A borough as diverse as Croydon, south London, is symbolised by the plurality of its culture as South Asians form a large proportion of its population.
As part of “This is Croydon”, the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2023 celebrations, leading South Asian arts organisation Subrang Arts recently initiated ‘Kalasetu’ – Kala meaning art and Setu meaning bridge – to build cultural bridges with communities through the arts. In collaboration with Kinetika and its team of specialist silk artists, Team Subrang worked with pupils from Norbury High Girls School, Croydon, to create a set of 25 silk scarves and 25 silk flags that reflect the diversity of the Indian diaspora. The team also created ‘Rani Vividhataa’ – a vibrant and colourful 4.5m tall “Queen of Diversity” wrapped in unique, eye-catching, hand-painted silks depicting aspects of the heritage and arts of the Indian diaspora in Croydon, and what it means to the local community there.
Sheena Patel, one of the Project Managers, said: “This is really an ice breaker... these beautiful flags fluttering with so much colour and you are intrigued about stories of India and people learn about these stories which are not known to them.
“It's a beautiful way of integrating different communities and do story telling in a completely different format of flag making and the whole process of collecting stories, research, drawing, waxing, painting and this beautiful outcome which connects us back to our roots in India.”
Fellow Project Manager Lata Desai noted: “This has been such a great partnership with Kinetika. We have been able to reach out to schools, communities teaching them diversity of India and cultural expressions from different regions of India.
“We would like to travel with this exhibition and reach out to other communities too because people learn so much from a visual arts project.”
Pupils researched cultural expressions like arts, crafts, music, dance, festivals, places / maps of the Indian diaspora in the borough through the lens of UNESCO-recognised intangible heritage of Batik silk painting. The themes reflect the communities of Croydon – Punjabi/Sikhs, Tamil, Malayalee, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and people from central India. Each flag depicts individual communities.
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This research inspired the design and content of the silks and the scarves, ‘Rani Vividhataa’ and flags were displayed and used as part of a performance at “This is Croydon’s” flagship programmes – Croydon Mela and Croydon Carnival.
Ali Pretty, Artistic Director of Kinetika, added: “It is a great passion for me to connect with Indian groups as I have worked extensively in India. I feel I have a connection with India. It was so much fun working with Subrang ladies.
“Lot of them came to the studio and we had such a great cultural exchange of ideas – a real inter-cultural exchange from both sides. This represents building a bridge between two countries and we want to build on it by developing this programme further.”
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The silks, imported from Murshidabad in West Bengal and handmade by 14 weavers, will be seen again at different venues throughout the year including Trafalgar Square’s Diwali celebration.
*Info: Kinetika; Subrang Arts
