Motifs, Materials & Makers of Art Deco

Kunal Shah A Mumbai based Interior Architect, Kunal Shah’s eponymous design practice is inclined towards minimal interventions and restraint with layers of craft and art. He was the co-founder of ‘claro’ - a concept store in Goa that bore testimony to his eye for beauty and design originating off the beaten track. His built works vary from contemporary houses to restoration, adaptive reuse and exhibition design. Kunal is an avid collector of contemporary as well as period works of south Asian art, craft and design. His passion for art history and design history made him a natural choice for a special presentation on Art Deco.

Mustansir Dalvi is a poet, translator and editor. He has three books of poems in English, Brouhahas of Cocks (Poetrywala, 2013), Cosmopolitician (Poetrywala, 2018), and Walk (Yavanika Press, 2020/ Poetrywala 2021). His poems have been translated into French, Croatian, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. Mustansir Dalvi’s 2012 English translation of Muhammad Iqbal’s influential Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa from the Urdu as Taking Issue and Allah’s Answer (Penguin Classics) has been described as ‘insolent and heretical’. He is the editor of Man without a Navel a collection of translations of Hemant Divate’s poems from the Marathi (2018, Poetrywala). Mustansir Dalvi was born in Bombay. He teaches architecture in Mumbai.

Pavitra Rajaram is the former lead designer, director of visual merchandising and head of content and creative strategy at Good Earth, India’s iconic luxury lifestyle brand. As part of the founding creative team, she played a significant role in establishing the distinctive creative footprint of the brand. She is also the founder and creative director of Pavitra Rajaram Design, an award-winning interior design firm. A long-time believer in the power of design led thinking in brand strategy; Pavitra also advises India’s leading paints and wall coverings company Asian Paints on their décor strategy. Since 2017, Pavitra has been involved in setting up and managing a not-for-profit arts and culture archive called Sarmaya that focuses on experiences and programming both offline and online to engage younger audiences in the art of the Indian Subcontinent. Pavitra has been a recipient of the INTACH award for space restoration, the EDIDA award for product design, and is on the prestigious AD100 list of the 100 best architects/interior designers in South Asia. Pavitra has a degree received magna cum laude from Smith College, USA.

Srila Chatterjee has been a Producer for most of her life, running Highlight Films and making commercials. Her new avatar fits into her passions for art, design, people and travel – she styles interiors and has a furniture and home store, BARO, in Bombay. She strives to use her space to share the notion of slow living, doing things of quality that are intelligent, meaningful, equitable and inspiring.

Meher Marfatia is a freelance journalist and independent publisher. With a Masters degree in English Literature, she worked as Assistant Editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, and Text Editor for Marg Publications, Art India and Verve magazines, besides writing for the Indian Express, Times of India, Midday, Mumbai Mirror and The Swaddle, among others. Her publishing imprint – 49/50 Books – focuses on little-known aspects of communities and cultures. Its first title in 2011 was Laughter in the House: 20th-Century Parsi Theatre. Her recent book, Once Upon a City, offers expanded essay versions of her popular Sunday Midday column. A big believer in the power of oral history, Meher’s passion for Bombay sees her engage extensively with its locals, documenting their lives in some detail. The stories people tell hold the key to understand the past and appreciate the present – to better shape the future of a city richly deserving attention and care.

Hema Shroff Patel is a self-taught handicraft artist. She has worked in Maheshwar for over twenty-five years. Her passion for textiles led her to launch Amba in 1999. Amba remains a small, privately owned micro-label. Hema served on the Women Weave Charitable Trust advisory board for seventeen years and worked with Rehwa Society to revive their classic Maheshwari saree designs. In 2018, Amba collaborated with Rehwa Society, Dr. Eye Institute, and Gokuldas Institute to run an extensive eye camp for 250 members of the weaving community. The collective funds raised for the eye camp were used to treat retinal and glaucoma issues as well as to conduct Lasik and cataract surgeries. In March of 2020, Amba collaborated with Rehwa Society and Ayesha Billimoria of FitGirl to host a women’s “healthy living and healthy eating” all day camp for 150 women and young girls from the weaving community.

Tanya George is a Mumbai-based designer and researcher with a wide-ranging independent practice that includes creating custom fonts as well as brand identities with a specialisation in Indian scripts. She also conducts type walks around Mumbai, along with typography workshops, and writes about type.