Behind-the-scenes with Eeshaan Kashyap in his Delhi studio

Beautiful Homes: Tell us more about the inspiration for your new exhibition PLAY?

Eeshaan Kashyap: I wanted to call it PLAY because my world is extremely playful with almost whimsical things happening—where shape, form, texture, flavours are just narratives around the table. The entire space is divided like a playground in three different zones—from surrealism to terrific and tactile things, to nostalgia. The theme play naturally comes to me. I see things differently and my idea always is about storytelling with a little bit of surprise.

BH: Can you share some details about the objects you are showcasing?

EK: The objects that I'll be showcasing at the exhibition cover a huge spectrum. We have more than 4,800 pieces that we are bringing to The Stands. The materials range from 18 different categories such as paper, ice, parts of ceramic, metal, semi-precious stones, wood, thread, leaves and even flavour with food being an ingredient for design.

I'm very excited to show chairs, lights and totems this time, which is absolutely something new. I'm not a trained designer or an architect by education but I am instinctively learning and unlearning the process of what works.

BH: What is the table jewellery collection that you will exhibit?

EK: I wanted to take tableware, cutlery and plates to a level which is adorned, and if we look back, jewellery has been an important source of inspiration for architecture and design from the north to the Deccan. I explored the idea of marrying jewellery with functionality. So, I'm bringing table jewellery, which is not just about opulence but it could be a simple twig or maybe thread or metal woven together to form something beautiful for the table.

To complement the table jewellery, I am presenting modern Kalamkari which is very geometric. It will be shown as table napkins, dinner mats with plant-based dyes, mostly in shades of red, yellow, and black. I think the combination of metallic tones, hues of malachite, lapis lazuli, amethyst with the Kalamkari is a very bold, daring and interesting one and I think my brand Tablescape really stands for it.

BH: Tell us more about the textiles that are part of the showcase.

EK: I'm very drawn to textiles. I'm absolutely obsessed with double ikats and patola. I even use old saris or textiles as a form of drapery on the table because they have such a large vocabulary and a history that they represent, and it instantly becomes a talking point for the table. For the show, we are bringing in something extremely beautiful.

Some of the textiles are mid-19^th century, from Indonesia. The idea is to showcase them almost installed in a way where you could imagine entering into a Rothko Chapel where the voids really stand out. There's a lot of interaction and playfulness between the types of textiles we are presenting. We're also doing rice Japanese paper and dyeing it in a way where it almost has a Shibori aspect. It's very interesting to see how paper forms a drape. 

We are taking inspiration from textile and weaving an ikat pattern on metal, taking the technique to a different medium and functionalities. So there’s woven metal carpet, chairs, and dinner mats.