Laila Nahar, “Saree - Unspoken love of mothers Weaved through the passage of time Folded into the depth of our hearts”

Artist Statement

'The memory of my mother, draped in a cotton saree, with her solitaire earrings and a bindi on her radiantly beautiful face, contrasted against her open smile, symbolizing the simplistic beauty that I grew up with. The muted soft cotton with a gentle sheen across its seven yards swathe, encased in parallel strips of threads, defined energy, kindness, and sheer beauty. In our subcontinent, sarees are considered family heirloom and generational blessings. My mother’s memories now travel with me with her sarees’.

The book brings together ten women exploring the themes of the sarees and their mothers. Represented in this book are the concepts of identity, cultural inheritance, legacy, and the exploration of vibrant sarees. It inspires us to seek solace, and reexamine our roots and evokes deeper essence of ourselves and our relationships with our mothers - connecting generations into an eternal bond, under the shadows of their “Anchal”. The book does not have any beginning or end, each spread is dedicated to a different story - collage of a saree with a story and a memory as told by one of ten women.

Other Specifics

- Variable Edition of 15

- Photographs: Laila Nahar, Family archives

- Book concept: Laila Nahar, Jaya Mishra

- Book design: Laila Nahar, Tanveer Khondker

- Structure: 'Woven Single Leaf Binding'. Each spread represents a saree with collage from family archive of 10 women. 40 spreads are weaved with paper in random order to make book block, representing the pleats and flows of the sarees. Weaving with paper attributes to the delicate structure of the book. Structurally, it can be arranged as the flow and pleats of sarees. The book comes in either a handmade case or in a handmade box. The case has a tied enclosure made of cotton fabric. The handmade box depicts the structure how saree-sellers from old time used to carry the sarees using two long pieces of cloths crisscrossing the bundles of sarees. A thread with a rudhraksh finally binds the box representing balance. A thread with a rudhraksh finally binds the box representing balance.

- Archival inkjet on Awagami Bamboo paper, Vellum.

- 4x11.25 in, 90 pages, 90 photos, each edition with unique and random saree collage.

- Language: English, Bangla

- Collections: Claremont Scripps College, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections, Harvard Fine Arts Library, Tufts University (Tisch Library), Bainbridge Museum of Arts.

Laila nahar

California, USA
https://www.lailanahar.com
IG:  @naharlaila

Saree - Unspoken love of mothers Weaved through the passage of time Folded into the depth of our hearts
2026

Paper

11.25 x 4 x 1.1 inch

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