Professional Documents
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Inspired Inspire
Inspired Inspire
CEPT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF DESIGN
MONSOON SEMESTER 2016
INSPIRED INSPIRE
SRABANTI DASGUPTA
We live in a world that originated about 4.54 billion years ago and was largely completed within
10–20 million years. We came into picture much much later. Living humans, homosapiens, all
7.4 billion of us belong to the same species that evolved about 200,000 years ago in Africa. We
unlike today used our physical potential to survive in this world. We formed groups and travelled
across the continents till the advent of agriculture. Agriculture paved the idea of living at one
place and settling down. Slowly and steadily we started identifying fertile lands and places rich
in resources. We gathered around such places evolving into larger groups evolving as kingdoms
& civilisations.
The natural human impulse to create art in whichever form was and is universal. Early human
drew on cave walls with charcoal. This impulse existed throughout the course of humanity but
since man didn’t has to travel and hunt, he could borrow more time in a day. Art has been a way
to communicate man’s belief and express ideas, it has been a form of documenting his
observations and record his imagination.
We didn’t have machines then, so all forms of art & craft were done by hand. The history of
handicrafts is almost 5000 years old. For a long time these traditions continued with small
changes in their way. But soon the whole world was to change in its way of working. With the
advent of Industrial Age around 1760 in Great Britain and later in other parts, hand tools were
replaced by power driven machinery which resulted in a sea of unemployed skill. The task that
used to be performed by 100 of men and women could be now done by a single machine
operated by a trained employ. The machine age followed the industrial age.
Started in britain the adverse effects of this industrial age danced naked in front of everyone’s
face. But it was not until 1860s that people started to counter it by reforming the way everything
was done. A movement was born out of this reaction. The movement that changed the way of
living & working. The movement that brought different individuals from various fields together.
Architects, designers, & artists started a wave of reformation. It led to the foundation of art &
craft movement.
ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT
CEPT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF DESIGN
MONSOON SEMESTER 2016
INSPIRED INSPIRE
SRABANTI DASGUPTA
It aimed at reforming the way things were made. It aimed to employ traditional skills and
therefore improve the lives of people who were related. It pioneered new approach to design
and decorative arts. The reform tried to employ itself in the homes of the society and soon
turned them into work of arts.
One of the most important figures of this movement were the theorist and critic John Ruskin and
the designer, writer and activist William Morris. Ruskin identified how their was a strong
relationship between art, society and labour. Morris placed these relationships into practice,
placing great value on work, the joy of craftsmanship and the natural beauty of materials. This
movement went widespread spreading its wings to other parts of the world such as Europe and
North America between 1880 and 1910, emerging in Japan in the 1920s.
This movement was like no other, its reforming spirit uplifting the value of quality materials and
design as well as life, created its ripples throughout its course.
In today’s time there is a new wave of a similar frequency. With the craze of making “modern”
buildings we are losing the Indian way of doing things. With such a diverse country which has
such strong identities of cultures, we are lost in a pool of dilemma unable to find an island.
We don’t understand what to identify ourselves with. What should be an Indian way of building?
Nobody knows! In the british times, there was an establishment of “The Jeypore Portfolio” which
documented motifs and some typical styles that thrived in Jaipur which became a reference for
building “Indian” buildings. But can a similar thing be done ? Documenting old buildings and
using the fragmented information as an encyclopaedia to consult? Can it be so simple?
Over the long stretch of history, different people conquered this land. They came with their
identities which they intended to impose on this land. But the workers they employed belonged
to this soil, unable to separate their cultures from their work, it resulted into mixed juices poured
into the same glass. Therefore there were new styles formed intermixing into one another. On
the way did we actually lose what was truly Indian?
Therefore when we say we are employing indian craftsmen in a certain project, are we actually
making indian buildings or are we simply incorporating some mixed identities?
ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT
CEPT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF DESIGN
MONSOON SEMESTER 2016
INSPIRED INSPIRE
SRABANTI DASGUPTA
" Recent trends in the interior architecture and design field indicate a growing concern to find the
perfect balance between the ideologies of the past and the needs of the future. The quest is to
combine past and future in a way that is relevant to the present. This leads to an interest in the
crafts as an area of ancient expertise and the challenge of adapting it to the contemporary.”
