Zakiyyah Haffejee

‘For the glory of God and the profit of Portugal’, enthused by this statement, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, opened up the direct sea route to India (Strutt 1975). This initiative marked a crucial turning point in Indigo’s fortunes (Balfour-Paul 1998). The Portuguese were not well received when they arrived in India in the early 1500s, but they soon forged significant trade links with East Bengal and the Tamil Nadu coast, colonising Malabar and obtaining cloth from Chittagong and Coromandel on the south-west coast of India, both important centres of Muslim and Levantine trade (Boyajian 2008: 17). Indigo and the Indian textiles associated with it, including variants of plain indigo-dyed and printed cloth became the source of much of Europe’s future dress. 

The Portuguese initiated the practice of copying the designs of Asian textiles. The Dutch, whose desire for fabrics was growing steadily in the 1500s, usurped this practice and were Europe’s most accomplished emulators by the 1670s. The English and the Germans also pursued their emulation of Indian textile design in London and Hamburg in the 1700s, exerting a profound influence at the same time on the tradition of blueprint as peasant dress. The imitative textiles produced by this intervention soon became loosely known as indiennes throughout Europe. However, the term also still applied to painted and printed patterned cloth imported in mass from India.

Portuguese East Indiamen, meanwhile, plied the waters around the tip of southern Africa on their way to Asia, using their entrepôt at Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay, Mozambique, bordering SA) on the east coast to gain access to the African interior. It is from here that early variants of blueprint and other painted or printed cotton may have entered South Africa.

Using isiShweShwe as a parallel narrative for the Indian diaspora, I explore various ways of negotiating spatial relationships between tradition, culture and modernity. The project is realised through a series of performed rituals using a sari. Each of these rituals engages with the body, space and textiles and can not exist without each other.

The project demonstrates a sari as a device for exploring the layered and complex definitions of the intercontinental textile trade & production, the colonisation of both India and Africa and the subsequent displacement of bodies between these two lands.

The project adopts traditional indigo dyeing techniques as well as traditional representational styles to create a series of resist print drawings narrating the entangled histories of colonialism and extraction that are linked to the indigo textile industry. The drawings are printed on a 7m x 1m long cotton fabric, ie. the length and width of a typical sari, and are presented as a choreographed performance. Following the theme of narration, story-telling and performance, the design output includes a series of spaces embedded within a single cloth for ritual gathering and performance that captivates the dual identity of the hybrid being.

The research looks into a number of sites at varying, social, ecological and anthropological scales in relation to the studio brief Investigating Extractivism.

site 1: the indigo field 

-relating to resource extraction

site 2: the textile plant

-relating to labour extraction

site 3: the port / ocean 

-relating to cultural extraction / the ocean being a transient space of belonging for the diaspora 

site 4: the ship

-relating to the displacement of black & brown bodies

site 5: the diasporic home

-a place of refuge

site 6: the body

-relating to the embodiment of memory, knowledge and trauma

Embedded in the architecture of the sari is a multi-layered story, gathered over time. The sari acts as a container of memory traversing across sites of extraction at varying periods, and various socio-political and economic, ecological and anthropological scales. Depicted on this sari is the story of indigo, from the fields of west India, to the production sites and the ships that exported bodies across the Indian Ocean to Africa and other parts of the world.

In architecture, the body is often considered a measuring tool and a reference point for designing spaces. The dimensions and proportions of buildings and spaces are often determined by the scale of the human body and its movements.

Traditionally, the only non-negotiable element of the sari was a single, orthogonal length of fabric, typically six yards long (5.5 metres. A sari can, however, be as long as nine yards (8.2 metres). From an architect’s perspective, the sari could be read as a structure that hinges on three key elements: the border; the body; and the pallu, which hangs over the shoulder. Unlike the rigid structure of a building, the sari’s architecture is fluid and easily adapted. Depending on the preferred length of the pallu, the pleats can absorb endless adjustments.

Throughout its history, the sari has known many guises - its diversity finding expression through variations in textile, weave and in many other aspects. Its fluidity is exemplified in its varied drapes, which determine how the sari takes its form.

The project asks us to extend our spatial awareness through the activation of the textile, using the human body as a drawing, thinking, making, sculpting, and cognitive tool. The architect’s role becomes that of a storyteller, articulating bodies in space and producing notational sketches that come into being through the interrelation of bodies and materials. Rather than orchestrating relations between people, the focus is on the body in space, and the relationship between the body, space and the textile which can be worn or used individually or in collective actions. 

[Traditional Clothing]

In the act of wearing a sari, the exploration of the body-space relationship is informed by the works of Archizoom, particularly their project “Getting Dressed is Easy.” It challenges conventional notions of dressing and reimagines it as an architectural act, blending textiles and spatial design. By incorporating the concepts of embodiment and spatiality, I explore the interplay between the body and space.

Embracing the concept of embodiment, I recognize that our bodies extend beyond physical entities and serve as mediums through which we engage with and perceive the world. When wearing a sari, the body becomes an active agent, shaping and responding to the spatial environment it inhabits. Simultaneously, considering spatiality allows us to explore how our bodies are positioned within and interact with the surrounding spaces, reflecting the dynamic relationship between the body and the spatial realm.

It becomes an opportunity to unravel the connections between the body and space, recognizing that our bodies are not only shaped by the spatial environment but also actively contribute to shaping it. The sari becomes a tangible manifestation of this interplay, a conduit through which we can study the transformative potential of clothing and its impact on our spatial experiences.

[Prayer]

In line with Azra Aksamija’s approach, the aim is to portray identity and religion as fluid and adaptable, capable of evolving across different temporal and spatial contexts. Drawing inspiration from Aksamija’s Nomadic Mosque, the performance reinterprets the conventional notion of a mosque based on the Prophet Mohammed’s phrase, the world as a mosque, as wearable architecture. By integrating the body and textiles, a minimal-volume mosque is created, tailored to individual needs and experiences. This concept challenges traditional architectural boundaries, allowing the mosque to be an immersive and portable space that can be carried and inhabited by individuals as they navigate through different environments.

[Tablecloth]

Through the dastharkhwan, the body-space relationship is studied in the context of cultural practice, the performance takes inspiration from the works of Lubna Chowdhary, particularly her installation “Endless Iftar,” and Franz Erhard Walther’s “Werksatz (Work Sets).” Both Chowdhary and Walthers delve into the exploration of how individuals utilize and transform space to articulate their identity, beliefs, and values, while also examining the active involvement of the body in these practices. Cultural expressions like dance, ritual, and ceremony exemplify the performative utilization of space and the body, enabling the conveyance of profound meaning and emotional resonance.