DICRC hosted exhibition to showcase six-year-long research on vernacular furniture

The Design Innovation and Craft Resource Center (DICRC) at CRDF hosted the exhibition ‘Itiha: stories and traditions of vernacular furniture’.  The exhibition focused on the six-year-long journey about the research on the vernacular furniture of northwest India and highlighted aspects of design, function, making, as well as associated stories and narratives that signify its relevance in a given context.  It’s the outcome of the ‘Vernacular Furniture of North-West India’ project, which is the first-ever research on vernacular furniture.

During the exhibition, DICRC launched the publications Anaikya: Vernacular Furniture of Rajasthan and four catalogues on vernacular furniture of Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana.  In 2018, DICRC published Sahaj: Vernacular Furniture of Gujarat, co-authored by Mitraja Bais, Jay Thakkar, Samrudha Dixit and Ben Cartwright.  The books and catalogues are an outcome of the extensive fieldwork, research and documentation carried out for the project.  They will soon be available to buy at the CEPT University Press. 

‘Vernacular Furniture of North-West India’ is an international collaborative research project between DICRC, CRDF and the South Asian Decorative Arts and Craft Collection Trust (SADACC), Norwich, UK.  It is generously funded by The SADACC Trust.  North-West India covers the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana.  The research was executed in various stages, Phase I: Gujarat, Phase II: Rajasthan, and Phase III: Punjab & Haryana.