Graduated from NIFT Delhi, Ashish Karmali is a freelance designer, visual artist and an illustrator. His creative process is deeply rooted in his hometown Ramgarh (Jharkhand) that bloomed during lockdown. He usually draws inspiration from his muse - the warmth of his home, but for this project it was a picture of his mother in the 80’s, adorned in a sari. He was struck with the idea of somehow bridging the gap between the 80’s and the Indian fashion today through his art, while being rooted in context. The carefully chosen "Eva Sheets" and a diverse selection of designer pieces from Tarun Tahiliani to Raw Mango, sourced from various locations in Mumbai like Crawford Market, to make an amalgamation of self expression while improvising his organic design process, is a piece of art in itself. He is explorative, avant garde and deeply in love with Indian fashion history. We at Object asked him a few questions about his art:

Ashish, how would you describe your art? 

I believe my designs and my work which I've been creating is something very much rooted and my overall experience growing up in my hometown. My home is the main muse of my inspiration which helps me to execute my art in my own way. I consider my art as a medium where I express more openly and freely more creatively and my approach to art is always to challenge myself more. 

I used to be surrounded by women. I have grown up in a joint family in Jharkhand and I've seen women work very hard to take care of the family and to do all the household work while still

listening to all these men in the society and doing what the men want them to do. This idea and this thought I have portrayed through my work where I’ve wanted to give women more power because I feel they are the most powerful in doing everything and taking care of everything and that's the concept that I have used in one of my designs – Beneath the Veil. 

When art is rooted thus it is much more powerful and I believe an art should be this way and not be just aesthetically appealing. That’s just my idea. To my very core I try to

share and show through my work this kind of mood and the amalgamation of this idea and concept but it is also the subject – something meaningful – that really triggers me and which I would like to show in general. That's what I do with my work and that's art for me. That said, I always leave it up to people to perceive it as they wish.

So do you believe in something objective called beauty? 

Not really. Not beauty but I believe in the idea of the visual as a medium to express rather than calling it beauty. 

Do you feel yourself to be alienated from the receivers of your art? 

I don’t know. I definitely feel connected to my art. It becomes very difficult sometimes to sell my art. For instance, let's say whatever I'm making – someone would like to have it and buy it. In such a case it gets very difficult for me to sell my art because I see it also like something very personal to me. That said, I would like all the people who are into seeing new things and exploring and who have the knack for taste to validate me. It motivates me somehow and then I create more. But I never felt alienated from people who are looking at my work. I don’t want people looking at my work to know everything about it. I like the idea of a few things being personal and keeping these things secret. I believe that my work does the same and not everyone gets to know what it is. Some see my work and say ‘Oh, who will wear it?’ or ‘What is the use of this?’. These people don't understand the idea behind me making the art.

In a society obsessed with brands, what should art communicate?

The reason behind why what I have been creating is so personal is that I am expressing

my experience and my knowledge – what I have been seeing and what I have grown up with. So these impressions are amalgamated throughout my design process which too I am expressing to you through my work. You know, as a final product. And that's the reason that when somebody asks me to sell I'm initially like ‘You know, okay, I can sell it’ but then at the back of my head I feel like ‘No, I can't sell it because there’s just the one’ I would be more happy for people to have my art as an artform, an installation or to wear it at a function. I don’t want my work to be mass produced per se, I want to keep minimal pieces.  

Would you say there is a ritual or a magic behind your art?

I don't like putting my art in any category of art forms or to understand it as a ritual but there is some degree of ritual. It comes naturally, being born in India and being introduced to its cultures and religions it is somehow natural in my designs for there to be influences of one ritual or another. I am influenced through all these things that surround me and that's the main thing. 

Even if I have to produce multiple pieces it is magical to me and has its own process and I think I'm much more of that person who enjoys the process of it and then eventually it becomes something else. For example, I remember I made one swirling dress using Eva sheets. I was initially making the swirl in an even way from head to toe – entirely symmetrical. But then when I was making it I left to get something else and the moment I left it I found that the sheets automatically gave me a new shape and I thought nature is telling me itself that it has to be this way and that’s what I went ahead with and later on it became something that I would never expect to be so beautiful. Sometimes I just go with the flow.

How do you incorporate memory in your process? 

You know for me the memories which I show through my work are very personal. Sometimes I try to incorporate the materials which I have which could be very old. For example the Ghunghat design which I made. If you notice the lower part of it, which is like a knot dress, it has actually been made using my mum’s very old saree. It is in teal colour and people say that that dress looks beautiful but for me the memory is built over the saree where, when I was cutting it there, was embroidery and, in between the embroideries, there was little-little ghungaroos attached to it. So whoever has seen the design in person has gone crazy listening to the sound it makes. The sound always reminds me of my mum, when she would make something in the kitchen the way she used to do her household things going from the front gate to somewhere else in the house.

So that sound is a memory for me, it always takes me back to those days when I had seen the same material which she wore which I have now used, when it is very old, to come up with something new.