Preserving crafts

Asian Study Group (ASG) opens its season of activities with a spectacular cultural and crafts show at the PNCA.

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Study Group (ASG) opened its season of activities with a spectacular cultural and crafts show at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on Thursday. Noted artist, writer and designer from Karachi, Noorjehan Bilgrami delivered a talk and made a video presentation on the crafts traditions of Pakistan.

Belgian Ambassador Hans Christian Kint, who is ASG patron, presided over the event which was also used to raise funds for the flood victims.

In her talk Noorjehan Bilgrami described her journey of discovery in Pakistan’s unexplored land of crafts as an overwhelming experience as more than their craft the artists were great human beings full of love and hospitality. She said she had the opportunity to undertake this journey when the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) tasked her to find exportable crafts from all over the country from its remotest corners. Her book was a personal journey discovering the rich craft tradition dating back to the Mehrgarh era.

Earlier introducing the guest speaker, Asian Study Group President Parveen Malik said Noorjehan Bilgrami was an artist, textile designer and researcher. Considered to be an authority on Pakistani crafts, she had travelled the length and breadth of Pakistan -- from the deserts of Tharparkar to the remote mountainous region of Baltistan -- to document the crafts and craft persons who people the living heritage. She had been to remote regions where age-old methods were still practised and the rhythms of everyday life were reflected in the peculiar handicrafts.

Bilgrami’s presentation was based on her researched and illustrated book “The Craft Traditions of Pakistan” highlighting the urgent need for intervention to preserve the traditional forms through lack of awareness and support that faced gradual extinction.

Bilgrami has founded a workshop ‘Koel’ to revive hand block printing. Her books include ‘Sindh Jo Ajrak’ on which the documentary ‘Sun, Fire, River: Ajrak-Cloth from the Soil of Sind’ was based. She curated the exhibition ‘Tana Bana -- The Woven Soul of Pakistan’ in collaboration with Jonathan Mark Kenoyer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which later travelled globally.

The event also raised funds for flood survivors through sale of handicrafts. The craft persons belonging to the flood affected areas have also suffered greatly.

Not only their homes have been washed away but most of them have either not been able to work at their crafts but also not been able to sell anything for over a month, leaving them and their families in very dire financial straits. These crafts persons need urgent support for their rehabilitation.

The fund raiser sale of arts and crafts from around Pakistan included items Jisti and Phulkari embroideries from Hazara, hand-woven shawls from Swat, gabba work (felt) rugs from Mansehra, beadwork pictures -- local, Jabba shawls - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  and Multani pottery to name a few.

All the proceeds will go to the welfare of the flood victims.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th,2010.