Confluence of Cultures

Speaker: Padmini Tolat Balaram

April 30, 1999 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

This lecture is a comparative study of Indian and Japanese traditional indigo and its contemporary application in Padmini Tolat Balaram’s art. After studying various methods of dyeing with indigo in India and Japan, she started creating her own art pieces, based on her research and experiments carried out since 1977. Her work has evolved from the traditional resist techniques, indigo dyeing and using other natural colours. Using slides and actual samples, she will explore a range of shades of indigo, other natural dyes, the various techniques of dyeing and some traditional indigo-dyed textiles.

Padmini Tolat Balaram is the Design and Natural Dye Consultant for UNDP, Tashkent, and the Department of Sericulture. She is a visiting member of the faculty at the National Institute of Design.

An exhibition of paintings will be held at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery of the NCPA from April 30 to May 7, 1999.