Noorjehan Bilgrami

Born in 1950 in Hyderabad (India)
Lives and works in Karachi (Pakistan)

Noorjehan Bilgrami is a visual artist, textile designer, researcher and educationist. Her atelier, KOEL, pioneered the revival of hand-block printed, handloom and natural dyed fabrics in Pakistan. The KOEL Gallery, established in 2009, has provided a vibrant platform for emerging and established artists. Founder member of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, she was its first Executive Director, 1990–95, and former Chairperson, Board of Governors. Noorjehan’s publication, Sindh jo Ajrak, and film, Sun, Fire, River, Ajrak - Cloth from the Soil of Sindh, document the traditional textile. She authored Craft Traditions of Pakistan and Born of Fire, a profile of Pakistan’s renowned ceramist Salahuddin Mian; a documentary film, Yeh Kiya? and curated a Retrospective Exhibition on the artist at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. She was awarded the Japan Foundation Fellowship to pursue research on natural indigo in Japan and curated the exhibition ‘Tana Bana: The Woven Soul of Pakistan’ in collaboration with Jonathan Mark Kenoyer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the exhibition travelled to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon; the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California and Mingeikan, the Japan Folk Craft Museum, Tokyo. She spearheaded “Pursukoon Karachi,” a concept for the revitalization of the city, working with a team of over 300 artists, designers and creative persons. Noorjehan’s vision is reflected in her art practice and over the years her work has been showcased by leading galleries around the world.

Noorjehan Bigrami writes of her installation for KB17: “My art practice is informed by four decades of apprenticeship with master craftsmen of Sindh. I have previously rendered, in book form and as documentary, the traditional art of ajrak making. This labour-intensive and mysterious process continues to inspire—and it serves as the basis for my current installation piece, Witness Creation Unfolding. Traditional ajrak making is a sacred knowledge, handed down through centuries within local family ateliers. The process begins with a tearing of the kora, or unbleached cotton, and in repeated rhythmic cycles this fabric is steamed, beaten on stone, washed and wrung out, spread under the desert sun—its lengths softening, made supple and ready to receive. At each successive stage of its development, the craftsman draws upon indigenous materials. And, both in its physical sense and in its philosophy, ajrak making mirrors the path of spiritual practice in Sindh. In its final impression, a jewel-like hue emits from the textile—a deep ruby and indigo—not imposed upon, but a part and substance of its very fibre. The bearing of this process forms the core of my installation. Matiari-based artisan, Muhammed Shafique, will develop the base materials, and I will work on them from within my resources as an artist, in my studio. The collaboration culminates as a spread of panels, each pair 13 feet in height, suspended across an open light-filtered space. The project serves as personal homage to a dying textile form. In the same gesture, we are witness to the mounting journey from emptiness or kora, towards essence.”