Crafting a National Identity in an International Market: Design as Power

18 July 2024 -

Designers play a pivotal balancing role between the processes of cultural globalisation and the continuing influence of India’s craft history. DeNicola and Wilkinson-Weber comment on this:

Mediation between the traditional and the modern itself entails a division of manual versus mental labor, where designers are the thinkers in the equation, and craftspeople simply put a preconceived plan into operation, with little to no intellectual or cognitive input. (1)

Their fundamental knowledge of design and culture allows them control in their sphere. Through the processes of designing, making, and marketing, the work being done by design studios is embedded with cultural meaning and engages with issues of locality, sustainability, aesthetics, and identity.

Indian designers design objects that fill a gap between traditional crafts and global design. Gunjan Gupta says that everything she designs has an element of craft with internationally relevant themes. Her ideology is based on India’s cultural past and traditions. She looks back at objects that have lost their relevance over time, such as thrones and creates entirely new objects based on the old tradition. This was a very new outlook in India in the early part of the twenty-first century. She, in some sense, revived the art of throne wrapping. Thrones were wrapped with precious metals such as silver or gold sheets (Fig. 01). With the cessation of monarchy in India, this craft became obsolete. Her revival of this tradition was possibly an addition to the artisans’ existing skill sets. This would benefit them if other designers decided to use this technique in the future. However, the contradiction in this situation is that a sole designer cannot revive a tradition. This is for a multitude of reasons, a key one being that because limited-edition furniture is pitched to wealthy consumers, it is made in very small numbers, hence the output from the artisan/artisans is limited.

In these objects (Figs. 02 & 03), Gupta uses geometry to explore structure, material and culture for the creation of unusual and hybrid forms that are simultaneously austere and audacious. As discussed, the craft industry did not have the advantages of designer inputs to create ‘new’ objects. It took designers such as Gupta to infuse a modern outlook into the craft sector to not only revive it from depression, but also to advance it.

Studies revealed the extraordinary level of control that they possess, where they use craft traditions to convert simple Indian objects and materials into powerful design objects that sell in the upper segment of the market. Consequently, this attracts affluent buyers. This in turn elevates the designers to the higher end of the market, giving their work niche status.

Gupta speaks of her use of an Indian narrative. ‘I was working with high and low craft. While I was bringing high craft to design which is the lower model, I was [taking] jugaad to a higher form.’(2) Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi-Urdu word that can mean an innovative fix or a simple work-around, used for solutions that bend rules, a resource that can be used as such, or a person who can solve a complicated issue. She says, ‘I was subconsciously creating these vocabularies and that’s really what my work reflects. So, you will see as much of jugaad, which has been elevated to high design form, and you see as much of high craft, which is master craftsmanship.'(3) For Indians, jugaad (Figs. 04 & 05) is the lowest rung of the design and craft ladder, which Gupta admits to revamping with ‘design’.

The images in Figures 06 and 07 highlight a jugaad object called Kapda Bicycle Throne that was conceptualised by Gupta in the Urban Play project for the Amsterdam Biennale. The project played with the concept of the deconstruction and ornamentation of bicycles as seen in Indian culture. Old bicycles were recycled to create conceptual pieces of furniture inspired by indigenous bicycle vendors. She remodelled old bikes and sourced them from different places. This object is more a reflection of concept than functionality.

Examples such as this reveal the clout that designers have in a market that would normally dismiss jugaad as ‘rubbish’. Another object by Gupta, the Dumroo (discussed in blog 1 of this series), fits into this mould, using a ubiquitous Indian form and converting it into a limited-edition design object.

Limited-edition objects such as these are culturally tied to the subcontinent. The designers are elevated to positions of control as a consequence of their engagement between the local and the global. These objects are a cultural manifestation of the designers’ perceptions of India, which invests in them, symbolic power.

Research revealed that while it is a symbiotic alliance, there are varying levels of power on both sides, but the designers are dominant. This is primarily because they have the advantages of being educated and being from upper-middle-class or wealthy backgrounds. If there came a time when a certain craft or craftspeople were not available, they would be able to rethink their design and/or professional strategies. In a scenario where they were not able to develop a new design ideology, they could change professions entirely and take up other jobs because they are educated. They have options if needed. The need for the designer by the artisan is greater. For artisans to create in the limited-edition market, they need designers who can conceptualise and develop objects. They cannot be in the design industry without the designers.

Traditionally, the Indian hierarchical social structure places artisans in the lower ranks and that they are largely anonymous in the design system. Mostly, collaborations between designers and artisans subordinate the latter to the former. Ashoke Chatterjee says, ‘It is an unequal society and while there have been wonderful people and projects, others have exploited them and left them behind.’(4) Therefore designers have the advantage in a divided community such as India.

It is critical to point out that designers use their power to intervene and help craftspeople earn a livelihood, develop market access, and keep their skills alive. They help in the preservation of crafts in a commercially viable manner. This brings about social change contribute to the long-term sustainability of the craft sector itself. As Charles and Ray Eames said, India as a country needs design for social change, which could help artisans and the nation in the long term.(5) It is commendable that design, along with craft, is being utilised for the betterment of the country.

References

(1) Alicia Ory DeNicola and Clare M. Wilkinson-Weber, ‘Designs on Craft Negotiating Artisanal Knowledge and Identity in India’ in Ory DeNicola and Wilkinson-Weber, Critical Craft: Technology, pp.84-85

(2) Interview with Gunjan Gupta

(3) Ibid

(4) Shefalee Vasudev, ‘Who made this saree? The anonymous world of Indian designers, craftsmen.’ The Hindustan Times Newspaper, September 24, 2017. https://www.hindustantimes.com...

(5) Charles and Ray Eames India Report, http://nid.edu/Userfiles/Eames...