Working with paper products over the years, the team at Auroville Papers has shaped a path towards pure artistic expression, now showing at Chennai. Black Forest is made of banana stem; after the lengthy process of boiling the fibres in a vat, the pulp is flattened out to create paper art. Firebird, made of cotton, has rows of gorgeous stems of scarlet feather-like modules coated with resin. Thousand Coins and Kinnum are an esoteric play of geometry and colour. It is impossible to believe that some of these art objects are made of paper. “The Elephant Stool can take up to 150 kg!” says Focus Art Gallery owner Mayur Shah about the cylindrical yellow stool with a core thickness of half an inch. Amphoras taller than three feet remind you of the leathern jars in which the thieves hid themselves in Ali Baba’s tale. The artists often find unconventional processes to enable such delightful results. “It is one thing to think about the design but quite another to realise it!” says Luisa of Auroville Papers. “For the amphora, we created a mould which is made of cloth in the proportions of the jar and filled it with sand.” It is not required to split the mould or break it but merely pour the sand out when the layered paper has dried. Cotton is more environment-friendly, Luisa explains. “Because we do not have to cut trees. We salvage waste from T-shirt makers – it has to be pure cotton, without nylon. We prefer white as we can easily dye it, and also black.” Two ideas keep repeating themselves in my conversation with Luisa – “beauty” and “following a thread.” The first concept, the pursuit of things beautiful is simple enough to think about, but as I talk to Luisa further, it reveals itself as a way of making things that bring about harmony and joy. Luisa believes everything they make at Papers has to find its special place in each environment. And thus, the idea of something functional is closely tied with its purpose in living spaces. The second concept – “following a thread” - relates to keeping a thought intact. As in the evocative argument “Nothing comes from nothing”, Luisa says, “Whatever we do always matches with what we start. We are always following a thread.” The group at Auroville Papers (www.aurovillepapers.com) stays true to the seed they plant with each concept, allowing things to take their natural course. Their commitment to quality shows the finesse of their craft.
Making objects with paper grew out of the group’s initial work at Auroville Press. Luisa arrived at Auroville in 1981 and she started working with paper in 1996. At Auroville Press, they had a small publishing venture and a bookshop where they made pads, paper and stationery. As requirements grew, they looked for a place. “We just needed a place for binding and started using an old paper factory, just a part of it, really. Then one day, my partner got up in the morning and said – Why don’t we make handmade paper?” Today, there are seven in the group involved with Auroville Papers, another nine at the press and thirty-seven employees. Through trials, research, experiments and errors, they have evolved a line of beautiful jewellery, vases, containers, lamps as well as wall and floor art. Ideally, they find ways to repeat the designs. The team held a well-received show at Auroville’s Art Centre of Citadyn in 2012 and have had several workshops.
Luisa compares making paper to weaving cloth. At their factory, leaf impressions and patterning from nature are intrinsically bound like warp and weft. Their way of working too is merged into her firm beliefs of Auroville. “I feel strongly about Auroville. People think we are doing something great and beautiful but it is very important to know that it does not belong to us.” This philosophy actually gives Luisa more freedom to manage their unit; the sense of responsibility is community bound. “We develop assets and we contribute 33 per cent of our profits in cash. We work together and give work to the villages. It is a natural way. We do not have to make effort.”
At Focus Art Gallery till March 31.
