Industrial designer and object maker Ashwin Mallya’s debut solo exhibition, Curriculum, offers a glimpse into his humble upbringing in the quaint town of Margao, Goa. Through a series of small-sized tiles adorned with intricate designs, Mallya captures poignant moments from his childhood in a joint family setting that are far away from the stereotypical image of Goa as a party hub. While the designs may appear simple at first glance, each intricate detail holds a profound resonance with Mallya's memories. His personal memories are displayed for public viewing at 47-A design gallery in Mumbai.
Instances from Childhood
As soon as you enter the gallery, you'll see a series of red blocks with a design of a sun inscribed on them. The series is aptly named Sunrise as Mallya tells us “Sunrise because I've been like an early riser since I was a kid, if you wake up at six every day or like five thirty every day, there's so much more to do. I'd be tasked to do things or I'd just have time to set myself up mentally for the day. So then sunrise is like an ode to that.”
Next on the site is Miranda House. It includes another series of red blocks with a rooster inscribed on it—a sign of Goa’s Portugal architecture. “This was the house I looked at growing up”. Mallya tells us. “So for about 18 years I've looked at this house and I picked up this small architectural symbol to represent the house.” Mallya through the exhibition captures everything that he witnessed in his childhood. Along with Miranda House, we come across a garden that Mallya used to water with his dad shaped in oval tiles, the chocolates he used to eat as a reward for doing any good work, the game of Minesweeper that he used to play on his computer and the rituals of moon phases that played a significant part in his household rituals. In the Goan life, beaches play an important role as well—Mallya recalls his weekends spent making sandcastles at the beach near to his home, which made him represent sandcastles in his work.
Creative Process
Mallya’s creative process for this exhibition included a variety of steps—‘I started off with a little deep dive into my childhood and wrote down probably like 50-60 ideas of what I thought were like core memories. And then I started cutting down into ones that would make for a great storytelling. I wrote down the idea of what the memory is and I immediately translated that onto illustrator. Based on this 2D drawing, I've built like a 3D model. Then the 3D model has gone into 3D printing. 3D printing becomes a silicon mold. And from the silicon mold, I have cast these individual tiles. And then they're all clustered together and stuck on mild steel sheets. Then all of it has been painted.”
From Industrial Designing to Design Exhibition
“I feel like the work kind of like evolved in this direction. I studied industrial design in Pune. It was a four year course. My third year internship was with an artist in Goa named Subodh Kerkar. I feel like that internship changed my idea of what kind of like career path to choose.” The internship shifted Mallya’s focus from the commercial side of design to the more artistic one. “I feel like after a point making things that are just made endlessly in large numbers just didn't align with what I thought I would be doing. Later, I got kind of obsessed with making things in larger numbers but through molds. And I've been practicing that ever since, through just like other materials as much as possible. And then for this project, the method seemed like the best way to tell the story. It was all under my control. At least like 95% of the work is what I've done, literally on my kitchen counter.”
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Date 03.03.2024
