When you think of art, more often than not your mind conjures up images of paintings, sculptures, photographs, dancers and theatre. But how often does one come across "wearable art" in one's life?
Well, if you want to experience this form of art then head down to the Aspen Café in the Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates, to see some exquisite pieces of wearable art created by Gunjan Arora, a designer and emerging "thread artist" from the Indian capital, Delhi.
Arora is showing his wearable works of art and wall panels at an exhibition titled 'Painting a thread' at the hotel until May 23.
Talking to Emirates Business about his creations, Arora, who studied fashion design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology said: "Though I have had my label, Rahul and Gunjan, for the last 12 years, I started doing this thread art just three-and-a-half years ago.
"It so happened that I was in my atelier and I happened to glance at the thread basket of one of my tailors which had a big bunch of entangled threads in it which was just beautiful to look at. The bunch had threads of many different colours and hues and I just wanted to retain that look and make something with it.
"I tried doing many things like putting it between two panels of glass and many other things before I came up with this technique, of making a cloth out of different threads and yarns which I have now patented and which I call 'thread art'."
Arora makes cloth out of different yarns by just laying them out side by side on the table and then looping them together with a thin transparent silk yarn. He loops them together till the layers are strong enough to become a fabric.
"When people used to see that cloth, they would tell me, 'this is looking so beautiful what are you going to do with it? You have to do something more with it'. That's the time I decided to make wall panels and haute couture creations with it so that people can own a piece of art that they can wear.
"The beauty of the whole thing is that I can use all kinds of materials at the same time to make my cloth. I source my yarn from different places like factories, tailor shops, etc, where they have jumbled up yarn. For example we have tied up with Jindal Steel to make table linen for them that will also have steel in it."
While his wearable art has adorned celebrities like Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman, Bollywood actress Kirron Kher and Indian classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, his wall panels adorn the homes of people like Sean Connery.
Though most of his wearable art is prêt-a-porter, he also does some bespoke creations. "There was a art curator from Turkey who asked me to create a stole for her which would reflect her personality. She said: 'Gunjan, make a stole for me that defines me no matter what I do with it. It does not matter if I use it as a stole or a wall hanging or a rug, it should define me'.
"Well, I created one for her which reflected her personality and she was very happy with it," he recalled.
While the wall panels created by Arora can cost anything between Dh5000 to Dh10,000 his wearable art costs between Dh8000 to Dh12,000. Each piece of wearable art can take one to two months to create.
Arora has had two solo exhibitions and a reasonable amount of group shows to his credit. This special art form has been displayed in various galleries in New York, Paris and New Delhi.
Talking about his first solo show Arora said: "Sonal Mansingh performed the storyline for my first solo show. I had created a 22 metre wall panel which told the story of a little girl who forgot about her dreams for life while growing up and how she realised that she had lost her way and finally found a way of fulfilling them. When she saw the panel she loved it and agreed to perform the storyline for the show. Later on I created a stole for her which has her dance mudras on them."
He plans to continue doing thread art for now and wants to open a boutique in Dubai.
The exhibition, which can be viewed between 11 am and 9 pm, is the brainchild of Vindemia Gallery, and also showcases the works of three other emerging artists from India – Manisha Gawde, Alka Raghuvashi and Sridhar Iyer.
All the artists have interpreted the theme 'Painting a Thread' in their own way.
While Manisha, who lives in Dubai, uses the thread-like formations in her paintings as a metaphor to express these unobvious unions between people of various races and cultures, Dr Alka Raghuvanshi, a trained art curator who has participated in shows around the world, focuses her explorations in this show on textiles using hand-carved wooden blocks that are hand printed.
Shridhar Iyer, who has earned major state and national awards in India, calls his series jatra. He unfurls his earlier explorations into terrains of the ancient and the unknown. A fusion of the yin and yang, explores the mysteries of the left and the right hemisphere of the brain of the male and the female.
Despite the different mediums used, the works of the four artists tie up with each other seamlessly and the resulting exhibition is an enriching experience which broadens the horizons of those who care to visit it.