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54 CRAFT INSIGHT NARRATIVE CERAMICS The contemporary art of ceramics fused with the traditional art of ‘Gond’, created some out- of-the-box products. Narrative Ceramics: DICRC-IIID Ahmedabad Fellowship 2014 thus, infused some life into otherwise a monotonous craft practice. TEXT: Srushti Shah & DICRC | PHOTOS COURTESY: DICRC Combining international and ethnic art to create completely new products! That was the goal of the event – Narrative Ceramics: DICRC – IIID Ahmedabad Fellowship 2014. A collaborative between four major design organisations, this venture gave a new meaning to the traditional art of Gond, congenital to Madhya Pradesh. Four designers, one international and 1. The Fellowship programme was aimed to give a fresh meaning the conventional art of Gond three national, honed their skills during a period of two months – from March 1 to April 30, 2014, and created innovative products from ceramics and Gond. The fellowship programme aims at exploring the ethnic arts and materials, and giving a new life to them. Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC), CEPT University, an institution that functions as a 1

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Page 1: The contemporary art of ceramics fused with the ... · PDF fileThe contemporary art of ceramics fused with the traditional art ... of-the-box products. Narrative Ceramics: DICRC-IIID

54 CRAFT INSIGHT NARRATIVE CERAMICS

The contemporary art of ceramics fused with the traditional art of ‘Gond’, created some out-of-the-box products. Narrative Ceramics: DICRC-IIID Ahmedabad Fellowship 2014 thus,

infused some life into otherwise a monotonous craft practice.

TexT: Srushti Shah & DICRC | PhoToS CouRTeSy: DICRC

Combining international and ethnic art to create completely new products! That was the goal of the event – Narrative Ceramics: DICRC – IIID Ahmedabad Fellowship 2014. A collaborative between four major design organisations, this venture gave a new meaning to the traditional art of Gond, congenital to Madhya Pradesh.

Four designers, one international and

1. The Fellowship programme was aimed to give a fresh meaning the conventional art of Gond

three national, honed their skills during a period of two months – from March 1 to April 30, 2014, and created innovative products from ceramics and Gond. The fellowship programme aims at exploring the ethnic arts and materials, and giving a new life to them.

Design Innovation and Craft Resource Centre (DICRC), CePT university, an institution that functions as a

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2-4. Innovative products made of the amalgamation of ceramics and Gond were created by the one international and three national artists in this fellowship programme

research centre for the development and understanding of Indian Crafts (SMC – Space Making Crafts and Surface Narrative Crafts) related to Traditional and Vernacular Buildings of India, was the main organiser of the event. This event gave a boost to one of the organisation’s core objectives of integrating the traditional knowledge and craft practices in current Interior-Architecture sector as well as design education.

IIID Ahmedabad Chapter was the supporter and the promoter of the event. The perspective of the chapter has been the word ‘Relevance’, with pertinent questions like – have we been relevant all these years? Are we relevant today? And how do we continue to be relevant in years to come? Continuing this paradigm focus of relevance, IIID Ahmedabad Chapter took the initiative to collaborate with DICRC, by providing financial assistance to the Fellowship Program. IIID Ahmedabad Chapter, through this collaboration meant to breathe life into traditional crafts of our country by promoting co-creations and giving new perspective to the field of design and craft while providing an ideal platform for such applied research and experimentation.

CraftCanvas is a link between artisan communities and the urban customer, translating ages old craft into something contemporary. They believe that there is a place for India’s traditional crafts even in the most modern of spaces. And this

belief led them into collaborating for this one of a kind Fellowship event.

The fourth collaborator, Clay Club, set up by alumni from CePT university, provided the material and technical support for the event. The organisation aims to provide access to leading scientific research, skilled and creative product development, with focus on the quality and innovation in the field of ceramics; and their objective is to be able to benefit the society through their work.

David Gray, an international ceramist from Scotland was invited to be the fellow of the programme. With over six years of experience in making murals and sculptures, Gray has specialised in ceramic tiles and mould making. David’s interest in collaborating with traditional crafts in India made him the perfect choice to become a Fellow for this event.

David’s international exposure along with the mastery of the Gond artists,

The event was aimed to infuse life in an otherwise mono- tonous narrative

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5-6. An interactive session was held at the ClayClub for the associates and students of IIID, who learnt a lot about the craft of Gond

7. (From L to R): Prof. Ajay Pandey (IIM-A), David Gray, Heena Kokel (Clay Club), Bimal Mistry, Jay Thakkar and Nisha Vikram at the inauguration of the exhibition

Kaushal Prasad Tekam, Sambhav Shyam and Kalabai Shyam, gave the programme an interesting edge. Coming from Madhya Pradesh, these three artists have been have been practicing their traditional craft since childhood and have participated in various State and National level exhibitions. But, owing to a lack of innovation in traditional craft practices, the artisans have seen a steady decline in demand for their paintings. The fellowship program was an attempt to infuse some innovation in an otherwise monotonous narrative.

In this first Innovation Fellowship

programme, innovation happened at the merger of two distinctive craft practices – one being Contemporary Ceramics Practice from Scotland and other being Traditional Gond Art from Madhya Pradesh. The intention of this fellowship was to combine these two crafts to create a unique range of products that can be applicable in the Interior Architecture Sector. highly experimental in nature, the project clubbed together the designer’s expertise in ceramic with the artisan’s indigenous knowledge of Gond tradition. The explorations thus created, aspire to set new directions for not only the craft sector but also try to establish new applications and pedagogy in the design discipline.

First Friday Session with IIID

An interactive session was held at ClayClub and attended by IIID members, associates and students. The first Friday session is an IIID initiative that was organised by DICRC and the other collaborating partners of Narrative Ceramics. A display of the entire work in progress was arranged at ClayClub and the people attending were free to

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For further details, contact – [email protected] www.dicrc.in

8. An exhibition of the products was organised at the IIM-A new campus

9. The exhibition also featured the Gond Ceramic Mural, made to be permanently installed at CIIE

interact with the craft design team. An introduction to Gond Craft was given by Nisha Vikram of Craft Canvas, followed by an introduction to ceramics and the production process by Maulik oza of Clay Club. Jay Thakkar, head of research at DICRC, gave an overview of the fellowship to the audience. Kaushal Tekam, one of the Gond craftspeople on the team shared his experiences, learning’s and challenges of working with a completely new material.

Exhibition

The Narrative Ceramic exhibition was held at CIIe, IIM-A new campus, on May 16, 2014. The exhibition was open to general public for three days. on display were all the products created during the

innovation fellowship program, as well as the Gond Ceramic Mural – made to be permanently installed at the venue itself. Apart from viewing the exhibits, the visitors also got to interact with the members of design team who shared their insights about bringing together two different mediums of craft and working therein.•

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