Batik Sari

Rather than depicting a single botanical form, the design brings together leaves of different shapes and configurations, placing them against one another to create a rhythmic and varied composition. The subtle differences in contour and proportion allow the repeated forms to generate movement across the length of the sari.

Saren’s close association with nature was rooted in her childhood in Santiniketan. Her father, known as Debi da, was a professor in the Department of Botany at Visva-Bharati, and her early familiarity with the diversity and structure of plant life deeply informed her visual vocabulary. This intimate engagement with nature finds expression in her treatment of the leaf, which is observed, abstracted and reconfigured through the medium of batik.

The monochromatic palette draws attention to the silhouette and structure of each leaf, while their placement against one another creates a continuous rhythm across the textile. The sari reflects a distinctly Santiniketan approach to textile design, in which close observation of the natural world becomes a source for abstraction and pattern.