One Word For The Women Who Shape Us And A Thousand Voices Answer

Pune: At The Box Too, pieces of fabric slowly turned into a sprawling assemblage of the women who shape people's lives. Over three days from March 6 to 8, Pune based textile artist Vaishali Oak created a participatory live installation titled The Strength of Women to mark International Women's Day. The work was presented as part of the Voices and Threads initiative organised by Alliance Française.Oak said that the idea began with a simple question about how to involve more people in a meaningful way.
"It all started with a conversation about how we could get more and more people involved in the project and make them think more meaningfully about the women in their lives. So for this interactive installation we asked people just one question -- who is the most important woman in your life and how would you describe her in one word?"In the weeks leading up to the installation, Oak and her collaborators distributed fabric strips to corporate offices, schools and partner institutions across the city. "We took about two to three weeks to collect more than 1000 cloth pieces. On the first day I began incorporating those strips into the installation."The goal was not merely participation but more importantly, reflection. "Some took a few minutes, some asked if they could take a couple of days because they could not settle on just one word. A few even wrote song lyrics or phrases because a single word felt too small," said Oak.Over the next three days, visitors watched the artwork take shape in real time and some joined in."People who came to see the work wanted to contribute as well. So we kept fabric strips and fabric pens at the venue. They could write their word right there and it would be incorporated in the installation," she said.The completed installation rises like a suspended textile canopy, a dense structure of knotted and braided fabric strips hanging from the ceiling. From this colourful core, long ribbons of cloth descend carrying handwritten words contributed by participants.The form evokes the idea of community memory trees where people tie cloth carrying wishes or messages. In Oak's work, the cascading strips appear almost like root or veins, suggesting interconnected lives and generations of women whose identities are woven together into a collective narrative.The responses revealed an astonishing range of emotions and perspectives."To go through all the strips and read the words people had chosen was overwhelming," Oak said. "There were beautiful descriptions like ‘phenomenal', ‘blessing', ‘backbone' and so many motivational words. But there were also entries that captured quirks and very human traits which show a welcome cultural shift. Words like ‘know-it-all' and ‘bossy' were displayed alongside words like ‘compassionate' and ‘sacrificing', showing that women need not always be put on a pedestal but just be accepted for the human beings they are with flaws and all," she added.Some people wrote about their mothers or sisters, others about their wives or partners, their nieces, daughters, their role models or teachers or even their best friends.For visitors, the exercise proved unexpectedly introspective."I wrote the word resilient for my mother," said Riya Kulkarni, a college student. "We usually think about our mothers emotionally because they are such a personal part of our lives. But writing that word made me think about her more objectively, about how she handled challenges and shaped our family."Another student, Aniruddha Sharma, said he chose the word fearless to describe his elder sister. "Usually you just think of your sister as your sister," he said. "But when you try to describe her in one word, you suddenly realise how much she has influenced the way you think and live."Through hundreds of small fabric messages, Oak's installation transformed personal reflections into a shared story — one that quietly celebrates the many ways women shape lives, families and communities.