NITA is an ongoing collaborative design research project developed with Amjad Ali Daudpota and the hereditary craftsmen of NITA Crafts, Nasarpur, Sindh. Rather than reviving historical ornament or borrowing established Persian, Mughal or Central Asian motifs, the project seeks to construct a new ornamental grammar directly from the ecological identity of Sindh. Each design begins with close observation of a plant or bird species and is gradually translated into a system of rhythm, hierarchy, symmetry and brush-friendly forms suitable for Kashikari painting. The intention is not botanical illustration but the development of ornament that retains the unmistakable identity of living species while functioning as a coherent visual language.
The project presently investigates the ecologies of the Indus Delta and coastal mangroves through Acanthus ilicifolius, Ceriops tagal, Rhizophora mucronata, Avicennia marina, Salicornia europaea and Ipomoea aquatica; the riverine landscapes of Sindh through Acacia nilotica, Azadirachta indica, Indigofera tinctoria, Indigofera oblongifolia, Nelumbo nucifera, Nymphaea nouchali, Prosopis cineraria, Saccharum spontaneum, Ziziphus nummularia, Aloe vera, banana, Bombax ceiba, Butea monosperma, Gossypium arboreum, Populus euphratica and true indigo; and the arid scrublands through Calligonum polygonoides, Calotropis procera, Caudanthera edulis, Capparis aphylla, Salvadora persica, Tamarix aphylla, Tecomella undulata, Tribulus terrestris, Zaleya pentandra, Lawsonia inermis, Leptadenia pyrotechnicaand Ziziphus mauritiana. The study also includes Rubia cordifolia because of its historical importance as a natural dye plant. Together, these species form the foundation of an expanding ecological ornament vocabulary intended for both contemporary craft production and future scholarly research.
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