GUNJAN GUPTA

Timeless 090909

Timeless in the Indian context resonates on a multiplicity of levels. The birthplace of the concept of zero, India’s long creative and philosophical engagement with time dates from her ancient scripts to the modern-day world of outsourcing. There is no past and future tense in India, only the non-present and the present, a vivid expression of living in the moment that is being powerfully played out in the current phase of her development as a 21st century superpower.

And yet this timeless-ness has other layers of meaning, ones that we would like to explore through this project in the context of India’s master crafts or the low tech manufacturing that are important constituents of Indian heritage and culture. Master crafts are timeless in the sense that they are fine artisanal hand skills that manifest themselves through materials and in forms and patterns that are only incrementally changed over generations of practice; at their best they are as achingly beautiful to 21st century eyes as they would have been to the eyes which relished them centuries ago. They are timeless in that they currently suffer from frozen time, from the benign but misguided idea that they must be preserved, must be captured in time to be saved for future generations; yet as a living tradition they need to continue to move forward through time to survive. And the time in which we currently live, the speed of import / export, of globalised trade, is discordant with the mental state of bliss, of peaceful silence that is a fundamental part of this creative practice – and is a state of being in time, a moment that has been shared over centuries.

India has lived on less for some decades, centuries; the culture of low-tec craft and ingenuity, or “jugaad” that has emerged is one of finding simple solutions to complex problems. At the same time, the results often demonstrate an exquisite simplicity of function and aesthetics that is palpably inspiring to many in the world of design – a regular cast member in magazines, movies and photographs. In celebrating the beauty of these environments, products and people, the message of why and how they live, the powerful ingenuity of the choices they make because of necessity have often been overlooked.

As we face necessity now; we would like you to think how can we draw from these examples to influence the choices will we make in design? Does ‘less’ have to mean minimal, or can ‘less’ simply mean the most beautiful one of something? Is ‘less’ the recycled, remade?

Much has been said about the necessity to fight overconsumption, to save resources, energy, time. But how can we put these urgent insights into practice? How can we develop design products and strategies to achieve a positive ‘less’ and not feel impoverished by it? Can we redesign greed and make ‘less’ look sexy? How can less become an enlightening value rather than a restrictive fact?

This exhibition invites 10 Indian artists and designers to engage with the notion of “Timeless” in a way that enhances and brings value to the timeless nature of craft in the context of a rapid century. Let us look at the various ways that time plays a role in design and how design can address shifting notions of time and urgency with regards to these crafts. How can we reconcile the accelerating speed of life with the need for reflection? Can we be fast and slow at the same time? Can we develop a new notion of time based design? And how design deals with the social dimensions of time? All these questions about time are very relevant to an India that has stood the test of time.