Abantika Chanda - MA/MSc Textiles
I am Abantika Chanda, a textile designer who steps into the role of a kathakar—a storyteller. My work revolves around constructing and exploring fantastical worlds that are deeply rooted in lived realities. Each project is a narrative space where imagination and observation converge, creating prints and surfaces that speak to both materiality and metaphor.
One such project is Botanical Echoes, a collection inspired by the non-native florals of Manchester. These plants, though originating elsewhere, have become an intrinsic part of the city’s landscape. In my interpretation, they are reimagined through altered scale, layered compositions, and surreal dynamics that transform familiar motifs into fantastical visual languages. The collection captures how the ordinary can be transformed into the extraordinary when seen through the lens of storytelling.
My practice spans the vast arena of print, pattern, and textile surfaces, with a particular focus on processes such as digital printing, screen printing, and monoprinting. Across these techniques, I am driven by an urge to experiment, to discover how surface design can expand the narrative potential of textiles.
During my MA at Manchester School of Art, I encountered the unsettling side effects of the printing industry—its environmental and social implications—an awareness that introduced a new layer of discomfort into my work. Rather than shy away from this, I used it as a point of departure. This confrontation led to the creation of Eden in Exile, a collection developed using bio-pigments. Here, printing became both an experimental and reflective act, a way of questioning established practices while envisioning alternatives.
In all my work, I strive to merge storytelling with surface innovation, imagining textiles not just as functional objects, but as landscapes of memory, imagination, and transformation.
