Surajit Mudi is a visual artist based in Santiniketan. Born in Bankura, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in 2020 and Master of Fine Art in 2022 from the Department of Painting at Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University. Mudi is an interdisciplinary practitioner focused on alternative photography practices, exploring performative image-making in public spaces. His work investigates the complexities of interactions, mobilities, and public engagements that arise from these alternative methods. Mudi’s art has been exhibited at venues such as Triveni Kala Sangham, Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi, and Dhomimal Art Gallery. He was awarded the FICA Emerging Artists Award and the Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Annual Award in 2022. Recently, he participated in the international workshop ‘Beyond the Gaze’ organised by the Murthynayak Foundation and received the Inlaks Fine Art Award in 2024.
In this exhibition, threads of cloth and memory intertwine to tell stories too often overlooked. This project doesn’t turn its gaze towards professional artisans but instead towards the homemakers of Birbhum. They are not trained weavers or embroiderers by trade; they are mothers, daughters, and wives, sewing in quiet domestic spaces for their families. Historically, these women created kanthas not for sale but for their own use, stitching warmth and care into everyday objects. This project is more than an exploration of ‘craft’. It is an excavation of memory and presence. The artists – Himangshu Sarma, Rabiul Khan, Ritushree Mondal, and Surajit Mudi, – are not merely facilitators but collaborators, engaging with these women to create what they call a ‘pedagogical site’. It is a place of mutual learning, where the process of making becomes a dialogue, not only between artist and homemaker but between past and present, self and community.
