Nipa Doshi x Marlo Lyda
‘In India, we have the saying that, to know something is knowledge, but to know ‘how to’ is supreme knowledge.’
Nipa Doshi, co-founder of British studio Doshi Levien, discusses design research, cross-cultural perspectives, and materiality with Australian designer-maker Marlo Lyda. Doshi recounts her formative years growing up in India and reflects on her studies at London's Royal College of Art in the late 1990s. Lyda, having recently returned to Australia after completing a BA at the Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands) considers how her education abroad has impacted her emerging practice, in which she challenges widely accepted manufacturing processes and production techniques.
‘When I went to the UK, I went to the Royal College of Art in London. I suddenly realised that I actually don't really know about European design because it was something that I learned second hand rather than something that related to my culture, to my immediate environment.’
‘I'm always combating the idea whether what you create should look identical to how you see it in your mind, or if you should allow it to deviate through time. And I think both statements are true.’
‘For me, beauty is very important. And when I talk about beauty, I mean the way of doing things or the way of making things.’
‘I love these tools and these machines that are that just required the power of the human body. With that simple knowledge, you could create arguably almost everything that you need in the world. You could create with your two hands.’
Object No. 2002/47/1
Charkha (spinning wheel
Object No. H10117
Hand-operated weaving loom by Platt Bros
‘What already exists on the world is incredibly precious. Remnants is just all the little pieces of stone that are too broken or too small to be used in any other way, I guess. And they're supported on little spindly legs that are embodiment of that ethos that things should be elevated and revalued and that it's just about seeing the potential and articulating it.’
‘The beauty of making as a process is that you can arrive at finishes and techniques and obscure ways of doing something that actually end up fitting so well. The embodied emotion or embodied meaning.’
‘I write, I read, and somehow the idea emerges. I think drawing is the root cause of my happiness.’
Speakers
Nipa Doshi is the co-founder of Doshi Levien alongside Jonathan Levien. Doshi grew up in India and studied at the National Institute of Design. Her resulting practice is rooted in her plural upbringing and astute eye for visual culture. The layering of research, materiality, and the tactility of the Doshi Levien design process – painting, sculpting, colour making – results in work that is distinguished by a clarity of ideas and seemingly effortless attention to detail.
Marlo Lyda is an Australian born designer-maker, and recent graduate from the Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands). Coaxing her delicate and functional objects from materials that are undervalued, Marlo embraces fieldwork and intuitive process as means of challenging widely accepted techniques and industry by-products.
About
The Age We’re In brings together practitioners, scientists and researchers at different stages of their careers to share ideas and responses to global issues. These conversations highlight the common ground of how and why they pursue their practise and explore challenges and opportunities in their industries.
