A form for function

To furniture and product designer Ayush Kasliwal, “design” constitutes an effort to organise the world and bestow meaning as well as purpose upon spaces. Working with beaten brass, stone carving, traditional prints, embroidery and mirror work among other local craft techniques, the designer’s work strikes a fine balance between aesthetics and functionality. “Aesthetics and functionality are, to a great extent, outcomes of the process of organisation itself. For example, a dining chair is required to work in a very particular way as far as functions go, and my job as a designer is to organise the product to meet the various criteria — the human body, the duration that one would be sitting in it and so on,” he shares.

Having had a somewhat nomadic upbringing across continents, Ayush feels that the roots of his creativity lie, to a great extent, in the circumstances of his earliest growing years. “I grew up in a small village in northern Ghana — Bolgatanga. The only toys we had back then were twigs, sand, clay, water and old cassette cases. I had to practically invent my toys and games. I didn’t have many friends either, since I wasn’t familiar with the local language and was a ‘brownie’. I think my capacity to imagine stems from the intense creativity one has to exercise to entertain oneself with limited means. In addition, I absorbed a deep respect for natural materials and crafts in those years. One very vivid memory is that of the watchman coming to our home in the night with a bunch of reeds, and going back in the morning with a beautifully made basket, sometimes even continuing the making of the same basket over a period of several days,” he reminisces.

While he feels that Africa has influenced his creative sensibilities subliminally, a more immediate influence on his work comes from the city that is his home, Jaipur. He affirms, “Jaipur has a great deal of influence on my work — not only in terms of the crafts, styles and techniques, but also in terms of a very deep respect for our culture. There is an incredible sense of refinement to the city, along with the understanding that crafts people are not just clever hands but also repositories of a fast-vanishing Indian aesthetic. Jaipur is an incredible example of how all-pervading the Indian aesthetic is and how, while being firmly rooted in its origins, it is also very international and modern at the same time.”

His most recent public design project, the Art Wall at Terminal 1D, Indira Gandhi International airport, New Delhi, reflects what can perhaps be seen as an extension of his love and respect for local Indian crafts, patterns and textiles. Initially conceived as a surface to hide a mess of cables, switches and other paraphernalia, the wall draws upon North, East, South, West and Central Indian textile art forms to represent a pan-Indian aesthetic compendium that also ensures that each region’s uniqueness is distinctly perceived.

“Looking at the incredible opportunity to educate travellers about the incredible heritage of Indian textiles — since almost 10 million people annually collect their luggage from the conveyor belts located there — we created a collage of the various textiles of the country, taking care that we represented as much as possible of the various parts of India. This also incorporated the mundane functional aspects — of servicing, air conditioning vents and so on — and also the culturally sensitive aspects. Some amount of research into each of the regions and the distinguishing features of each of the crafts was fundamental to the project too,” he concludes.