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CHAAHAT THAKKER

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Pinball Machine | Fashion

Pinball Machine as a fashion line in MICA's 25th Annual Benefit Fashion Show, displaying the process from initial sketches to completed and styled looks.

Special thanks to photographer Hana Hassan and the models!

Clean Up After The Party

This piece was strongly inspired by the vibrancy in 80s/90s prints, and it was where my love for the colour yellow blossomed.
I wanted to make the installation playful, to the point where it was almost cartoonish and silly. The objects are fabricated such that they are coming to life, and are having their own party within this space. It creates a form of propaganda, suggesting that parties can be fun, but the clean up is even more exciting.

Media: Silkscreen printed fabric, sewn garment, found and fabricated objects

 

Special thanks to Amanda Almarshoud and Cathy Lin

Floating Balloons

Digitally designed all-over prints: doodles to colorways to application sketches.

 

Doodles made in collaboration with Cathy Lin. Many thanks!

Pinball Machine | Installation

In playing pinball, there is a strong sense of uncertainty. When the tab is pulled and the ball is released into a controlled space, its exact movement is unpredictable. The glass case separating the player from the ball limits the player’s control over the play, and yet somehow still keeps them fully immersed in it. Similarly, Pinball Machine is a collection that serves as a form of suggestive play – a type of play that the outsider doesn’t fully understand or control, but can only imagine and anticipate outcomes of. By creating forms that are loosely inspired by existing games, personal memories and inside jokes, I am inviting the audience to form their own authentic interpretations and conclusions to the “pinballs” before them, in an attempt to immerse them in a magical realm that is dominated by color, vibrancy, laughter and ultimately, play.

Sculpted Surface

Radiate

Radiate Radiate Radiate! 
My friend Amanda said to radiate. I’ve always looked up to her as someone who promotes positive vibrations through her work. 
I created this at a time when I wasn’t feeling particularly radiant. So I made my own personal ‘radiator’, a device inspired by the concept of a dream catcher, in which good vibrations are collected. In theory, these vibrations can be transferred from the flower to my ‘crown’ (seventh chakra, the top of the head). 
I connected this quite literally to the idea of getting energy from my art practice. 

Media: Yarn, knit foam, found object

 

Special thanks to Amanda Almarshoud

"My Grandpa has some old ass wine"

The title of this piece, "My Grandpa Has Some Old Ass Wine" was inspired by a conversation with my friend about our early childhood memories with our families. 
Some of my favorite memories included the sleepovers I had at my Grandpa’s house in the suburbs in Mumbai. It was always a treat visiting him, because he would pamper me with chaas, a spicy indian buttermilk drink and his famous fried bhajias (fritters). I would have picnics in his backyard, collect the bright red seeds that fell from trees, and even build tiny snail farms with him. At night, he would cover me with a worn out mosquito net and reassure me that it would protect me from everything. 
I was reminded of these moments in my Material Construction class, where we studied different ways of creating net-like structures. Through this project, I wanted to explore the idea of intimacy—as emotional closeness and confidential knowledge of one another—within my structures. I created a crochet net, building and tangling around found or commonplace items. I allowed my intuition to take control in terms of the treatment of objects, observing later that I wrapped most of them tightly in the yarn, almost in an attempt to ‘protect’ them, or preserve some sort of energy within them.

Media: Crochet net, found objects

 

Special thanks to late Fazlewahid Shaikh and Cathy Lin

Overdyed Indigo Cropped Jacket

Repurposed Indigo quilt turned into a cropped jacket during my Summer Internship at Anchal Project.

 

Special thanks to Maggie and Colleen Clines

Naari Jacket

Repurposed Naari quilt turned into a long jacket during my Summer Internship at Anchal Project.

 

Special thanks to Maggie and Colleen Clines

Untitled

Collage/ embroidery incorporating objects of cultural significance.

Pinball Machine | Fashion

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Clean Up After The Party

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Floating Balloons

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Pinball Machine | Installation

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Sculpted Surface

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Radiate

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"My Grandpa has some old ass wine"

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Overdyed Indigo Cropped Jacket

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Naari Jacket

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Untitled

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