Design Feature:Nurturing walls

I am a sucker for mud walls.Ask me if i want to live with glass walls or mud walls i would take mud in a heartbeat!
We here @ TGE come across artisans creating fascinating products day after day. So when i came across this book i had to share it with you.

For generations, the women of the Meena tribe in India's Rajasthan state have been decorating the walls and floors of their homes with a stunning form of public art both graphic and decorative known as Mandana painting, using a white paste made of rice and milk to paint intricate motifs on these mud-brown mud surfaces. This remarkable craft is passed down from mother to daughter, and the drawings themselves often depict maternal motifs of birds and animals with their young.

 The book itself is a piece of art, printed on thick brown craft-paper that mirrors the mud walls of Meena homes and silk-screened by hand in Tara Books' fair-trade workshop in Chennai. Each image in every book is thus an original print, and the pages themselves emit the rich earthy smell of artisan craft.

 There is something very moving about the way these humble women are driven to be creative, in a lived, everyday sense. It gives us much to reflect on what we take for granted as the provenance of art: for one, their painting is not the unique creation of any single individual but a tradition grown in a community. The work is not produced for a market, but for themselves, as well as the community at large. And viewed in the context of their lives, art doesn't seem to be a luxury that has to be bought by opportunities and free time. --Gita Wolf 

Between the breathtaking silkscreens you'll find vibrant full-color photographs that offer a glimpse of the lives of these extraordinary Meena artists and contextualize the Mandana artwork in its place in the local community, revealing a kind of authenticity foreign to our culture of conjoined art and commerce. Nurturing Walls sets ajar the door to a fascinating world where beauty, community, and tradition live in their purest, most inspired form.


PHOTO CREDIT: NURTURING WALLS

December Design Studio

I am delighted to present to ya'll today, the duo of Abhilasha and Siddharth at the December Design Studio. They design products which are very vibrant and fresh; 100% India inspired! 
Let me begin from the start. What happened was, i came across their blog on which, a few days back the first and last post was dated back in July of 2010, almost eight months ago – now this instigated me to write to them right away. Their work is so darn good, i was hoping to be ensured that they are still around doing great work but just too busy to devote any time to blogging. This to my relief was actually it :)

Abhilasha and Siddharth are friends back from the same batch at NID who decided to work together merely out of their love for movies, says Abhilasha jokingly :) Their company is engaged in a wide variety of creative works, besides their beautiful paper products. Graphics, ambience design, brand development/identity, films, product design are just to name a few. It's hard to believe they don't run out of oxygen, especially when it’s just the two of them running the entire show. The truth - this very variety is what keeps them fully charged and in love with every project they undertake. The best part is, until now, they haven't made much efforts, rather, have never found the need to commercialize their products or company. Luckily the word of mouth they say has been quite sufficient to keep them busy and bring them the variety and kind of work they always want - which speaks bounds in itself.

They sound fun, arty, humble and very approachable. Here’s sharing with you some of their work and a casual rendezvous that was a result of my curiosity :)

a brief bio : Academics? Where are you based out of?  How all of it came about? 

Both Siddharth and I are NID post-graduates. I've done Textile Design and Siddharth's a Graphic Designer (with an architecture background). We are based out of Delhi.
Well, how it came to be... out of boredom I think essentially! :) We are both major movie buffs and decided that we weren't getting to watch as many as we would like so we had to do something! Seriously, we were both in jobs that were becoming more and more administrative so we decided that if we wanted to stay on the creative side of things, we needed to start something ourselves. The two of us enjoy playing with different materials and techniques so being in a 9 to 5 job just wasn't doing it for us. And of course being on our own gives the freedom to select what projects we want to do and explore new areas of interest. We love to mix media and work on projects that sometimes have nothing to do with our professional training like he would become involved in textile art or I would start working as a translator on a regional language documentary or the two of us making history exercise books for class 8th social studies!  

How big or small is your setup? Is there a team that works with you or you two run the entire show? 

As of now we are keeping our setup very small, a home-based business. It is more flexible and suits our purpose for now :) but there are plans to get more formal soon.

Although we do outsource a lot of actual production works to local artisans and vendors. We have a network of vendors that we have developed over the past couple of years and they understand the kind of work we do and are enthusiastic and willing to experiment. 

What kind of projects/work are you engaged in currently and overall?

We do all kinds of design projects: interiors, book design, illustrations for children's books, calendar design, corporate identities, websites, event identities, photo shoot styling and a lot of event decor. Apart from this of course we have our product line of stationery and home textiles. Right now? ... Working on a rural tourism website, decor for a few events, a comic-book/graphic story, and in the pipeline: production design for a short film, developing prints for a kid's wear line, working on some textile art and of course developing more products for our own product line. 

[Phew! See what I meant when i said can't imagine how they manage - just the two of em and all of this work? Aren't they super efficient?]

Could you share a little more about scenography and graphics that you mentioned in the email.

Since Siddharth is an architect and has a background in event decor, we do a lot of decor for events and also trade fairs. What we specialize in is ambience design. Siddharth and I are in a unique position to provide design solutions that are more wholistic, since he is an architect/graphic designer and I am a textile designer. Between us we can envision spaces that make the best use of structure, fabric, light and decor. We not only design the space but also develop tailor-made accessories for certain events especially with materials that local artisans don't normally use in events, like paper.
As far as graphics goes, we do corporate identities, websites and print media. We've also worked on wall murals and illustrations for books.

Where can your products be bought from?

We are currently not stocking anywhere, we attend exhibtions (like local christmas markets, diwali sales etc) and sell directly. But we are putting "meeting with local stores about stocking our products" on our to-do list soon. 

