An alumni of MS Baroda, 41-year-old Lavanya Mani has spent her life trying to re-imagine kalamkari not as a fabric but as a canvas. With knowledge gleaned from craftsmen and lots of personal research, Mani is going to sieve through her journey for a workshop. Kalamkari is hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, and Mani has been experimenting with it since the beginning of her practice.

"I was [very] interested in traditional dyeing and printing processes in India, especially kalamkari, maybe because of its similarity to painting. Using a 'traditional' 'craft' medium as a contemporary art practice necessitated an awareness of its location and context within the larger historical and cultural dynamic," says Mani. So, she delved deeper.