When keepsakes are truly forever…
■ When my sister artist Manisha Gawade started talking about doing a series of works where human memory took centrestage, it was something that found an echo in my heart too. She wanted to start from scratch where she designed the piece of furniture and then painted on it — meaning it breathed with one person’s breath.
What is memory? To my mind it is something we are in a continuous process of creating, sifting, editing, discarding every moment. After all, the human mind is a wonderful thing – we allow time to add a rosy tint, or forget or remember vividly experiences that eventually become an indelible part of our memories. It is memory that sets us apart from other species. My father got Alzheimers in his later years and my mother had an elephantine memory till the very end so I have great value for memory and its role in making the person who he or she is.
So when my sister artist Manisha Gawade started talking about doing a series of works where human memory took centrestage, it was something that found an echo in my heart too. However, the surface that she wanted to do was not only canvas, but art- furniture — which was many steps ahead of art on furniture. She wanted to start from scratch where she designed the piece of furniture and then painted on it — meaning it breathed with one person’s breath.
It was the long way home — a journey that took nearly three years of constant research, trial, errors, changes of technique, upgradation of skills, unlearning some to learn new ones for her. Since we live in the same house I was part of every process, supporting some ideas, shooting down others, arguing about some, and finally agreeing on some and being proved wrong on a few, proved right on most – ( me being elder sister after all!) But extremely happy to report that it has finally come together so beautifully that I have to say that it is nothing like anyone has ever seen before.
The exhibition Keepsakes is a path breaking, first of its kind exhibition of art- furniture and paintings that complement it — both as an intrinsic part of each other and the living spaces they are placed in. These artfurniture pieces are designed to energize living spaces — to own and pass on to the next generation, therefore becoming a keepsake forever as an art connoisseur’s delight and an interiors aficionado’s fascination.
If art is a reflection of the times we live in, this art furniture epitomizes it in a way that it becomes a repository of contemporary art and keeps the timelessness of fabulous design intact. The strength of the works is also the high quality of materials used including wood, fittings, polish, and of course art material.
“My journey to this exhibition started 14 years ago when I started learning to work on wood in Dubai with an artist from South East Asia. The area that furniture populates our living spaces is so large yet it is completely untouched by art. Why should art be restricted to only the walls? I started drawing various unconventional designs that one could make as tables, chairs, bars, wall units, cupboards which would incorporate some of my paintings,’’ says Manisha. She has attempted to delve into memories to elicit visual imagery that have the ability to remain universal.
This show has taken Manisha and a team of 50 people handling different aspects of the work three years to put together. The production team lead by Anju Chaudhary, a furniture professional and founder- director Wild Ochre, has ensured that the artist’s designs were translated into reality. Anju says, ‘’ the journey was a challenging one as so many methodologies had to be tried and experimented with to get the desired results. The practicality and the usability factors of the end user were of prime importance. We tested it ourselves to check for accidental spills and whether the piece be able to take it. The weight, look, aesthetics and durability were very high on the list. Finishes in furniture along with painting were not easy to do. Both the colours and top coats run between 14- 16 layers which include several protective and water proof layers as well.”
Manisha has also used some works from her series Mindscapes of Mindspaces for the art- furniture. A large number of works from this series are part of the palace collection of Sheikh Sultan of Oman. The Indelible Tracks of Time is another series used in these pieces where the artist depicts the impressions left by people in the mind like trails of tyre marks left by trucks.
The highpoint of the show is an eight- foot high wooden clothes peg, Keepsakes that is a sculpturesque installation.
The design metaphor of the wooden peg is echoed on each caption which has an actual one- inch wood peg on each. The underlying thought is when the heart harks to wonderful nostalgic reminiscences, it is all about keeping memories alive forever.
One piece that I am fascinated by is called Doting Delhi. The seat of many dynasties, Delhi has seen many a changing skyline and created spaces where a plethora of cultures and times co- exist. Saluting the warmth that is Delhi is a loveseat that signifies love as much as it is symbolic of the throne of power as eternal as the city itself. Recreated from the painting A Tale of Two Cities I.
Some of the other remarkable pieces in the show are Living Next Door to Alice, an ode to the once ubiquitous cassette tape that revolutionized how music was experienced, giving our generation the freedom of choice. The piece is inspired from the painting series Threads of Life. There is an ornate mirror inspired from fairytale moments named Mirror, Mirror On The Wall. Jeweled with gold and silver leaf, the artist’s favourite medium, it also has an affinity with the Far Eastern work on wood with lacquer. This is juxtaposed with a console Lord of the Rings and replete with the magic and the power of the golden rings inspired by Manisha’s painting – The Indelible Tracks of Time.
The Post It table – the smallest piece of the show in pop colours is embellished with various symbolic wood cuts and line drawings. It looks as if it has multiple memories stuck on it with little post- its of various travels. It has four levels of the same size kept one on top of the other like a pack of playing cards.
The most challenging piece to create was a chest of drawers Pretty Scarlet in the shape of a women’s cocktail dress that we jocularly refer to as Sheela ki jawani! The wood needed to be coaxed into submission, then the painting entailed a lot of moving it at the correct angles to create the long and difficult to do the drips lines. The chest has multi usage from make- up, jewelry or lingerie cabinet if in a feminine space. In a male “den” it can be a sensual piece that stores cards, rummy chips, and other sundry game or other objects.
The work Rain Makers is inspired by the African instrument rain stick invented by the Mapuches, these rain- sticks are believed to shower blessings by their sheer presence. Another console Your Highness is in delightful hues of royal blue, red and gold as it holds glorious moments of lives well spent and many more wonderful moments that await. The four- door bar Summer of 69 is inspired by the classic Brian Adam song is timeless in its appeal as is this bar that says cheers to good times, anytime!
Manisha’s has lived for 14 years in Dubai and absorbed the cosmopolitan favours of West Asian cultures. She has been trained in various forms of paintings in several parts of the world. Having held several solo exhibitions, she has been a part of nearly 125 group exhibitions and collections in various parts of the world including Dubai, Hungary, Amsterdam, Bahrain, Argentina, France, UK, U. S, UAE, Qatar and Oman. In a way Keepsake brings them all together in interesting layers…