Textiles from Sindh put on display at season opening event

Islamabad : Good news for culture vultures, so mark your calendar. The Asian Study Group (ASG) has organised an opening event titled, ‘The Flowering Desert: Textiles from Sindh,’ a multimedia presentation by the Founder/ Director of the Mohata Palace Museum, Karachi, Nasreen Askari, described as one of Pakistan’s most ardent cultural ambassadors was held at Shamadan Lawn, Serena Hotel, Islamabad.

Her enthusiasm and reputation is unparalleled. She hopes that the traditional textiles from the province of Sindh will be appreciated, not just as quirky national heritage but as art in their own right. She has dedicated her life’s work to the preservation and elevation of the bold, dramatic and painstaking embroidery and block prints of the artisans in Pakistan’s second biggest province.

The presentation focuses on a private collection of textiles from Sindh, Pakistan, which, according to some scholars, was the crucible in which the textile traditions of Gujarat and Rajasthan were forged. Sindhi textiles are unique inasmuch as they reflect a dimension that combines the harshness of the terrain with a quest for a mythical and unattainable beauty. It reveals an alternative narrative of the region best known abroad for the unruly, sprawling mass of its capital city, Karachi, and the drama of its most famous family, the Bhutto’s. Fifty years of documenting Sindh’s visual history has culminated in a project for the wife and husband team, Nasreen and Hasan Askari, who ardently believe in the ‘soft power’ of culture. By shining a light on the arts and crafts of its rural hinterland, they are aiming for reverence at home, for a tradition that has often been overlooked or dismissed.

The collection is recognized as being of outstanding merit; it has featured in exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.