These artworks are a tribute to India’s Olympic centenary 

In collaboration with Karishma Swali, director of Chanakya School of Craft, and artist Sujata Bajaj, JSW Foundation pays an artistic ode to India’s 100th year at the Olympics

India’s 100th year at the Olympics is the muse of artists commissioned by JSW Foundation — the social development arm of the JSW Group — to create a total of four artworks. In collaboration with Karishma Swali, director of Chanakya School of Craft, and artist Sujata Bajaj, the foundation attempts at exploring India’s recent wins at the sports gala and celebrating its association with France, which is now hosting Paralympics Games Paris 2024.

While Karishma Swali and Chanakya School of Craft have shouldered the curation and execution of three artworks strung on the theme Citius—Altius—Fortius (stronger, higher, faster, together), the one created by Sujata Bajaj, who shares her career history with Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, is an ode to the shared cultural symbols of India and France. “The artworks were first revealed at the Town Hall in Paris where we co-hosted a dinner with the Indian Olympic Association and its President Dr. P.T. Usha for the Indian athletes at the Paris Olympic’24. The artworks will be part of the corporate collection of the JSW Group,” says Sangita Jindal, chairperson of JSW Foundation. She adds that the works were commissioned in 2023 and made over the course of several months.

Alongside the central piece featuring Olympic torch and a wreath, artworks created by Chanakya School of Craft depict Olympians Neeraj Chopra and Sakshi Malik. “The decision to feature Sakshi Malik and Neeraj Chopra was guided by their recent groundbreaking accomplishments that have inspired a new generation of athletes. Sakshi’s historic bronze in wrestling at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Neeraj’s gold in javelin at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics align with the broader narrative of India’s evolving presence on the global sports stage. Their achievements represent the spirit of breaking new ground, much like the innovative techniques and artistic expressions we employed in this collaboration,” says Karishma.

In fact, the JSW Foundation has gifted the artwork showcasing Olympic winner Neeraj Chopra to the athlete after he bagged the silver medal in men’s javelin throw this year.

The three interdisciplinary artworks have been made with intricate hand embroidery techniques. Karishma explains, “We chose vibrant yet grounded colours to evoke the energy and passion of the athletes, while also paying homage to India’s rich textile heritage. The silhouettes are fluid, capturing the dynamic movements of sports and the subtle grace of craft. The works are handcrafted using a variety of materials and needlepoint techniques, such as couching, bullion knots, running stitch, crochet, and stem stitch, complemented by carpet-weaving methods like hand-knotting and hand-tufting”. Over 20 artisans, each with expertise in different embroidery and weaving techniques, contributed to the crafting of these pieces.

In Sujata’s painting, India’s Ashoka Chakra emerges from an Olympic circle, surrounded by metallic glints of gold, silver and bronze representing medals. The vibrant colours of the French and Indian flags — orange, green, blue, white and red — feature prominently. “The painting uses acrylic paints on canvas with added gold and silver foiling. The painting technique involves a lot of overlapping fluidity, which can be interpreted as an absence of boundaries,” says Sujata while adding that it took about a month of working around the clock to complete the artwork.

Interestingly, once upon a time there used to be a fine arts segment included in the Olympic Games, says Sujata. “In a way, the JSW event including creativity in such a prominent way could be seen as a commemoration of this. A connection that can be made between art and sport is that they both transcend borders in nature and in practice. It is a performance which can be experienced by anyone regardless of language, requiring nothing else than willingness to absorb passion and expression. My canvas is an embodiment of this,” she shares.