Rishav Jain, Identifying the Position of Crafts in Interior Architecture (Research paper)
“ We feel the world is moving towards authenticity. It’s not about packaging something; it’s about
expressing what is relevant today. And how can we give back, to the people what is theirs. So
you get a relevance to what they have... the new framing the old and the old framing the new."
Ambrish Arorathe , Designer (Boutique hotel, Raas, Jodhpur)
“ The crafts sector of India that is currently facing a loss of craftsmanship and identity needs to
redefine itself in the contemporary scenario for building applications. The aim of such a venture
needs to be a multilevelled approach and aim at the revival of the crafts, training of crafts
person’s along with a definitive purpose of creating a special market for the varied craft forms
across India.”
Conservation architect, Dr. Shikha Jain (Research paper)
On the other hand, why belonging to a mixed identity be any less Indian? It was still build in this
land, by its people. It stood here facing the glare of the people who lived here and passed by. It
was used by the people who lived here who added onto it and subtracted from it.
So the search persists !
Like the people involved in the revival of arts and crafts, designers have been trying to make
their own contributions in this reformation.
ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT
CEPT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF DESIGN
MONSOON SEMESTER 2016
INSPIRED INSPIRE
SRABANTI DASGUPTA
1. T
he Crafts Museum of New Delhi
It incorporates “Cafe Lota” designed by Studio Lotus which puts on display the rural craft forms,
such as mud mirror work murals adorning the walls of the museum cafeteria and shop by artists
from the Meghwal community of Kutch.
2. D osa
LAbased designer Christina Kim’s combines eco friendly and humanfriendly explorations of
craft techniques and fairlabour practices (compensating her workers twice the local rate). Her
project, Dosa, includes readytowear collection which is made from one of the finest artisan
textiles in India, Jamdani which is a vividly patterned, sheer cotton fabric, traditionally woven
directly on a hand loom using a discontinuous weft technique by craftspeople and apprentices in
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Not letting any of the labour process go to waste, precious scraps from the
cutting loom are recycled to make a new patchwork fabric, further employing the applique skills
of women artisans in Gujarat.
3. D hokra
Exquisitely patterned designs with a dullgold finish, this craft is a wax method of blasting metal,
largely practiced by nomadic tribes who have since settled into parts of West Bengal,
Jharkhand, Orissa and parts of southern India. Coming from a family of goldsmiths in Gujarat,
Tejas Soni works with artisans to reinterpret Dhokra in the modern context.
4. W rap
Delhibased designer Gunjan Gupta’s company Wrap takes the Mughal throne as its inspiration,
using techniques developed in Jaipur. The process involves wrapping a wooden frame with
waferthin sheets of precious metals, such as gold and silver. She produces her 'deconstructed'
furnituredining thrones and tables embellished gold and fine silver leaf a marriage between
tradition and contemporary design. Her work has sustained a community which was beginning
to turn away from its traditional skills.
ART & CRAFT MOVEMENT
CEPT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF DESIGN
MONSOON SEMESTER 2016
INSPIRED INSPIRE
SRABANTI DASGUPTA
5. D
esigners Guild
Tricia Guild, founder and creative director of the Londonbased home and lifestyle company
Designers Guild, works with handloom weavers in Kerala. Her collection of textiles is created by
recolouring a collection of Indian handblock printed textiles. The company employs silk
weavers, embroiderers and other textile disciplines all over India transforming traditional skills
into distinctive Designers Guild designs.
India being a distinctive and diverse country has been and will continue to be a land of
inspiration. It's the eye, mind and soul that has to take, transform and apply it to today's world. It
is important to employ the artisans who have been engaged in these crafts from generations to
preserve the authenticity and uniqueness of these enriched styles. Thus it is important to
provide a platform and base for these communities to strive and continue their age old traditions
and not lose their belief in it.
Therefore it's not important to identify the ultimate identity of India. It is important to try to identify
the sources of inspiration and feed them with water and nutrients and help them to grow and
become healthy trees forming forests which will slowly replenish dried rivers and fill in the
ecosystem with fresh air to breath from.