Artivist Trisha Gupta

I come from a family of immigrants. But now as a first generation American, I never expected that immigrants would be stigmatized to a point that they would be feeling like second class citizens and vulnerable to abuse and even physical attack. The current climate promotes a homogenized culture that turns on its head the historic idea that we are a country that has been formed from immigrant cultural traditions.

 

In my work, I teach Indian sari woodblock printing designed to preserve cultural traditions. In contrast to this small scale effort to resist cultural homogenization (such as the cheap “fast fashion” products - created unsustainably and in an environmentally detrimental way which have forced textile traditions like this to no longer be carried down from family to family), I will invite the families from the Open Table initiative to draw a community using images of their homes.

 

We will carve the drawings onto woodblocks. We will print onto a dyed indigo sari and using foam rollers and water-based inks. Essentially this cloth is a table cloth as well as a sari. It will fit the dimensions of the woodblock that will be made into a table. Reenacting this textile tradition reminds us of how communal communities worked together for their mutual survival. This piece and will be used as a way to garner signatures for immigration initiatives. And we hope to stage a protest dinner in front of the white house at this table.