Prayer for Peace, 2014
Embroidery on silk with vegetable dyes
Prayer for Peace (2014) by Vaishali and Sanjeev transforms textile craft into a profound meditation on the cycles of conflict, faith, and human fragility. Conceived in response to the wars in Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regions ravaged by violence, the work turns the delicate surface of silk into a field of reflection where beauty and devastation coexist.
At the centre lies the form of a chaupar or dyut board — an ancient game of chance historically associated with kings, courtiers, and the privileged elite. Its cross-like geometry dominates the picture plane, recalling a space where strategy, pleasure, and risk were once the prerogatives of power. In this context, the artists transform the game into an allegory of global politics: a game played by those in command, while the smokes of destruction engulf the world outside. The cowrie shells and dice scattered across the surface suggest both the randomness of fate and the calculated moves of those who gamble with lives and nations.
Embroidered across this terrain are sacred invocations — the names of Allah — rendered with quiet precision, as if each stitch were a whispered plea for mercy. Rising from the lower edge are incense sticks whose trails of smoke ascend and dissolve into dense, surreal clouds. This transformation — from the devotional act of lighting incense to the ominous billows of conflict — marks the work’s most haunting metaphor. Out of this darkness, silver-threaded butterflies flutter forth, fragile symbols of hope and endurance that emerge even from devastation.
Prayer for Peace thus weaves together the languages of prayer, play, and protest. The artists use embroidery — a medium of patience and care — to confront the cruelty of human indifference. The result is a silent, tactile lament: a vision of the world where beauty and brutality are inseparably stitched, and where peace remains the most urgent of human prayers.