Sibanand Bhol founded Collective Craft in 2009 but has been working with artisans since 2003. An architect from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, Sibanand wanted to create responsible design solutions that were environment friendly and nurtured the livelihoods of craftspeople and made their work relevant in the modern world. He found the perfect launching pad for his initiative in his home state of Odisha that has a treasure trove of traditional arts and crafts. Sibanand hopes to start conversations with people in Coimbatore about Collective Craft. He says, “The south of India is one of the most conscientious markets for craft products. I love the people there!”
Could you share the story of Collective Craft?
Collective Craft was born out of the necessity to set up a collaborative of artisans on one hand and artists and design professionals on the other. We needed a forum where everyone’s collective ideas could contribute to creating new work with traditional crafts and artisans. The Collective is now organised as a co-working studio for artisans, with around 15 working full-time. They join the studio intermittently to work on architectural and other projects, and many stay on. But, for everybody who wishes to work continuously, the collaborative guarantees work opportunities for the full year. Our artisans come from all over Odisha. We have tribals from Koraput, bell metal artisans from Balakati, stone carvers from Lalitgiri, patachitra Painters from Raghurajpur and so on. In addition to the core studio strength of 15, we sometimes have around 50 artisans when we work on architectural projects.
What is it about the art and craft of Odisha that appealed to you?
I was born in Rourkela and then studied architecture at SPA, New Delhi. As an architect, I realised that the quantum of work that could be generated for artisans by integrating crafts and space design projects was substantially more than just products. We constantly hear about lost livelihoods of artisans and languishing crafts traditions; and Odisha has some of the finest and most evolved crafts traditions. We initially thought we could start in Odisha and travel to other regions once our processes were streamlined, but I guess we have been too overwhelmed by the challenges and massive scale of interventions that is needed in Odisha alone to work in other states.
Odisha’s craft is pretty well marketed and beloved. What is it that Collective Craft does differently to ensure it is nurtured?
We have immense respect for artisanship and listen carefully and extensively to artisans’ opinions about how they wish their skills and style to evolve. As a studio, we do not make products that artisans can conceptualise, design, make and market themselves. Every product we make and project we work on is unique. It is contemporary, but borrows deeply from traditional expressions of the craft; that is the central idea around which we work.
- Collective Craft will be at Srishti 2019
- When: Until September 14; from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
- Where: Suguna Kalyana Mandapam, Avinashi Road
What has been Collective Craft’s greatest challenge and its greatest achievement?
Craft in many traditional studios has been hugely exploitative. Master artisans pass on a limited set of skills and knowledge to their apprentices, driven by a myopic understanding that the artisans will stay on and work with them for longer periods. I believe this is a failed model and one of the primary reasons why artisans all over the country have turned to different sources of livelihood. When we started, we struggled to get artisans on board. As a community, they no longer believed that craft could sustain their families and that was an extremely tragic state of affairs.
I think our greatest achievement has been to create a model of artisanal enterprise, which is financially viable and exciting enough to invite a new generation of artisans to work with us. It is a little spark that has the potential to catalyse a much larger revival in the craft sector.
What are the handicrafts you are bringing to Coimbatore and is there something really special we should be looking out for?
We have a set of home accessories and furniture. Everything is special, but our products are merely examples of what we can do. We are eager to talk to people and customise products to suit their requirements. As everything is handcrafted as opposed to mass production in an assembly line, it is not expensive to create bespoke pieces. The products we are bringing to Coimbatore ranges from ₹700 to ₹10000
For details, visit www.collectivecraft.com or www.instagram.com/ collective_craft
