Sagarika Sundaram

Sagarika Sundaram creates abstract painting and sculpture with handmade wool-felt, using an ancient felt-making process, dyeing and craft techniques from India and around the world. With indigenous wool sourced from the Himalayas to Hudson Valley, Sundaram’s practice is in dialogue with cosmologies of time as expressions of the sacred and profane innate to human nature. She uses film, photography and installation to construct abstract narratives that draw from philosophy, architecture and folk art. Her vision is to create handmade textiles that generate power and presence. Based between New York and India, Sundaram writes about textiles, design and craft policy.

My thesis speculates a society of blind oracles – called 'Unseers' –suspended in a state of psychedelic meditation.

Wise beings who exist in response to the ravages of humankind, they activate sound to connect consciousness and future vision.

The project is my response to society's state of gross overproduction and overconsumption that I experience as a fracture in our collective consciousness. I believe an inward-oriented state of reflection is the necessary starting point to guide ourselves out of crisis.

I soaked thick hand-dyed wool in hot water to make an assembly of felted objects, rolling it until the fibers interlock into dense fabric.

I filmed these textile objects, sculptures and costume in combination with a choreographed performance to generate an immersive textile world experienced through photography and film.

As part of the project I initiated a collaboration with artisanal felt-makers in the Himalayas to produce 'Wool Brick', a modular textile building block that creates insulating walls and soft furniture. 'Wool Brick' enables zero-carbon architecture and interiors, it is circular and returns to the soil. Committed to reform in the handmade industry, I used the project to create space for creative exchange and innovation between artisan and designer.

The project won a Tishman Center Award for Climate Justice and Sustainability and a Kalil Endowment Grant for Smart Design.

Instagram - @ohsagarika
Website - sagarikasundaram.com
Email - ss@sagarikasundram.com