Have you integrated eco-friendliness in any way as yet? And maybe considered involving rural groups for production purposes to in turn help them grow financially?

While the two of us wanted to make our products completely eco-friendly it has been very difficult to integrate it into our products in the first round of production (mainly because of the cost of raw materials).
We did manage to use recycled paper in the notebooks. Similarly we tried to contact several local NGOs that work on paper products to become involved in the production but the sheer apathy and lack of energy makes it difficult to plan production with them especially if one has a lot on the plate already. But we are very hopeful that over the next few years we can go completely green. It just needs a lot more time, patience and a little more money! :)

And how is India ever complete without it's famous Rickshaws - ah! i so miss them! 

A chauffeur driven ride that's not expensive and available right outside your doorstep. 

I must say, US has quite not progressed when it comes to public transport since probably the 1800's :( 

It's sad!

Just like India's beautiful multicolored culture, we find their work vibrant, fun and wonderfully detailed. Don't ya'll agree?

We wish December Design Studio all the best for all future endeavors and hope to see much more in years to come!

Kennedy Center Exhibit : Maximum India

For all you guys based in and around DC - The Kennedy Center presents an unprecedented celebration of Indian arts and culture March 1-20 featuring music, dance, theater, film, literature, exhibitions, cuisine, and more. Here's just a glimpse of one of the exhibits.
Exhibition : To Stir the Still Air – Pankha from the Collection of Jatin Das
Eminent contemporary artist Jatin Das has spent much of his time over the past several decades travelling and collecting traditional hand fans from all over the Indian subcontinent. He brings approximately 40 fans from his remarkable collection.

There are traditional antique hand fans, fixed and revolving, made of palm leaves, cane, silver, feathers, silk, satin, leather, beads and bark. You'll find colonial hand-pulled ceiling fans, and replicas of those that caught Das's attention in palaces and churches the world over. Ritual temple fans of silver and brass, khus fans from Rajasthan and Kerala, the ancient phad collection from Kerala, khajur fans dressed in silk, satin and zardozi, wedding fans from Hyderabad and Pakistan, the tribal fan dhakua and the intricately woven majuli bisoni from Assam, beadwork fans from Gujarat all stand cheek and jowl with fans from the UK, Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China, Japan, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia. 'Cardboard-on-stick' fans painted on both sides by eminent contemporary artists take a bow. And there's a nod to innovation with ikat fans from Orissa, split bamboo on wrapping paper, and crochet, appliqué and embroidered fans. He has over 5000 fans collected over 20 years.

Let us know if you collect something, we would love to see the collection! 

Small note for Kitsch Lovers

If you recall,  we had featured Indian Kitsch by Aarohi Singh some time back. 
Aarohi is having an exhibition of her art at
Page Turners Bookstore, 89 Kannan Building, 
MG Road, Bangalore.

from the 25th November to 28th November 2010.
So, if you are in Bangalore during those days, do visit the 'Art by Aarohi' exhibit.

Meanwhile, here is a small glimpse of the exhibit. Enjoy!

Settle down, drink, eat. Lather, rinse, repeat - Mondys @ Mumbai

Cafe Mondegar, also popularly know as 'Mondys' to regulars, is one of the coolest hang outs in Mumbai! On our recent trip back to India, that's where we'd go to cool off from the harsh Mumbai heat! It's warm ambiance - the cool wall cartoons, the popular juke box (that has endless replays of the Eagles song 'Hotel California') and a pitcher of chilled Indian beer... mmmm heaven! 

Mondegar stands at the lip of Colaba Causeway  (a heaven for street side shoppers!) offering blessed refuge to anyone too lazy to bother wading down the entire stretch and being crawled upon by hagglers to sell you cheap stuff. Mondys is more of an all-day cafe than bar; in fact, its alcohol selection is restricted to a selection of beers and now wine. So get a cold one (or a pitcherful of cold ones if you’re in it for the long haul) and soak in the downtown Mumbai buzz. You'l have to squeeze yourself into one of the sardine-like tables and revel in the cafe’s relatively untouched and unchanged interiors, especially the giant mural (loosely about a day in the life of a bustling cafe in Mumbai) by legendary Indian illustrator Mario Miranda. 

Historee

The Yezdegardis, an Irani family, bought the home of a French sailor named called Monsieur Monde in 1925. Inspired by its Hindi reference ‘Monde Sahib ka Gar’ (Mr. Monde’s house) the Yezdegardis soon converted it to a café called ‘Monde-Gar’. It started off as a typical teahouse that also sold tobacco, foreign liquor, wine, breads and specialties from Iran like saffron, almonds, and pistachios. In time the Yezdegardis have developed an assorted menu influenced by Irani flavors. And today, you can choose from a variety of food, everything from kebabs to burgers, bruschetta, chow-mein, grills, and sizzlers. But through the ages, the house favorite has always been the Pepper Steak or Steak Boti. My personal favorite... the caramel custard, yummm!

Enjoy some of the snap shots i took this last visit to India. Am sure you'l notice the humor in each of the illustrations! Visit my flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/amishadesai/5182115683/ for more pics of Mondys. 

The Bar 

"Apple of my eye, Ms. Big Boobs!"

The Taj Mahal

Mondys is among the last of its breed -- the perfect hybrid of Mumbai’s fast-dying Irani restaurants (chequered table-cloths? Check. Netted chairs? Check) and beer bars. Because it’s been there forever. But most of all, because it’s the sort of place you can buy a beer at noon in without feeling guilty. And god knows every city needs more of those.