The Spring Festival
The spring festival was conceptualized to bring crafts to the Palladium and Phoenix malls in Vellachery, Chennai. Crafts such as Palmyra or fresh flower garland making often are viewed as décor. Jackfruit’s curation worked to create a space for these meticulous crafts in contemporary consumer spaces. When visitors walk in to the mall, they experience these crafts in a large scale through suspended installations. They see something fresh in the mall but also see the familiar anew because of the new context for flower craft.
We invited wedding decor expert Malini Narasimhan and her team, especially garland maker Chandran and Olai or Palmyra weaver Krishnaswamy to be inspired by the artist Rebecca Law’s works to create these installations with us. The cascading shola pith flowers were sourced from Kolkata for a central atrium, intentionally retaining the natural off white colour to calm the visual excess inside the mall. The curation also included an installation using kites by Sachin George Sebastian and Sanjhi Paper works by Ram Singh Soni and Kirti Khatri.
Celestial France
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Domus India Cover Design
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Domus India Cover Design
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Barefoot School of Craft
Serendipity Barefoot School of Craft is a two-year project which, for this edition of the festival, consists of an architectural competition. The display of all complete submissions and a selection of 15 submissions for development into architectural models will be showcased at SAF 2017.
The Serendipity Barefoot School of Craft seeks to raise awareness about the importance of our continued and collective engagement with local environments, skills, materials and crafts pedagogy.
Mutable | Ceramics and Clay Art in India since 1947
Mutable is an exhibition of ceramics and clay art in India from 1947 to the present. The exhibition will showcase the diverse range of materials, techniques and objects through the five sections of the exhibition. The exhibition maps the heterogeneous use of unfired, low and high temperature fired terracotta and ceramic clay by hereditary and studio-trained potters. It also will exhibit works by artists who use clay as one medium among several in their repertoire as well as trace the work of institutions and organizations which have worked with potters across the country. Mutable accommodates objects such as tableware, installations, sculptures, instruments, idols, dolls, and experiments, which are made in ceramic and clay. Conceptually, the exhibition will seek to untangle through these objects, what historical meanings are imbued in words such as “artisan”, “craftsman”, “contemporary ceramics/ceramicists” and “craft” all of which have multiple meanings and frame the objects and their makers in specific ways. Sometimes, they are used interchangeably and at other times, they represent hierarchical conceptualisations of creativity and acts of making.
Disappearing Dialogues
ART ICHOL presents “Disappearing Dialogues” a unique multi-media, interactive exhibition, Curated by Nobina Gupta. The project has been supported by MP Tourism and Arts Ananda Trust. Featuring a diverse range of paintings, videos, wood and iron products, textiles and garments to films, book art, photography, furnishings – all created as a collaboration between local communities of Madhya Pradesh and 14 Indian and international artists – the event hopes to bring the focus back on the lost traditions and cultural practices of the area. The project was undertaken at areas of Ichol, Maihar and its periphery, Satna, Rewa, Panna, Madhai, Umaria, Ucchera, Janwaar, Bharhut, Sukhana, Khajuraho and Govindgarh. Working closely with the curator Nobina Gupta and Art Ichol, the design of the publication strives to balance the seriousness of purpose and the appeal to a thinking, engaged readership and between content and design.
Vernacular InFlux
It’s pretty rare to see Gond and Madhubani paintings rub noses with the Subodh Guptas and Manjit Bawas. It’s even stranger when the setting is the India Art Fair, where commerce takes precedence over culture. Tribal, folk, naive or native art — all labels that art historians now vehemently oppose — is usually to be found in craft museums, trade fairs or Dilli Haat. Most contemporary art shows give it a wide berth. At best, you get the odd work hung in the name of “inclusion”.
But with the India Art Fair, once considered a scrappy upstart, becoming more confident of its place on the global art map, it’s decided to not only represent work from across South Asia but also widen the definition of contemporary Indian art to include vernacular art.
At the ‘Vernacular in Flux’ section curated by art historian Annapurna Garimella hang some of the best names in Gond, Mithila and Guruvayoor art. “I feel the term vernacular is more apt as it signifies a traditional art language without the limitations that terms like folk, tribal or native have,” says Garimella, who has borrowed works of artists like Gond’s Bhajju Shyam and Mithila’s Baua Devi from noted private collections. And proving that craft and contemporary are not two different worlds is Gond artist Durga bai Vyam. If one of her accordion books titled Purani Shaadi shows a big, fat and long wedding, Nayi Shadi is short and sweet. Boy sees girl, they romance over a mobile, have a no-fuss shaadi and ride off into the sunset on a scooter. “Though the artists have a committed engagement to traditional knowledge, they are very much influenced by the world around them,” points out Garimella.
Branding Bengal Ganga
A Luxury Cruise Ship on the Ganges wanted Branding & other services from us.
Our challenge was to incorporate everything around it into the Brand. From the culture of the people living on both sides of the Ganges for ages to the Gangetic bio-diversity.
From the Typefaces, The Logo to the Colour Schemes, Textiles – we have crafted everything very carefully for the brand. We started working for the Brand Development, then we designed almost every printed or digital visuals for the brand & our understanding of the Brand also grew up.
The Bagh
Brand Development for a garden retreat in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
The Bagh is a heritage hotel set in 12 acres two hundred-year-old garden in Bharatpur Rajasthan, it is located just four hours away from major destinations such as Delhi, Jaipur and Gwalior. The Bagh offers visitors an opportunity to experience quiet luxury near Keoladeo Ghana National Park, one of the most famous bird sanctuaries in the world. The hotel’s twenty-three rooms are located in three different residential complexes. A restaurant, banquet hall, coffee shop, library and a gym, all situated in a verdant orchard, allow guests to enjoy solitude and companionship in restful indoor and outdoor spaces.
Jackfruit was the design consultant for the renovation of a 200-year old, ten-acre char bagh or Islamic style garden, located near the Keoladeo Ghana National Park, a World Heritage site). The project involved working with an architect to restore existing buildings and the creation of a new boutique resort with twenty-four rooms oriented around the avian life that annually migrates to the region.
Jackfruit supervised the development of a graphic identity, design of furniture, making of the interiors, supervision of textile production, dinnerware, and research and planning of a menu based on local cuisine. Jackfruit also curated a collection of contemporary women artists, black and white film stills of heroines and popular art for display throughout the hotel.