Sayan Chanda (1989, India) is a Kolkata born artist and textile practitioner living and working in London (UK). He holds a MAFA from Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), London and a B.DES in Textiles from the National Institute of Design, India.
Sayan’s practice revolves around indigenous votive and ritual objects, investigating their materiality, transience and relationship to people or spaces. His work is informed by folklore, vernacular material culture and quotidian objects. He draws parallels between craft and votives and underscores the transformative ability of making by hand. He works with textiles, ceramics and found materials of personal resonance such as used Kantha quilts from Bengal, deconstructing, knotting, folding, embroidering and weaving them into objects, reliefs and tapestries. He shifts between intuitive making and laboured crafting, working with repetitive gestures, building systems as the work progresses.
Sayan has exhibited internationally at galleries including South London Gallery (London, UK), Saatchi Gallery (London, UK) and Nature Morte (New Delhi, India). He has been a part of London Craft Week and London Design Week. In 2022, he will be attending the Thread artist residency in Senegal, run by the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
