Experiments And Arguments In Design

Every object of everyday use and interaction is an object of design; design is the value of idea, labour, and expression put together. It is a debate whether design should remain subservient to the everyday existence of the object, or design should overtly express itself as the statement and part-purpose of the existence of any object. Architect and designer Rooshad Shroff’s recent exhibition comprising pieces of furniture responds to a contemporary moment of excess, access, and availability. The excess of options available are explored; the ability of a craftsman challenged by the properties of a material; the access to craftsmanship as labour, as skill, and as tradition of knowledge, is something that Shroff takes advantage of, but also keeps stretching the limits of this relationship between craftsmanship and knowledge existing within the practice today. The title of the exhibition is then, perhaps, fitting enough: ‘15,556’, or Fifteen Thousand Five Hundred and Fifty-Six Man Hours, referring to the number of hours taken to make the pieces on display

- Kaiwan Mehta

It is not art. It is not craft. It is design.