"Dreaming It Forward is the 3rd and final edition of the 5 Year Plan Project. It is a homespun Khadi artist book (ed.180) literally grown from seeds to present a sustainable organic alternative as acted upon by farmers at their own initiative.
The artworks in the book follow the process from seed in soil to Khadi, creating a portrait of two small family farms that grow organic desi cotton in India, highlighting the Gandhi service ashrams who support their struggle to maintain self- sufficiency. Most of the hundreds of people involved in the making of this book are themselves farmers or the children of farmers.
With the help of sarvodaya workers at Gram Seva Mandal (GSM) in Wardha, and 5 Gandhian khadi ashrams across India, one mile of homespun handloom khadi was woven. 27 artists contributed 39 artworks which were printed full color with 180 massive hand-cut woodblocks. The covers of the edition are all hand embroidered by Street Survivors India in W.Bengal.
The growth of this cotton in the field was documented in a time lapse film from July to Dec. 2021, and all labor processes were filmed throughout the creation of the edition.
Within Dreaming It Forward we encounter vast intersections of Gandhi studies, environmentalism, climate change, global trade in cotton, women’s primary role in agriculture, India’s textile traditions, self-reliance, and the common conditions of farmers around the world. Half of the artists in Dreaming are women, and most are from India with direct experience of their subjects.
Dreaming It Forward is a collective group portrait of India through the eyes and labor of her people. Our team are Jitendra Kumar, Kahkashan Khan and Aaron Sinift, with definitive input and guidance from Vijay Kumar Handa of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha in Rajghat New Delhi.
We are writing a book and creating a short documentary about our 7 year process and what we learned along the way.
27 artists from India, Pakistan, Mexico, Germany, Haiti, South Korea and USA contributed artworks to Dreaming It Forward".
The artworks in the book follow the process from seed in soil to Khadi, creating a portrait of two small family farms that grow organic desi cotton in India, highlighting the Gandhi service ashrams who support their struggle to maintain self- sufficiency. Most of the hundreds of people involved in the making of this book are themselves farmers or the children of farmers.
With the help of sarvodaya workers at Gram Seva Mandal (GSM) in Wardha, and 5 Gandhian khadi ashrams across India, one mile of homespun handloom khadi was woven. 27 artists contributed 39 artworks which were printed full color with 180 massive hand-cut woodblocks. The covers of the edition are all hand embroidered by Street Survivors India in W.Bengal.
The growth of this cotton in the field was documented in a time lapse film from July to Dec. 2021, and all labor processes were filmed throughout the creation of the edition.
Within Dreaming It Forward we encounter vast intersections of Gandhi studies, environmentalism, climate change, global trade in cotton, women’s primary role in agriculture, India’s textile traditions, self-reliance, and the common conditions of farmers around the world. Half of the artists in Dreaming are women, and most are from India with direct experience of their subjects.
Dreaming It Forward is a collective group portrait of India through the eyes and labor of her people. Our team are Jitendra Kumar, Kahkashan Khan and Aaron Sinift, with definitive input and guidance from Vijay Kumar Handa of the Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha in Rajghat New Delhi.
We are writing a book and creating a short documentary about our 7 year process and what we learned along the way.
27 artists from India, Pakistan, Mexico, Germany, Haiti, South Korea and USA contributed artworks to Dreaming It Forward".
Book Cover
The fully embroidered version of the book by the 44 Women of Street Survivors, India, Murshidabad, West Bengal. Edition of ten original books.
The printed version of the book.
