At Renn, evolution is a considered, layered process
We started studying indigenous art
We visited artists across the country. Spent time with them.
Tried to understand not just how they create — but why.
What we kept coming back to was this: abstraction is the most instinctive reaction to the world around us.
A simple line can hold immense meaning. A circle can carry an entire cosmology.
From that study, I wrote a poem. I called it Eyes Open. From that poem, [Prime]al was born.
It all lay before and more beyond
Tracing maps through the sky and sea
Sensing time as they sense a tide
Through the inevitability of change
Passing contradictory myths of creation
That morph as they move
Experience divinity in
What lies beyond what they see
A fictional reality truer than true
A permanent trace of the impermanent
The abundance of it all
The power to create and to morph
Protecting what is truly invaluable
The significance of simple things
They see themselves in one another
Mirroring the world around them
As the world mirrors them
They are one insignificant part
Of a whole
One with it all
Open eyes
–Rahul Jhaveri | Studio Renn
A permanent trace of the impermanent.
Cacti represent protection. Diamonds set within the serrations appear precarious —
but are held firmly by the structure around them
Fish is about cyclicity. Lines folded to create volume, movement, life.
The inside of the Seed is mirrored. It catches the undersides of surrounding diamonds. The reflection shifts as the wearer moves.
For the exhibition, we used rammed earth, bamboo, rice, sprouts, betel nut. Materials that came from the earth and returned to it when the show ended.
That cyclical thinking was not applied to the space. It was the space.
[Prime]al became more than a collection. It became a way of thinking. A way of designing. A way of arriving at complex ideas through simple forms.
Even today, it remains the foundation of everything we do