Compiled by Team IAnD
Photography: Courtesy Sarthak
Sahil Design Co
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The V&A, on the 10th of
November, unveiled a festive light installation in the Grand Entrance of the museum,
created by India’s Sarthak Sahil Design Co, as part of the V&A India
Festival…
“It is V&A’s annual practice
to invite an installation just before Christmas,” informs Sarthak Sengupta;
“And this time, since they were celebrating the India Festival, they invited us
to design this in time for Diwali.” The installation is a beacon of culture,
nuanced and subtle in representative iconography and constitutes a dual
celebration for Christmas and Diwali.
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An ensemble of free-standing
structures, depicting the very Indian motifs of banana and mango leaves, lotus
petals, the Tulsi or holy basil and
the ‘ambi’ or paisley, it is aptly christened Kalpataru, named after a
wish-fulfilling divine tree in Hindu mythology.
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Fashioned out of brass framework
by expert silversmiths from old Delhi and enhanced with a hand-beaten texture
popularly seen in traditional utensils used in Indian kitchens, each element is
fitted with a vibrant mural, hand-painted
by artists from the southern state of Kerala in their distinctive
mural-painting style. The central motif of the installation is the tallest
reaching a height of three-and-a-half metres and the entire ensemble is
illuminated from below to reveal the intricate patterns of symbolic fruits and
leaves.
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Concepts
of nature and culture are serenaded to celebrate illumination not merely in its
literal sense but also as a metaphor for the celebration of hope, prosperity
and ecology.
Kalpataru: The Wishing Tree at
the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Dates: 10 November 2015 – 6 January 2016
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