Rashmi Varma, Curator
Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, 2018
Matters of Hand investigates the handmade as a sophisticated, living interface between utility and material intelligence. This survey positions India’s contemporary landscape through objects ranging from recent innovations to ubiquitous tools, including kitchen utensils, furniture, and lighting, each made by a diverse group of practitioners and communities. These works represent a high-functioning knowledge system where artistry, labor, and skill converge. Within this framework, the mind and body are inseparable, expressing a deliberate thought process that transforms raw matter into functional form.
The exhibition highlights a profound honesty driven by the intersection of material and technique. This is evidenced through diverse technical negotiations such as the sculptural manipulation of katlamara bamboo, the hand-carved translucency of makrana marble, or the systematic reuse of recycled plastics and yarn waste. Parallel to these formal systems is the presence of jugaad, a spontaneous design born of necessity. Whether utilizing materials with a deep history in the landscape or repurposing industrial by-products, these diverse acts of making converge in innovative contemporary forms. Collectively, they assert a design language rooted in a shared culture of ingenuity and resource-fullness.
Two formal modes of production further distinguish these works. One involves a collaborative system of knowledge transfer where designers and practitioners engage in a porous exchange of skill, acting as a collective creative force. Another centres on the Artisan-Designer, a practitioner embodying generations of inherited artistic and technical mastery to conceptualize and execute work as a singular arc of vision. Each manifestation asserts a distinct presence against a global backdrop of homogenization. Design is presented here as a living practice that occupies both the modern and the traditional simultaneously.
With: Mukesh P. Prajapti & Salehmamad D. Khatri
With: Ahmed Ali, Jeena Yakub & Julekha Karim
With: Bhoop Singh, Gyan Chiluvery, Shankar Singh
With: Rajendra Gohil
With: Pankaj Saroj, Ranjeeta Dhal
With: Abdul Kuddus, Tinku Ali, Raju Ansari, Sekh Akbar Ali, Asgar Ali, Nasreen Siddiqee, Rukhsar Khan
With: Malti Devi, Munni, Godavari, Kamla ,Maya, Shobha, Rekha, Prema