When Annie Londonderry set off to travel across the world by bicycle in 1894, no man thought she could do it. In fact, they were so sure of not just Londonderry’s, but all women’s, incompetence that two men in Boston allegedly wagered up to $20,000 that no woman could complete such a voyage. 15 months and 7000 pedalled miles later, Londonderry proved them wrong. Before she left, the young mother of three had never ridden a bike, but with every country she conquered, she gained experience and shed the social expectations that held her down. When she returned to Boston, she had replaced the dress she left in with practical men’s attire and transformed into a symbol of women’s liberation.
‘En Route’, an exhibition to be shown in the Vatican’s Library, is a tribute to travellers like Londonderry. Dior Womenswear and Chanakya International’s respective Creative Directors, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Karishma Swali, have designed a series of textile maps honouring iconic woman explorers. To bring their groundbreaking journeys to light, Chiuri and Swali employed the help of artisans from the Chanakya School of Craft, a non-profit initiative dedicated to conserving Indian art traditions and creatively empowering women. Every map in the exhibition was handmade by Chanakya graduates, injecting their own personal narratives and creative flair into their work.
The exhibition is being displayed in the Barberini Library, a section of the Vatican Library renown for its archival manuscripts. In this room rich with history, five maps hang from floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, encircling two large globes and a curious trunk full of clothes. At the very back of the room is the first map, wherein the words “Femininity, a trap,” accredited to the iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir are embroidered in red. From afar, the chart looks like an accurate depiction of the world, but from upclose, you’ll find abstract lines, almost like cracks in porcelain, etched onto the fabric.
This piece is a reference to de Beauvoir’s essay of the same name. Published in the mid-20th century, the essay illuminated how the feminine ideal plagues women. De Beauvoir observed how women, trained to be docile and soft, chase gendered validation so far that we forget our own potential. Her ideas from 78 years ago are as relevant now as they were then; to restrict ourselves to femininity is an act of self-immolation. Chiuri and Swali stitched this idea onto the pattern of a corset, using a garment that confines women as a vessel for their message. This map is a symbol of the past, a world in which women cannot break free of the mould.
The four other hanging maps in ‘En Route’ are dedicated to specific women voyageurs, using embroidery to depict their roads travelled. The maps are “intentionally fragmented, imperfect and abstract”. This decision represents the imagination used by ancient female globemakers, who had to artistically render the world without the option of exploring it themselves.
One map is dedicated to Annie Londonderry, of course. The second is for Elizabeth Bisland and Nellie Bly, two 19th century journalists who raced across the world in 80 days, inspired by a Jules Vernes novel aptly titled ‘Around the World in 80 Days.’ The third goes out to Gertrude Bell, the first woman to map Arabia, and the last to Agnes Smith Lewis & Margaret Dunlop Gibson, a pair of scholarly twin sisters who used their mastery of 12 languages when globetrotting.
Each of these women defied the odds. In a time where women, unmarried ones at that, were deprived of their basic rights, they forged their own paths through the world. The materials used to create their maps reflects this. Rather than using the material of a corset, artisans layered linen and hemp yarn to recreate the look and feel of old parchment. Notably, they once again used garments in their work. This, coupled with the trunk of clothes at the centre of the room, is a testament to what Chiuri refers to as the “vestimentary transformations of the six pioneers along their journeys.” After all, heavy skirts, and the social expectations they hold, eventually get in the way when you’re galavanting across the globe.
This finally brings us to the globes at the centre of all the action, two pieces that are a celebration of the women who made them. The first globe, entitled, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ or “the world is family” in Sanskrit, amalgamates arts from across the world. The Chanakya Foundation’s artisans utilised 88 different textile crafts in their construction of this work, from homegrown Zardozi to Japanese shibori and beyond.
The second, ‘Antrik Vishwa,’ which translates to “inner universe”, is the brainchild of Chanakya’s female artisans. Like the historic globemakers that inspired Swali and Chiuri’s vision for this exhibition, many of these women have never left their local communities. This globe is their conception of the world, imprinted with the mandirs, mountains, and rivers that make up their homes.
‘En Route’ is not just a look back at women’s history; it’s a consideration of what constructs the world around us. Is our view of the world, and ourselves, bound by societal expectations? Is it shaped by our culture, informed by our imagination? This exhibition is an invitation, or even an insistence, to explore.
The ‘En Route’ exhibition is open to the public from February 15 to December 20 at the Vatican Apostical Library.
Follow Maria Grazia Chiuri, Karishma Swali, and the Chanakya School.
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