Chandua: Canopies of Labour

Chandua: Canopies of Labour, the second bilingual volume of the Odisha Craft Odyssey, traces the historical, social, and economic life of appliqué work in Odisha. Through its residency and fellowship formats, Odisha Craft Odyssey turns research into a lived social practice, unfolding in the courtyards of artisan homes, in open studios, and in exhibitions where conversations travel as easily as cloth and thread. Built upon rigorous journeys to artisanal and geographical clusters across the state, the book grows out of direct encounters with craftspersons and long hours spent watching each phase of production. Attentive to inherited knowledge systems and everyday negotiations around work, the authors offer an intimate journey into how regional craft consciousness is made. Within this process, readers encounter the internal diversity of the craft through its shifting names and forms, in sharp contrast to the singular identity attributed to it in recent years. As geography changes, so too does the Chandua: it crosses temple thresholds and village squares, moves between production units, SHGs and master workshops, and travels through hierarchies within the artisan community itself. This reveals layered histories of belief, resistance, and gendered emancipation that make Odisha’s appliqué practice uniquely distinct. The publication presents a dynamic, rigorous inquiry into the craft’s history, design reformations, adaptations, and economic models, mapping the changing figure of the artisan and the altered parameters of craftsmanship. Born of conversations between artists, designers, archivists, ethnographers, and artisans, it recasts craft research as a shared, participatory field rather than a distant gaze from outside. A distinct archival lens highlights gaps in existing documentation and the limits of what usually passes as social history, while a compelling photo essay shifts attention from static objects to the production, circulation, and distribution of artisanal identity. Though Chandua is a widely recognised craft, familiar to almost everyone in Odisha, this book opens a previously unseen vantage point, treating the canopy as a site of labour, knowledge, and quiet political negotiation rather than ornament alone. It is a book about reading the craft through the hands of its makers and the conditions that shape them — from generational mastery and state-recognised artisans to contemporary studios and large-scale production. It invites readers on a journey that alters how Chandua is felt in the present and how its past is recalled, positioning this volume as a vital companion in contemporary debates on craft, research, and cultural practice in Odisha.