Bonds Per Stitch, rooted in the traditional Indian Godhari quilting technique, brings together oral histories, memories from the diaspora, and used and collected fabrics. The Godhari history of reuse, domestic work and collective making offers a vocabulary for reflecting on migration, memory and belonging.
During the development of the project, the participants took part in a 'quilt conversation' with Kulkarni, which resulted in a dialogue between two quilts: one made by the participant and one made by Kulkarni. The relationship between artist and participant becomes part of the artistic process, in which the participant makes an active contribution to the making process, the meaning and the content.
Through Bonds Per Stitch, Kulkarni and her participants ask the question: what does it mean to belong? And how does a sense of 'home' arise when the place where we live is not necessarily the place we once called home? The project explores how personal histories and life experiences can form part of a shared cultural space without being reduced to a single migration story.