Ashiesh Shah’s watercolours and Jaipur Rugs weave cosmic magic

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Jaipur Rugs is collaborating with Ashiesh Shah to create Brahmaand (Universe), a collection of hand-knotted rugs influenced by the Indian designer’s original watercolour paintings. Shah’s paintings engage with humankind’s ceaseless search for cosmic relevance and age-old questions of nature’s greater designs. The collection fuses celestial elements with the enduring craft of rug weaving.

Capturing the mysteries of starlit night skies through its striking gradients and textures, the deep indigo hued rugs of Brahmaand recall ancient Indian science and mysticism. The vast cosmos is illustrated using the intricate gultarashi technique — a finishing process in which artisans mould the design by carving and embossing them using scissors — creating peaks and troughs that allude to passing time and space.

Detailed zardosi embroidery is used to craft motifs and constellations, and paint discourses of chaos and calm, being and non-being, illusion and reality. The collection embodies the notions of bhram (myth) and brahmaand — both ultimately mysterious and far out of our reach.

Dwaar is an artwork in its own right, and depicts a gateway to an alternate reality – a portal to another world or a bold interpretation of the infinite universe in living spaces while Chanda pays tribute to the ever-changing state of the moon and showcases its different phases in the night sky. Hand-knotted and detailed with zardosi embroidery, it attempts to bring a sense of calm and composure into a space while paying homage to the beauty of the moon.

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Manthan evokes moments of deep contemplation, collaboration, and creation – it could be the start of something new. With subtle gradient designs and organic semicircular forms, Manthan is a design in motion. Nakshatra takes cues from ancient Indian astronomy instruments and constellations to convey the mysteries of a starlit night sky.

Brahmaand Manchaha is named after a Hindi word popular in the Rajasthan weaving community — Manchaha or “expression of the heart”. Manchaha is a one-of-a-kind initiative merging design innovation and social impact, which sits within Jaipur Rugs’ wider programme of Empowering Rural India.

The scheme entails weavers being sent leftover wool and bamboo silk in over fifty colours with only one brief: choose the hues of their will, create a design of their desired intricacy, taking as much time as they require for completion.

For Brahmaand, the Manchaha rugs stem from conversations between Shah and Jaipur Rugs’ artisans, and feature designs conceptualised by the weavers themselves with patterns inspired from their surroundings and daily lives. Ideas, myths, and folklore on the solar system, celestial bodies far beyond and the invisible universe, are translated into intricate symbols paired with fine craftsmanship.

Architect, interior designer, product designer and founder of atelier Ashiesh Shah Architecture + Design, in an interview to Luxebook, India, Shah said that “channelling cosmic energy, the ‘Brahmaand’ collection dyed in hues of deep indigo is an exploration of visual dimension through gradient, texture and handmade perfection. A series of watercolour paintings developed over the lockdown is seamlessly translated into these hand-knotted rugs through this collaboration with Jaipur Rugs.”

He also noted that the forms of the rugs are organic and draw inspiration from the ancient geometry of India, the cosmos and the architecture of the ‘Jantar Mantar’. Jantar Mantar literally means “instruments for measuring the harmony of the heavens”. Located in New Delhi, it consists of 13 architectural astronomy instruments. The primary purpose of the observatory was to compile astronomical tables, and to predict the times and movements of the sun, moon and planets.

Shah said that his atelier subscribed to the notion of craftsmanship and is committed to empowering the ‘karigar’ (artisan) by designing objects that employ craft techniques, materials and processes native to the country, thereby creating objects that exude the philosophies of perfect imperfection - wabi-sabi - through a contemporary flair. “This collaboration with Jaipur Rugs has been a process of meditation and reflection weaving our visions and design ideologies through this collection of rugs, a celebration of fine artisanship,” he said.

Jaipur Rugs is an Indian company that combines the pursuit of profit and spreading kindness, with the aim of benefiting all the people sitting around its rugs - customers, artisans, local communities, employees, suppliers, buyers and partners. Headquartered in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan State in India, it works with artisans spread across five Indian States; the company holds a branch in the United States called Jaipur Living.

Through its worldwide distribution network, its rugs reach 80 countries around the world, from Milan to Paris, Beijing and Moscow. Jaipur Rugs has participated in Dubai Design Week. Founded in 1978 by Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Jaipur Rugs revolutionised the carpet industry by creating an entirely new business model – working directly with artisans and empowering them and their communities with a sustainable livelihood.

Chaudhary has said that “let goodness, fairness and, most importantly, love, prevail in business; profits will inevitably follow.” The company is considered a family business strengthened by the purpose of protecting ancestral knowhow and connecting rural craftsmanship with global consumers. It has grown to become the largest network of artisans in India and uses the age-old art form of handmade carpets as a tool to bring prosperity into the homes of 40,000 rural artisans of which 85 per cent are women.

Initially, it had just two looms: it now has over 7,000 of them. Today, the company creates contemporary works of art by collaborating with creative talents capable of showcasing an ancestral craft with a new vision.