension for it to look like a light
and yet a piece of art the courage was
the only tool that I had here and no
other idea and this is what came out of
it how did so how did the structure come
in this came in when I saw a tattered
car tire which had some steel jutting
out of it started to hunt around where
that’s fine quality steel thread could
come in the minute we we managed to
integrate steel into our work we managed
to sculpt it when we when when the form
started to shape the lighting happened
and now we regularly do a lot of
this was only possible because we had
now learned to enjoy our work and with
with that enjoyment you know it was bit
bit of it was natural but sometimes we
had deadlines and we had to push
ourselves to like it you know he one had
to one had to push from within again and
believe me that the way to enjoy you can
actually learn this was actually a
biggest bonus that we realized and I
mean we realized only now when we look
back that during this entire journey and
this process we managed to also do a lot
of social payback we now have at least
60 individuals and close to 200
factories and mills who contribute their
variants to us in various forms through
the year we’ve created employment for
the unskilled sector where there are
people who who just can spare two or
three hours in a day they hunt around
collect the yarns for us from various
horses wash them clean them pack them
and just last year itself we managed to
convert thousand kgs of waste yawns
yawns which were as small as just five
or six inches which are considered waste
and you know it just goes out and the
dust every day was converted into wall
art and installations and functional art
and it’s going forward still so this was
our journey of learning to be learning
to stay inspired and finding you know
within within your own journey to find
ways the courage to change gears in our
own small little way through threads
thank you [Applause]
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