The exhibition Old Gods in New Robes is a collaboration between Mila Lanfermeijer (1988, NL) and Kirit Chitara (1991, IN).
Kirit Chitara creates mata ni pachedis: hand-painted textiles depicting various manifestations of the mother goddess, Mata. The making of these cloths is an act of devotion. Chitara works using the kalamkari technique, drawing directly onto the fabric with a bamboo stick. Each line is formed in immediate contact with the cloth, and every centimeter is filled in by hand. The compositions grow organically: a figure appears, after which the image gradually expands.
In the exhibition, Chitara’s works are presented alongside objects, drawings, and fragments from the living environments of both Chitara and Lanfermeijer. These reveal visual references underlying the works. A key point of departure is the juxtaposition of Lanfermeijer’s lived experience as a woman and mother with the deified image of the mother figure in Chitara’s work.
In 2022, Lanfermeijer traveled to India to work with Chitara. Within this collaboration, attention is also given to the inequality embedded in that encounter—between Lanfermeijer’s position as a Western visitor and the local context in which she is a guest. A recurring motif is access, or the lack thereof. Figures turn away from the viewer; images are blurred or partially obscured. In several instances, the relationship between looking and approaching is brought into sharp focus: what are we allowed to see, and where are we held back?
In the final room of the exhibition, Lanfermeijer’s publication Canonically Speaking (2024) serves as the starting point for a more critical reflection on the measuring and evaluating of representations of women, and the question of who determines those standards.