Shakuntala’s armoured Dior runway
The Mumbai-based multimedia artist’s collaboration with the fashion house has once again brought the focus back to body politics
On February 27, at Paris Fashion Week, Dior went back to the 60s. But instead of leaning on its ‘swinging’ tag, creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri had her models wend their way around lifesize, cagelike cane forms. Crafted by Mumbaibased artist Shakuntala Kulkarni, the commanding pieces placed at the centre of the runway in Tuileries Garden brought to mind many things: ancient carapaces, imposing samurai yoroi (armour), but also a sense of strength.
While Chiuri’s Fall/Winter 20242025 collection focused on the decade of liberated fashion — a transitional era that brought with it the duality of classic fashion and readytowear — Kulkarni’s sculptures offset it perfectly with its symbolised dichotomy of notions of protection and restricted movement. “We were speaking about women’s empowerment and freedom,” says the multimedia artist, 74. “Maria was looking at the new woman and so was I, or rather the possibility of who she could become. Strength and energy, grace and dignity. Maria used fabric and I used cane as fabric to protect.”
As the world takes notice of Kulkarni’s 12year questioning of women’s body politics, she tells the Magazine about the collaboration with the French fashion house and why the message of her cane armour is always important.
Question:
How did the collaboration with Dior come about?
One of Dior’s directors walked into Chemould Prescott Road in March or April last year, during my exhibition Quieter than Silence Compilation of Short Stories. He saw my catalogues of Juloos [a fourscreen video installation created in 2015] and Of Bodies, Armour and Cages, and
Answer:
gave it to Maria Grazia Chiuri. When I had a conversation with Maria, I realised that we were both speaking about women’s empowerment and freedom. She was looking at the new woman and so was I — or rather the possibility of who she is, of who she could become. I love movement; I use body language in my films and installations. Hence, the models walking in choreographed movements appealed to me. It was a great experience working together and an opportunity to create an installation in a huge space.
Q:
Your series of armour protects the body but traps it too. Why the dichotomy?
Once, when I was walking in a crowded place in Mumbai, drops of tar fell on me and burned parts of