Exploring the craft and design of the 'handmade' at the Serendipity Arts Festival here enables one to find uniqueness in the 'daily' objects found in abundance in Indian communities.
A medley of 'jugaad', traditional forms of material production and the 'manual', the utilitarian objects exhibited in "Matters of Hand: Craft: Design and Technique" cross our paths in our public and private spaces, but are often not appreciated as objects of exceptional design.
The barber's wooden chair (nai-ki-kursi) or tailor's stool ('darzi ka stool') - seen everyday in the Indian style of life - are often traditional in their genesis.
Notably, they cut across the discourse of "modern versus traditional" to represent cultural expressions that persist, despite threats from the mass-produced.
The idea, put simply, is to go beyond the visual appeal of the art object and appreciate the material and "matters of hand" with which it is crafted.
In the work, "Construct Deconstruct Construct" (2018) by multiple artists, the utility objects embody the 'jugaad aesthetic'.
"Construct Deconstruct Construct" features 'rehabilitated' and vernacular furniture made from scraps of wood, plastic, rope and metal.
While 'jugaad' might be quick on-the-feet problem solving with limited resources, combined with recycling and reuse, objects created with this makeshift thinking are examples of unwitting design, that spawns not just pieces but designers who make them.
The exhibition's opening work is mounted together with other striking pieces that exemplify traditionally crafted design pieces imbued with thought process and an aesthetic integrity that extend from the "karigars/craftspeople/designers/artists/artisans themselves".
The very essence of these natural, indigenous materials drawn from the vast Indian landscape is integral to the design, the curator's note reads.
The essence is easily seen in the pliability of katlamara bamboo, the translucency of the makrana marble, the sonorous rhythm of the 'kansa' (bronze) bell metal or the regional clays that transform from earth into beautiful forms.
On display, among others, are baskets woven from dried fibres of a banana tree, a cane seat with steel legs, a bamboo bookshelf - things that could find space in the modern household despite their indigenous construct.
What enables them to do it? Their timeless, utilitarian design.
Another case in point is the "Chomukh Chatai" by Rajiben Murji Vankar, made from recycled videotape plastic weft, plastic bags and nylon warp in the region of Gujarat's Kutch.
The result of an initiative that suggested innovative ways of disposing plastic waste, the 'chatai' is a traditionally Indian floor mat that used long plastic strips for the material of the dense object.
The exhibition's last object is the "Bhiksa Patra" (alms bowl) used by Jain ascetics, traditionally designed wooden bowls that have been in use for millennia.
While these objects may point to a lifestyle slowly vanishing, the classic design and material do force the viewer to stop and introspect about lives that continue through the inanimate.
(Siddhi Jain is in Goa at the invitation of the organisers of the Serendipity Arts Festival. She can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
--IANS
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