Commissioned Artwork
The artworks featured below are bespoke commissions envisioned, designed, and crafted in collaboration with clients. Each piece showcases the creative possibilities of working with Mandala Pottery. If you are interested in commissioning a custom mural, installation or any kind of ceramic artwork for your space, we would love to hear from you.
Bidri Abstractions
A project I thoroughly enjoyed! The theme of the restaurant, given to me by the curator, Abhishek Naidu, was Bidri. This is an art form that's specific to certain regions of India, the material being a blackened metal with silver inlay. I took the premise of this and the aesthetic that goes with this, and designed a set of canvases and ceramic-ware.
Coral Rings
Conceived by Namita Saraf and myself, these coral rings are made with stretched porcelain and stoneware clay bodies, imprinted with the textures of a coral. Put together with stainless steel nuts and bolts.
Cosmic Bloom
One of our earliest murals for Mistry Architects, Bangalore, this mural combines woodfired ceramics with stainless steel cables and granite posts liberally used in the lobby area of the building complex.
Ganesha-Shiva Mural
A mixed-media indoor mural. The ceramic panels are enveloped with canvases painted with unfired clay and acrylic paint; and a ledge carved out of solid wood.
The Hermitage, Sri Lanka
This is an installation at a resort in Kandy designed by Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte. The mural that spans approximately 18 feet is meant to reflect the diversity of textile blocks used for block-printing fabric, making it a visual tapestry in clay with soda-fired slip-cast tiles. Accents of the third dimension are provided by shield forms that have been soda-fired to accentuate the crackle slip on their surfaces.
Island Life
A wall mural 11' high, as an invitation to a terrace party zone! Lots to discover in the collage here; it's a rich tapestry akin to a wall-hanging Persian carpet, with colours, textures and hues one can only get with wood, soda &/or gas firings! The birds are very obvious, but do look around for the magic mushrooms and purple monsteras…. you may even spot Alice?!!!
Once were Barcodes
An installation that did not reach the Mumbai airport terminal, but subsequently travelled to five exhibitions. Painted on 5-metre-long canvases with washed sand and acrylic on canvas, and subsequently wrapped around plywood boxes, this barcode stretches to around 20 feet.
Rebirth
Rebirth assembled with made and readymade terracotta elements, this wall mural was jointly conceived with Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte and myself. A part of this mural is made up of left-over tiles and jalis from the rest of the project, which we smoke-fired to get variations in tones, the rest of the mural was made at Mandala and installed on site. There is a secret matrix of niches in the visuals that only comes alive when one lights oil-diyas as the sun goes down. Magical!
A Deserted Barcode
This installation was featured at the 1st Indian Ceramic Triennale in Jaipur. I wanted to get the feel of a night sky in the deserts of Rajasthan, hence painted the panels with copious amounts of unfired clay, washed sand and acrylic on canvas.
The Logoon, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte wanted this wall that was facing a green-water lagoon at Anantara to reflect an abstraction of the water body. The mural that resulted is like a pixelated version of the view outside the restaurant, with inserts of thick glass shelves as accents.
Treasure Hunt
Conceived in consultation with Bangalore-based designer, Shernavaz Bharucha, this is a large expanse of wall in a covered courtyard of a private residence. The wall is encrusted with fragmented ceramic objects coming together to make one whole, triggering childhood memories of treasure hunts of yore!
Tree of Life
A soft pastel interpretation of the universal Tree of Life. Prefer to have our murals three dimensional, not just tiles on a wall, hence the relief work here in the details.
