Archana Hande – Weaving light, 2009–2023–2025

Archana Hande weaves light. Using discarded Jacquard punch cards, she has created a circular central structure whose light casts shifting patterns of shadow across the gallery walls. Developed in Lyon in the early nineteenth century, the Jacquard loom used coded perforated cards to produce woven patterns, establishing a logic of differentiation – light and darkness, presence and absence – that later informed early computing. From Lyon to Bangalore, where Jacquard technology reshaped textile production under colonial industrialisation, Hande traces the movement of weaving technology. An archival passage leading into the installation investigates these histories through visual essays that bring together garments, photographs, advertisements and documents. They reveal how histories of silk extend far beyond the loom to encompass trade unions, warfare, advertising and computing.

The social histories embedded in materials, technologies and systems of labour structure Archana Hande’s practice. Through installation, sculpture, video and archival research, she traces the relationships between artisanal traditions, industrial processes and digital economies. Her work brings into focus the persistence and transformation of power across time, revealing how historical modes of production continue to shape contemporary material and social realities.