Inside Raseel Gujral’s world

Raseel Gujral
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

In Jaunapur Village, on the outskirts of New Delhi, is Chand Bagh, where Raseel Gujral Ansal lives amid the bird-broken stillness of tree-shaded gardens, in a home she designed and filled with art. It is an escape, a refuge from the incessant noise of the ‘city’, whichever one she happens to be returning from on her frequent travels chasing inspiration and design.

It is a sunny afternoon and we are sitting in her high-ceilinged home, surrounded by her late father Satish Gujral’s paintings and artworks, where a bejewelled Balinese throne takes the pride of place, adorned with works of devotional art on velvet and silk cushions. Dappled sunlight enters from floor-to-ceiling windows that open on to a wraparound verandah held up by strong pillars, green lawns rolling off into abundant gardens.

This is not a small house, but it isn’t huge either — one of those spectacularly oversized houses that seems to be taking over the lifestyles of the haves in recent years. And as one of the country’s foremost interiors architects, her home is a moodboard of her ideas and artistic leanings, should you ever get an invitation.

Mughal design, colonial influences

Another way in, though, is through her work, especially a collection of wallpapers, titled Inscape, that she launched earlier this year, as part of Casa Pop’s 10th anniversary. They bring together her love for Indian architecture, Mughal design vocabulary, and colonial influences, elements that she is surrounded by in her home.

While she is aware of the current contention these words bring out, as the product of a family directly impacted by the Partition, as a designer she says her aim is to provide a lens through which these inalienable aspects of our history can be viewed. To do so, she brings in India’s varied fauna, such as a tiger sitting calmly with a colourful bird perched upon its head, partridges and teapots gathered under a canopy, and framed vintage portraits.

One of these wallpapers — The Three Faces of Eve – Diva | Devi | Damsel — carries more than just the motifs designed by the artisans of Jaipur’s Princess Diya Kumari Foundation. They’re the culmination of a decade of design that has traversed multiple aesthetics as well as product categories to provide everything from furniture to objets d’art to furnishings for its patrons. “As a two-dimensional, flat medium, it was important for us to design these works of wallpaper-art in specific contexts,” she says.

Experimenting with mediums

The more she works in this field, Raseel says the more she realises that she is not naturally drawn to the idea of social media content and collaborations as the only ideal way for anyone to experience her work. “I prefer to create meaningful experiences and spaces where people can explore their responses to the artworks and designs. Wallpaper is just a medium. Going forward, I want to explore other mediums and give each one enough time to be explored, get into the proper distribution channels so that they get the time and space to be appreciated.” After all, these aren’t designer garments, but products with a far longer life span. “I have realised that if you’re too prolific in your output, you don’t get enough time to tell the story.”

These form the building blocks of a lineup that will further diversify into soft furnishings, sculptural objets and furniture, original works of art, and even a range of handmade carpets. A couple of months ago, she launched ‘The Three Faces of Eve’ as a series of terracotta and gold sculptures. The limited-edition triad, symbolising wisdom, strength and the divine feminine, has been brought to life by master craftsmen in Rajasthan. “The series is complemented by a special gold edit of the wallpapers ‘Match Made in Heaven’, which evokes India’s regal heritage, and ‘Tea for Two’, a whimsical nod to romance,” she says.

In addition, Raseel reveals that she is also in talks with an indigenous brand to create modular frescoes with traditional artisans to revive the craft of araaish, a heritage lime-plaster technique once used extensively in royal residences. “It has a glazed feel, is cool to touch, and is long-lasting,” she explains. “I personally see a deep connection between our araaish and old Venetian plaster techniques. I feel it deserves our appreciation, and being in our homes.”

She appreciates how Italian designers and lifestyle brands have successfully commoditised their traditional crafts, and wants to be able to do the same with heritage techniques from India.