Furniture at the End of the Universe

Let’s assume for a moment that there’s a parallel universe where everyday objects forget their functions and assume another. We travelled there this weekend, at the basement of the Juhu Diesel store, to find water pipes illuminating books, cycle chains suspended from the ceiling, computer mother boards lining the insides of tables and milk cans that invite tired tushys to rest a while.

This alternate world is called Art Like This, an uber-cool furniture and light show where object role play is encouraged by three crafty dames - interior designer Ishitta Arun (D se Dijhaeen), Aradhana Nagpal (Dhoop design studio) and art promoter Dolka Desapa (North East Ventures).  The idea is to take objects that have little use in this world – discarded motor parts, broken mirrors, old jars – and turn them into nicely finished, functional furniture. That Aradhana’s office filled with Chor Bazaar bric-a-brac now “resembles a junk yard”, is a side effect she’s willing to live with considering how much fun the last two months of market scouring have been.

Supply Chain

Art Like This begins with a flight of stairs, from the top of which you see Guru Vandana  coffee tables embellished with the insides of PCs, musing whether the computer is now the teacher. At approximately Rs 90,000 each, guru dakshina here does not come cheap. Glistening above their tops is one of our favourite pieces of the show, an unapologetically edgy chandelier strung with a million cycle chains, red and black. Also making light of the situation are lamps that look like you’re casting a shadow on them and a less imaginative fixture with glass jars. See product slide show here.

Ring Throne

The next room seats several treats for your tushy – bar chairs built out of milk cans, hand painted wooden stools with magazine roll seats and a couch made with sixty hand-woven cushions. Other products of their fecund imagination include chest of drawers with pull-out trunks; water pipe mirror with matching lamp; and the super cool Lord of the Rims pair of chairs with cycle rims for legs and tyres for arm rests.  Double seat, anyone? What didn’t make a lasting impression though, is the door frame khattiya and trunk table.

And distracting you from browsing ever so often are the ladies painted on psychedelic canvasses – some sexy, some trying too hard – who are busy licking lollipops and assuming provocative positions. Eve tease, indeed!

Getting there: Art Like This, Diesel store basement, Western Wind Building, Juhu Tara Road, on until October 9 furniture starts at Rs 20,000, see product slide show here.