Hand-painted saree uses augmented reality

The exhibition runs in Wolverhampton until the end of July

A British Asian artist says creating her hand-painted saree exhibition has helped her connect more with her culture.

Daya Bhatti, from Walsall, spent about three months creating the saree which comes to life by using animated augmented reality (AR) when people scan a QR code.

It is being exhibited at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Daya said she hoped to demonstrate the garment as a symbol of cultural heritage through a British Asian perspective.

"I saw some photographs of women wearing sarees in Britain and I just had that personal connection, so this saree reflects on those themes of home and heritage and migration," she said.

She moved away from illustrations to start experimenting with AR and now works a lot with animations in real time.

"You can literally scan a QR code and see this animation come to life and this artwork come to life, so I think it was really interesting," she said.

'Fascination in exoticism'

"The saree has come into fruition, being inspired by the collection at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and I found a lot of the object and artwork based around our culture had that lens of fascination in exoticism and I wanted to reclaim that narrative.

"It took about three months from the design stage to actually hand painting it."

Ms Bhatti said that as she grew up she felt quite distant from her culture but gradually reconnected with it and learned more.

"The saree references the 'strikers in sarees' and the protests by British Asians and it's given me a sense of belonging, so I use my work as a catalyst for people to open these conversations about things we don't really see being represented."

She said she had had very positive feedback to her exhibition which runs at the gallery until 28 July.