New Delhi, Apr 29 (IANS): The starting point of most Indian textile crafts is white fabric that has inspired textile curator Sayali Goyal to create an art installation 'Safed'. On view here, it features 30 fabrics from across India, which are white in essence but are a blank canvas for the country's diverse textiles.

'Safed' is part of a larger Craft Project by cultural publication Cocoa and Jasmine, intended to celebrate diversity in culture through objects, folk arts, crafts, and design, and documents stories from makers, designers, curators, retailers and brands.

"While travelling to different textile regions in India, I was always fascinated with the workshops and homes of dyers, embroiders and weavers.

"Some of these workshops had loose white fabric hung for natural bleaching, and this experience evoked almost a spiritual feeling in me. I wish to translate this experience for the viewer," Goyal said of the installation.

"Even if you take away the colour of the fabric, the basic texture is there. Everyone at the exhibition was able to feel the different textures of the fabrics on display, and enjoy the diveristy of Indian textile crafts," Goyal told IANS.

The installation reminds viewers that although Indians may be diverse in their faith, language, region and other identity markers -- at root, the common denominator of being Indian remains. This is metaphorical to textile crafts that differ in colours, techniques, and motifs, but have the blank white fabric at its root.

'Safed' concluded for its first public viewing at the Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts (IGNCA) on Monday. It will travel internationally and in other Indian cities starting August, Goyal added.