Pakistan - Tarogil

The Colors of Tarogil Village, Pakistan
A Color Workshop for Textile Students at B.N.U.


History and Background


The earliest known example of cotton is the fragment found at Mehrgarh, Pakistan, one of the most important Neolithic (Stone Age/7000 B.C. – 3200 B.C. ) sites.* Today, cotton textile production and apparel manufacturing are Pakistan's largest industries, accounting for about 70% of total export.
(* Source: Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 29, Issue 12, December 2002, Pages 1393-1401)

During my last week in Pakistan, I conducted a color workshop for the students in the Textiles Department at Beaconhouse National University. The workshop included a field trip to the village - a small cluster of homes in the midst of the mustard fields that surrounds the Tarogil campus. The homes are primarily constructed of mud, mud-brick, and thatch. Unpaved streets and paths are filled with people dressed in traditional garb, donkey carts and buffalo carts (whose prototypes date back to the third millennium B.C.). No cars! A sense of timelessness . . . a step back to a time that most of us only see in movies. The visual landscape of Targogil village reminds us of that era in Pakistan that is the source of the earliest cotton fragment.

Tarogil Village Scene

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The Color Workshop

The assignment required that the textile students note the colors in the village. In other words, get up close to whatever they encountered – whether it were the colors of the mustard fields surrounding the village or the materials and surfaces of objects and structures, such as the bricks and iron gates.

Student photographing the colors of the rocks Boy and goat
Photographing the colors of the rocks
 
Boy and goat
 
Children at the metal door of a home Detail of a painted door
Children at the gate to a home
 
Detail of a painted door
 
Mustard field surrounding the village Students examining the colors of the earth and objects
Mustard field surrounding the village
 
Examining the colors of the earth
 


More examples of color at Tarogil

One of the main streets Mud and straw building material
One of the main streets
 
Mud and straw building material
 
Boys playing in the field Vegetation
Tarogil boys playing in the field
 
Vegetation
 
Groceries in a cart Brick wall, blue door, and villager
Groceries in a cart
 
Brick wall, blue door, and villagers
 
Water buffalo and woman Stampede down the main street
Water buffalo and woman A herd stampedes down the street

Donkey cart and fresh produce Found in the field
Donkey cart and fresh produce
 
Found in the field
 
Village area Cooking tools
Village area
 
Cooking tools
 

 
The Color Workshop Assignment

After compiling their color notations, each student selected three favorite colors and two least favorite colors for a composition based on the Bezold effect.


Example of the "Bezold Effect"
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(Graphic from Color Logic, by Jill Morton)

Three colored areas in the background (the 3 pie-shaped areas) on each circular form remain the same. Only the color of the stripes on top of these areas changes. In the example above, the stripes change from blue in the circle at the left to yellow in the circle on the right. The transformational effect is quite amazing given the limited palette.
 

Students and faculty
Assistant Professor Rohma Khan (far left), textile students, and Jill Morton (center) Examples of some of the "Bezold Effect" studies are on the wall behind the group.
 
Looms
Looms in the textile studio at Beaconhouse National University, Tarogil, Pakistan

Jill Morton, March 2009


Color Logic

 

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