Mansi Shouche talks with fibre artist Tanvi Kant in the second of her Weaving Currents discussions at Cambridge Artworks, 26 September.

I am entering what many may consider an overlooked and derided place. I am going to write about pleasure from a creative and feminist perspective, writing through the words and thoughts of bell hooks. As an artist, and as an arts professional who supports artists, there is a discussion to be had about creative pleasure. I don’t mean the obvious notion of erotic pleasure that dogs the creation of art as something extravagant, indulgent, or brash and bold in attention seeking — and I apply this notion to women artists as well as male artists who make art for these ends. I am talking about the intimate pleasure of solitary creativity. I am talking about spending time alone in one’s head — thinking.

I turn to bell hooks because she has written in depth about her own creative practice of writing. I will draw parallels between the creativity of writing and the creativity of making. I also look to bell hooks for her perspective as a feminist and a woman of colour speaking on creativity. Remembered rapture: the writer at work, hooks’ 1999 collection of essays on her own passion for writing, and specifically her preface, “rapture from the deep” is the text I reference for this meditation. Read my text, “Look for the Rapture.”

Weaving Currents is an on-going series of creative discussions presented by interdisciplinary artist, Mansi Souche. Highlighting artists with links to South Asia, Mansi will be talking to fibre artist Tanvi Kant to explore the evolution and current forms in her work. Since 2004, Tanvi’s work has celebrated simple but repetitive techniques such as whipping, binding, knotting, and stitching within the processes of cordage and basket making. These processes are intertwined with her observations and associations of adornment within sacred rituals. This discussion will take place at Cambridge Artworks on 26 September at 6:30pm. Booking is free on Eventbrite.

Tanvi’s artwork is infused with this quality of pleasure in creativity on a journey to self-exploration. It expresses a tactile pleasure of material and of repetitive process. The act of intimacy in this pleasure, that of solitary thinking, is evident in the work. We can see this in Encircling – Engulfing the knot (2023) for example. What appears at first glance to be a haphazard bundle of string, on closer inspection is carefully and thoughtfully constructed materiality that uses a variety of thickness, texture, and colour to form a flexible and adorned cord. It demonstrates how castoff materials can bind together to form a solid whole taking on new qualities, characteristics, and identities of purpose. It is a statement on the nature of flexibility coming from the melding of difference. Read more about Tanvi’s work in “Look for the Rapture.”