AKA Art Productions
06Nepal · 2020

New works on the looms.

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In 2020 three new projects went onto the looms in Nepal: Carlos Amorales’ black butterflies, Pedro Friedeberg’s rows of symbols, and Alexandre Arrechea’s works — among them a hand and a circle, each cut to its own shape. After the knotting, every piece is carved by hand: the pile is trimmed around each contour so the drawing stands up from the surface, then the edges are bound.

Jessica Stockholder’s textile work advanced on the same floors, and she kept experimenting in lokta. That year we also staged a photo shoot in Bhaktapur with By Kind People — lokta paper, hand-knotted rugs and woven shawls worn and carried through the old city — to bring Nepal’s local crafts to a wider public.

Carlos Amorales · Pedro Friedeberg · Alexandre Arrechea

A carver trimming the pile around black and grey butterflies on a white hand-knotted work
Carving Carlos Amorales’ butterflies, Nepal, 2020.
A carver seated on the work with long shears, black and grey butterflies around him
The contours cut with shears.
Two women seated on a hand-knotted work of spirals, stars and squares, carving the pile
Carving Pedro Friedeberg’s symbols.
A finished hand-knotted work covered in rows of spirals, stars, mazes and impossible figures
Pedro Friedeberg, finished, 2020.
A half-circle of red, turquoise and black emerging on a vertical loom
Alexandre Arrechea’s circle on the loom.
A round hand-knotted work with a red rim, turquoise rays and a city grid at its centre
The circle, finished.
A hand-shaped hand-knotted work in yellow, green and blue on a terrazzo floor, a man seated on it
Alexandre Arrechea’s hand, cut to its shape.
Hands binding the yellow edge of a shaped work with a needle and thread
Binding the edges by hand.

Jessica Stockholder · By Kind People

Four people seated on a large striped hand-knotted work, carving the pile
Jessica Stockholder’s textile, carved by four hands at once.
A worker brushing loose fibre off a striped red, blue and yellow work
Brushing the work clean.
Women in masks binding lokta paper notebooks at long tables
Binding lokta paper, Kathmandu, 2020.
A photographer framing a model on a Bhaktapur rooftop at dusk
The By Kind People shoot, Bhaktapur, 2020.

By Kind People · Bhaktapur, 2020

Two models in Bhaktapur holding lokta paper portfolios
Lokta paper portfolios, made in Kathmandu.
A model seated on a tiger-shaped hand-knotted rug on brick steps, photographer in front
A hand-knotted tiger rug on the steps.
Two models on temple steps in Bhaktapur, one in black with a white shawl, one in grey with a pink check shawl
Shawls woven in Nepal, Bhaktapur Durbar Square.
A model on a rooftop in a lilac and white scarf
A hand-dyed scarf at dusk.
Artists, galleries & collectors

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