Stambh by Ashiesh Shah, an exhibition of 21 totems, takes place in Bhubaneswar

By Ritupriya Basu

On an impossibly humid day in Bhubaneswar, a rare gust of cool breeze sweeps through the courtyards at Kala Bhoomi, a craft museum in the capital of Odisha, which was unveiled in 2018. The much-welcome respite comes as we walk through the gardens of the museum, making our way towards Stambh, an exhibition of 21 totems by architect and designer Ashiesh Shah. In a sense, Shah’s years-long affair with indigenous craft techniques of India crescendos at this exhibition, presented as a part of the second G20 CWG meet in Bhubaneswar. A brisk walk from the entrance of Kala Bhoomi, along sloped walkways, leads to a semi-outdoor gallery, where Shah’s stambhs take pride of place.

References to stambhs, or pillars, can often be found in Vedic scriptures, where they’re defined as a cosmic column that connects heaven and earth. “In India, stambhs signify a connection between the spiritual and the material world,” says conservationist Lavina Baldota, the curator of Stambh. “And if you look at it from a different lens, craft is also a strong pillar of human evolution, of societies, of culture, of practices, and it also symbolizes the connection humans have with the environment.” The body of work that Shah presents at the exhibition is informed by both of these ideas; his family of totem-like sculptures, which can also be quickly unmounted to create individual perch stools, cuts across the length and breadth of India in their individualistic focus on craft practices. While some seem familiar to those who’ve followed the evolution of Shah’s practice, such as the Channapatna stambh or the Moonshadow Longpi stambh, there are others that surprise—the Naga Raincoat stambh, which wears a skirt-like cloak made of dried elephant grass woven in Nagaland, and the Coconut Shell Dumroo stambh, made of perch stools stacked on top of one another. A languid walk around the exhibition highlights Shah’s dexterity with materiality—he works with bell metal, rock crystal, sholapith (cork), clay, and terracotta with equal ease. “What’s striking about this work is that it presents a very different perspective on the future of Indian craft. Ashiesh’s approach is very stripped-back and contemporary, and in a way, he shows the original form of Indian craft, which is very minimal,” says Baldota.

Seen here (left to right) are the multi-ball brass stambh made by artisan Khubi Chand from Uttar Pradesh, the kantilo stambh in hand-beaten kansa made by Zameer Ahmed from Odisha, and the samaya Kerala stambh in cast brass and black marble, made by craftsman Bothy Majnu from Kerala.

By Rashmi Haralalka

By Vaishnavi Nayel Talawadekar

By Devyani Jayakar

In its celebration of Indian karigari, Stambh found the perfect home in Kala Bhoomi, a museum created to showcase the local crafts of Odisha. Designed by Architects’ Studio—a firm headed by Deepak Panda—the museum includes a handloom and handicrafts block, connected by courtyards and covered verandas, along with semi-outdoor galleries, workshop areas, an open-air theatre, a kund (rainwater pond), and open fields in the southwest corner to showcase the agricultural bounty of Odisha. Panda worked very closely with Chief Minister way, Naveen Patnaik, and historian and museologist Jyotindra Jain, who was invited by the government of Odisha to curate the museum.

“The architecture was deeply inspired by the tribal villages of Odisha,” says Panda. At the museum, the inspiration is apparent— the generous use of laterite is a nod to the “ancient structures of Odisha that were built with laterite”; pantiles on the roofs, as seen in village huts; the use of local sandstone to carve out entrances, corbels, and balu­strades; and a plaster finish redolent of the mud­-plaster applied by hand in homes across Odishan villages. Clever references to village life are tucked away for those who look closely—like the sculptures of birds and frogs on the roof. The tiles were made by craftsmen from a nearby tribal settlement who practise the rare craft of making terracotta tiles that include small sculptures of animals and birds, which are believed to ward off the evil eye.

The semi-outdoor gallery—with a pantile roof—at Kala Bhoomi surrounded by a garden of jackfruit and mango trees. The landscape was designed by Bengaluru-based firm Ficus, who won the Isola Design Excellence Award (2022) and the Hudco Design Award (2018) for this project.

The considered architecture of the museum provided the perfect shell for this exhibition by Shah, who chose a semi­ outdoor gallery, surrounded by lush gardens, as his stage. “The idea of placing the stambhs within this space was very exciting, since the heights of the walls keep varying. They almost reminded me of a stepwell,” says Shah. “The architecture and its inherent layers harmonized beautifully with our project, allowing us to scatter the stambhs and create layers within the curatorial journey.”Stambh was presented as a part of the exhibition “Sustain: The Craft Idiom”, which is a specially curated cultural project for the second G20 CWG meeting organized in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The theme of the exhibition is predicated on and reflective of the second priority of the Culture Working Group (CWG)—“Harnessing Living Heritage for a Sustainable Future”. “Sustain: The Craft Idiom” is composed of three constituent experiences—Stambh, Akshara, and demo­nstrations by master artisans and teachers.