In her project called Booked For Life, Anuradha Bhaumick, an embroidery artist, captures her favourite books and the authors who wrote them, on muslin cloth
Embroidery work featuring Margaret Atwood
Artists have a way of imbibing their surroundings into their work. And that is what embroidery artist Anuradha Bhaumick does with needle and thread. Embroidering indoor scenes that have become all too familiar during the pandemic, Bhaumick aims to detail out our relationship with the spaces we inhabit, and the value objects within these spaces hold in our lives. She narrates, “Everything I make — be it a piano, a gramophone, a hanging plant or a single rose — these objects add value to life and make it better. They symbolise some memory, and form a special part of someone’s life.”
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This piece was inspired by author James Baldwin
And from the objects that really make an impression on someone, books sit pretty high on her list. The NIFT Bengaluru graduate has an ongoing project Booked For Life that draws inspiration from her favourite authors like James Baldwin and Margaret Atwood. It’s a series that translates a story onto muslin cloth. She explains, “I’m going back to all the old books I’ve read that have left a mark. I wanted to do something that would make me reread these books.” Revisiting old favourites that gave her new perspectives of the world, she says, is a source of inspiration and study at the same time.
The first author the 29-year-old embroidered was James Baldwin. Keen to show the relevance of his voice and words in the present, Bhaumick laid a contemporary scene — a young adult of today’s generation chilling in their living room with their plant pets, pondering over Baldwin’s work. She’s currently stitching Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Next on her canvas will be the works of Marjane Satrapi, Anne Frank, Haruki Murakami, Vikram Seth, and Arundhati Roy. This is an open project with no end date, and the artist plans to sell every work. The piece on Baldwin has already been sold.
Bhaumick’s love story with needle and thread began at five years of age when her mother taught her the chain stitch, lazy daisy and the running stitch. She’s not the only one who shares a fondness for the art form. Embroidery has returned as a trend in recent years. Apart from buying embroidery hoops as decor, many are approaching stitching as a hobby. The Bengaluru-based artist attributes the increase in interest to its therapeutic value. It helps to self-soothe at home, take things slow and be patient, she notes. “Handwork grounds you, and I definitely recommend it.”
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