KATHA – The Community Quilt

Kantha-নকশী কাঁথা is the traditional hand-stitched technique embroidered 'Quilt' of the Bengal (Bangladesh & West Bengal) women. A thousand-year-old technique, the kantha is created by recycling traditional women's costume, the saree, and was commonly used as household items to keep families warm during the winter months. 

Making a Katha is a long, slow, laboursome process that often involves a group of women meeting regularly to create beautiful embroidery with repetitive running stitches.

In 2022, Wyndham artist Mita Chowdhury has shared her family cultural technique with twelve Wyndham women from all cultures and together they have created this unique Kantha Quilt. The Project ‘Kantha: Weaving Our Stories Together-আয় তব সহচরী’ began last year to mark and celebrate International Women’s Day. This collective creation is the outcome of the women and their shared stories on display for all to see as part of International Women's Day 2023. 

About Mita Chowdhury 

Hasina Chowdhury Mita, mostly known as Mita Chowdhury, is a multidisciplinary artist with a principal focus on painting. She was born and raised in Bangladesh and migrated to Australia in 2007 in her early twenties. As a woman of colour and living within the diaspora, Mita now considers herself a Global Citizen. Her artistic practice investigates the ideas of identity, gender bias, feminist discourse, globalisation, migration, colonial and post-colonial discourse, marginality and intersectionality. Mita participated in many groups and Solo exhibitions; her third Solo exhibition, “Here, out at the West”, will be exhibited at the Laneway Gallery and Wood-street art space in Hobsons Bay City from the 6th of March 2023 to the 26th of April 2023.

Mita is the recipient of the 2022 RMIT Cultural Vision Grant scholarship. She is currently working on year-long community art and exhibition project called ‘Kantha: Weaving Our Stories Together’ with Wyndham City Council and a two-year-long project with RMIT University with a collaboration of broader RMIT students while undertaking her Master of Fine Art at RMIT University Melbourne, Australia. 

Exhibition 8 March - 25 April 2023 at Saltwater Community Centre – 153 Saltwater Promenade, Point Cook

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