soumithri

@soumithri.northsky.social

258 Followers 220 Following

lives in south india. dreams in indigo cotton. gender is a relation. currently running Neeli Dyeing House, playing with Desperate Attune (@desperateattune.bsky.social), thinking about colonialism, and wearing as much handwoven cotton as possible

(image of the title from star trek: the next generation with the motto of general dong from the 1992 film tahalka - डाँग कभी रॉंग नहीं हो सकता, or "dong can never be wrong")
a page with the text 52. you are not compelled to form any opinion about this matter before you, nor to disturb your peace of mind at all. things in themselves have no power to extort a verdict from you
a picture of folded indigo cotton cloth. the sunlight makes the blue colour of the cotton swirl around the folds.
A steel plate filled with cut mangoes. A fork on the plate that will never be used because what are hands for.
A wood fire is burning in the middle distance. The glare illuminates the door, behind which my grandfather sits and my father stands. Their back is to the picture. They have seen fires like this every year since they were children.
hanks of dark blue indigo yarn hang from a wooden pole as they dry. in the background, there are other poles that have turned blue due to indigo. it is impossible to convey in visual or textual format the shade that this is. only touch and smell can do that.
I stand amid a wooded garden with trees and a fence in the background. I am wearing a blue shirt, its sleeves ending before the elbow. I have a quizzical expression on my face, and my arms are splayed out, asking a question. I am also wearing a saree with a red border and red and yellow design. There is a stone flooring in the foreground upon which I stand. I am wondering - what can be made ekphrasis through text? what is being made more accessible? Colour? Or the impossibility of conveying it?
A picture of indigo blue yarn drying on a wooden pole. More yarn of the same colour can be seen in the background.
I am holding two hanks of cotton yarn in my hand. The one on the left is indigo green. The one on the right is pomegranate yellow. in the background you can see my feet, along with the feet of the dyers.
a picture of dried pomegranate peel on the ground next to a saree. the pomegranate peel is yellow and red. the saree is similarly also yellow and red.
Red, wet hanks of yarn held on a metal rod. There are some leaves stuck to the yarn. In the background is a tank of water with some steam rising from it.