For the elderly women, it has been a journey of rediscovering the old skill while for teenagers, embroidering came as a whole new form of art. At the same time, The Banyan Tree Embroidery Project has given a reason for women from different walks of life to come together and work in sync for a bigger cause.
Initiated by artist and art educator Eleanor Viegas in 2013, the project aims to rekindle the lost art of embroidery and keep it alive. It also demonstrates the healing and therapeutic aspects of the craft. Each of the women involved adds her own piece of art, an embroidered cloth which will is part of a bigger picture “ that of a large banyan tree. The project is expected to complete by 2020. “Almost half the work has been completed and approximately 150 women are associated with the project, so far. We need 200 more participants to complete the project,” states Eleanor who recalls how the seed of this project was planted during one of her visits to Bookworm where the founder Sujata Noronha had invited her to conduct an Ubuntu workshop for the library staff.
“I met a very talented and enthusiastic group of young people there, one of them had produced a drawing that looked like a banyan tree and it formed the basis for a piece of work completed by the ladies at Bookworm. We decided to take the concept ahead and work together. So a group of 12 women was formed in Peace Cottage, where I live in Betalbatim and we all met up from time to time to work on this project.”
Calling the project ‘The Banyan Tree’ seemed a good idea, since the tree grows in all directions and was symbolic of the way the women were working.
The women would first sketch their part of the Banyan tree which would match with the ones nearby and take it home to complete with hand embroidery. Then they would gather and assemble their pieces on the floor and visualise the finished tree. As time went, more and more women kept joining this community project. This made the team overview their work.
“As the numbers kept increasing, we realised that if the project is going to grow and involve hundreds of women, we had to create a structure and grid system whereby groups could be working individually and come together to assemble the pieces,” observes Eleanor. An artist Girish Gujar offered to draw out the design and put it in a grid. Gujar’s wife Jyoti, an excellent needlewoman, became the main coordinator, keeping a record of all the pieces.
All participants are provided with fabric and a pattern of the section of the tree they will embroider with freedom to use coloured thread of their choice. Majority of the women associated with the Banyan Tree are from Goa and their number is only growing. Recently the Government Polytechnic Community Scheme people have also joined. Eleanor has fixed a goal: to complete this piece of work “ 4 metres by 2 metres “ by 2020.
She mentions that her neighbours Ula Noronha and Immaculate are happy to be a part of the project. Yvonne Fernandes from Majorda and Overinda Fernandes from Velim who are also part of the project are spending their days more creatively. “Meeting Eleanor and understanding the idea behind her project was refreshing. As an artist, she is not only looking at art as an expression of beliefs, talents, ideas and feelings but also using it to help people rediscover their hidden talents and strengths. This project is good work out for the mind and also brings nature onto a piece of fabric using a needle and thread,” expresses Sherie Fernandes Lobo, who works on the project from Baroda in Gujarat.
A student, when Heidi Pereira first heard of the project, she was very intrigued by the idea of people from different communities coming together to work on a piece of art using embroidery as a means of communication. But while working on the project she realised, “The sketch of a banyan tree full of Goa’s wildlife being replicated on cloth is hard task. The amount of patience and conviction the women of the community bring with them is admirable.”
The final product will look like a Banyan tree full of colourful wild life of Goa made up of approximately 360 separate pieces fixed to background fabric - all hand-embroidered meticulously with threads of different colours. “I would like to see it displayed in the Central library where it can be an inspiration for storytelling and future projects,” smiles Eleanor. The art has transcended boundaries to reach United Kingdom too, thus strengthening the bonds among women from different cultures with colourful silken threads.
“Painting and embroidery are my meditation and relaxation which grow as I watch more carefully the outside world and the inside world simultaneously. It is an ongoing process, so is life. As the picture grows so will my life,” concludes Eleanor.
