Exploring the Indian Home Aesthetic

A photobook project by Sayali Goyal

Through travels across India, Sayali has created a visual chronicle of material cultures that serves as a powerful inspiration for creative practitioners. Whether it is faded textures of a wall or the typography on a menu card, Sayali’s project becomes a repository of artistry of the past and present of Indian aesthetics, preserved for the future.

This series also explores the duality of the Indian aesthetic with both maximalist and minimalist schools of thought, vis architectural details, objects, textures, patterns and graphics. Each image comes with field notes that have observations on design elements like colours, materials, compositions, layers, scale, form, decoration and function. These keywords can be starting points for future creators.

With this series, the idea is to focus on details that go unnoticed like geometric grill patterns, pastel coloured facades, tiny windows and doors, small clay, wood, metal and fibre objects, etc. Places like Ladakh to Chettinad, Bikaner to Meghalaya, from the most luxurious places to humble ones have been covered, thus, it is a true depiction of India that is now. This anthology will speak to each individual differently and hopefully be relevant even after years.