An Eye Inside

An Eye Inside
A solo exhibition by Jayeeta Chatterjee
Through cloth scrolls, quilts and prints she documents nuances of working life from homes and communities in Bengal through woodblock prints on saris collected from the very women she bases her works on, and finally overlaid with Nakshi Kantha traditions.
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Chatterjee uses her phone to capture moments, both for spontaneity and to not disturb the convivial feminine circles she often slips into as a woman herself. Representing the essence of the Koli women at Sassoon Docks in Mumbai, Chatterjee portrays the daily rituals she observed during her morning visits to the dock. From setting up shop and selling their fish to exchanging stories of everyday life, ‘There Is No Holiday’ provides insight into the domestic responsibilities of Koli women.

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Chatterjee's art then brings this archive to life on cloth where the feminine dominates, and mundane domestic scenes take centerstage - a woman drapes a sari, sweeps a floor, another tends to children, an afternoon nap or a pensive aunt. When they step into their working lives, selling wares in a market, sorting and drying fish or gossiping on their haunches, it seems an expansion of their familial space even as they earn.
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Jayeeta Chatterjee, Alta- a sign of love, 2023
Titled ‘Dreaming with Open Eyes’, this work portrays six women united in crafting a Nakshi Kantha quilt, symbolising communal labor. The Nakshi Kantha, a traditional quilting method of Bengal, faces the threat of extinction, despite its commercial popularity. Fewer individuals engage in its making as a communal practice, prompting Jayeeta’s aspiration and vision for its revival across generations.
Chatterjee observes, “These homemakers do important work and yet rarely get respect and somehow there was resonance for me as I work at home too, and people don’t understand the work of an artist either!”
About Jayeeta Chatterjee

Jayeeta Chatterjee (b.1995) completed her BFA in Printmaking from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal. Through her practice, she highlights the issues within the domestic and monotonous lives of middle class women particularly from lower income groups living in small towns. Trained as a printmaker, first she prepares large woodblock and prints the composition on old saris which she has collected from the women who she represents in her work. She uses the traditional quilting technique called Nakshi Kantha to show the socio-economic landscape and geographical differences in Bengali culture. Chatterjee also practices Pochampally, a weaving technique from Hyderabad, and Kantha stitch - a traditional embroidery technique of Bengal, practiced mainly by the Muslim communities in rural villages of Mahidapur, Lohagar, Mangaldihi, Sattor, Moldanga of district Birbhum of West Bengal. Through these various techniques, she weaves mythological tales, floral motifs and the day-to-day stories of homemakers.