Artist Alamu Kumaresan stitches together a portrait

After her master’s from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, in 2007, Alamu Kumaresan worked part-time at a school as an art facilitator. While teaching her students, the now 40-year-old artist from Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu, rediscovered her love for stitching, embroidery and other thread and textile arts. As a child, she had learnt various styles of embroidery from her mother and grandmother. However, it is only now that she has started developing an artistic vocabulary with thread and needle. In the last few years artists such as Rakhi Peswani, Sooraja K.S. and Bhasha Chakrabarti are using different kinds of textile arts, embroidery and other handiwork to create conversations around feminism, the body and the self.

Kumaresan too takes this conversation forward with her first solo show All those who Touched my Life, presented by Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai in association with Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art.

The artist has used thread, fabric, yarn, beads, stones and embroidery, crochet, manual stitching, machine stitching, aari embroidery, fabric crafts, punch needle craft, tie and dye and batik to create nine paintings—a mix of portraits, landscapes and abstracts. She highlights the extraordinary in the ordinary in her canvases, paying homage to the people, things and moments in her life that inspire her. “Kumaresan’s creative use of various stitching and embroidery techniques recalls not only her own maternal inheritance but also a rich tradition of reclaiming creative feminine practices that were earlier relegated to the margins,” says Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, managing trustee and director, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum.

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For Kumaseran, needle work has become an intrinsic part of her vocabulary. The stitched works, which took her and her team of two artisans months to create, appear like paintings. Take for instance the Portrait of Anamika. The several big and small potted cacti plants in the work, along with the intricate pattern of the blanket on her legs, to the many fireflies in the background and even the tiny bindi on the subject’s forehead are stitched. The portrait has been inspired by Anamika Veeraragavan, a fellow artist and Kumaresan’s childhood friend. “She is never, ever lazy and that amazes me,” she says.

Then there is the Portrait of Raji, who sits on a chair, patting a cat, with her spectacles placed on her head, straight at the viewer. Her portraits are of people from her life who inspire her. Despite facing many hardships in life, Raji, the artist’s best friend, is a force of nature. “She is always the first person to speak up against any injustice and support those in need,” says Kumaresan. “She is my hero,” she adds.

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The exhibition also features a self-portrait titled Being Myself. It captures the moment when Kumaresan, who didn’t know how to swim until recently, finally managed to let go of her fear. It shows her blissfully floating in water. “It took me a while to get there. It was a long process,” says Kumaresan. “In that moment of total surrender, I had no thoughts. It was nothingness, which felt great.” Once again recording the extraordinary in the seemingly simple, non-significant act, which we often tend to ignore. Kumaresan pays them their due with her superior handiwork, a labour-intensive process of creation, which makes for a joyous viewing experience.

At Special Project Space, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, till 2 September, 10am-5.30pm.

Riddhi Doshi is Mumbai-based art, culture, travel and lifestyle writer.