The Odisha Craft Odyssey (OCO) launched Chandua:Canopies of Labour, a bilingual publication documenting Odisha’s appliqué traditions and the communities, knowledge and labour that sustains them, at the valedictory session of the OCO Symposium 2026, Mapping Transitions: Art, Craft and the Ethnographic Turn, held at the Odisha Research Centre (ORC).
The publication was unveiled in the presence of Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy and E&IT Departments, Government of Odisha, as Chief Guest, and Rajeev Sethi, designer and scenographer and Padma Bhushan awardee, as guest of honour. The launch marked the culmination of the day-long symposium, which brought together artists, researchers, designers, cultural practitioners and institutional representatives to examine the evolving relationship between art, craft, and ethnographic practice.
Published by Odisha Craft Odyssey, Chandua: Canopies of Labour brings together fieldwork, archival research, visual documentation and artisanal biographies to examine Odisha’s appliqué traditions beyond the finished craft object. The publication documents the terminology, materials, techniques, cultural contexts and changing practices associated with appliqué, while placing the experiences and knowledge of its makers at the centre of the narrative.
The 2026 edition has been published in English and Odia and is edited by Premjish Achari and Sibdas Sengupta. The research and documentation were undertaken through the OCO Fellowship Programme 2025-26, with Madhulika S. Naidu as research fellow and Raj Maurya as archivist fellow. Their work brings together field research and archival material to examine the transmission of craft knowledge, the evolution of techniques and practices, and the changing contexts in which the tradition continues to be practised.
The publication is the outcome of nine months of intensive research across 45 craft clusters, combining field-based research, archival material, visual documentation and accounts from artisans. The research records not only the forms and techniques associated with appliqué, but also the knowledge, working processes and lived experiences that have sustained the tradition.
Sandeep Hota, co-founder and Managing Director, BEADS, and Advisory Board Member, Odisha Craft Odyssey, said, “With Chandua: Canopies of Labour, we wanted to look beyond the visual identity of appliqué and document the knowledge, labour and lived experiences that sustain the tradition. For OCO, this publication is part of a longer engagement with Odisha’s craft ecosystems, where research and documentation are closely connected to the communities and practitioners being studied. The nine months of fieldwork across 45 craft clusters, engaging with more than 255 artisans, have allowed us to build a more grounded understanding of Chandua and the people who continue to shape its practice.”
Sibdas Sengupta, Editor of the book, said, “The making of Chandua: Canopies of Labour was an attempt to understand appliqué through its many layers; its materials and techniques, and the memories, working processes, histories and relationships that surround them. The fieldwork allowed us to encounter Chandua not as a static tradition, but as a living practice that continues to be negotiated and adapted by its practitioners.”
(By PT News Network)
