In its 13th edition, the London Design Festival (LDF) expanded all across the city, and found venues in old warehouses, breweries, reputed institutions, and unexpected nooks. Visitors feasted on over 350 exhibitions and the city became the nexus of great design, sophisticated oeuvres and eclectic sensibilities.
Arpna Gupta of London-based Create Culture, is the curator of INfluence, the Indian Design Platform at the fair, which was on from September 22 to 27. Having been part of the international design community for a decade, she was struck by the lack of representation of Indian design, and was committed to changing this scenario. “I knew there was a wealth of new design talent and many of them are reinterpreting traditional craft skills in a highly innovative way. This needs to be showcased,” she says.
Arpna zeroed in on six designers for India’s formal debut at LDF. Chinar Farooqui of Injiri, had developed house textiles along with weavers from Kutch. Drawing from the Rabari community’s shawl patterns, she designed textiles using locally grown organic cotton. Sangaru Studios from Bangalore showed their multipurpose sculptural ‘Elephant’ made by bending split bamboo. “The elephant is a toy that kids can sit on and play with. It can be also used as a side table with a glass top or as a simple stool to sit on,” says Sangaru.
Designer Ranjan Bordoloi collaborated with the Kohar artisan community that makes artefacts and utensils by hammering brass. His side table in wood and brass draws inspiration from the Assamese bell object called Bota , used for offering betel nuts to guests. Other studios were Bombay Atelier from Mumbai, Ira Studio from Delhi, and Varnam from Bengaluru.
In a bid to involve local architects to show off these products, Create Culture got together five London-based firms. At Clerkenwell, Studio Egret West had a warehouse studio with high ceilings and a dedicated showroom. Here, all five firms came together to create a sensory experience by interpreting Indian traditions and celebrating the chaos and spontaneity of its creativity in contemporary installations. “Five architects coming together, forgetting their egos, and creating such an atmosphere together was immense,” says architect Christophe Egret. Studio Egret West got 400 stainless steel utensils from Brick Lane and suspended them with fishing lines to make a wall. Tomas Stokke of Haptic, says, “I love the ingenuity and recycling in India — and how things are reused.” The team at Haptic shredded 100 discarded Metro newspapers distributed on the London subway and suspended them from a bamboo frame to create a ceiling. ACME managed to get 14,000 bricks that they laid out in a herringbone pattern. The bricks creaked when you walked across; the ‘vermicelli’ ceiling rustled in air currents and the suspended wall of pots and pans clanked just like in an Indian kitchen. Project Orange had collected beautiful samples of craft and Indian calligraphy, which they montaged into a table. Studio[D]Tale fashioned a washable chai -cup called CupClub to reduce the wastage of paper cups.
Increasingly, Indian designers are attracting foreign interest, reversing their obsession for modernism, perfectionism and sanitised environments. Age-old traditions were reflected in the works of the six Indian designers at the LDF. Stokke says, “There are so many fascinating and high quality techniques such as bending bamboo and metal pleating.” Egret looks back at how, at one point, Britain paved the way forward in India with rail systems and industrialisation, and today, India is in a position to show new directions. The team is happy about the show that was fairly well-received and attracted 800 visitors. “Vicky Richardson, Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council, came to see the show and found it wonderful,” says Egret, who is in all praise for the visual richness of India and our slightly quirky and crafty elegance. “There is a lovely sense of perfection within imperfections.” He recalls how with just four poles and a canopy, in India we have a makeshift structure, saying, “Never let go that immediacy in design!”
For details, log on to www.createculture.co.uk
The writer is a city-based writer and visualiser. She studied furniture design at NID and is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
