Viewing Ashiesh Shah: Taamr

Metal with memory.

Mumbai-based designer and artist Ashiesh Shah makes his UK solo debut with Taamr, a new body of work at Carpenters Workshop Gallery anchored by copper as both material and idea. The title takes its name from the Sanskrit word for copper, a metal that changes with touch and time.

Shah’s practice has long placed Indian craft in conversation with contemporary design. Working with karigars (artisans) from across India, he draws on traditions ranging from longpi pottery to dhokra metalwork, treating craft not as heritage under glass but as a living, inventive practice.

In Brahmand Cabinet, antique copper pots rest on a black granite base, giving domestic vessels a renewed sculptural presence. Mirror Mosaic Coffee Table meanwhile looks to the precision of Jadau and Kundan jewellery, while Dveep Coffee Table recalls Mumbai’s origin as an archipelago, its reflective surfaces linked by strands of hand-turned Channapatna beads. Matka Mobile reimagines earthen pots as a gently orbiting arrangement, with sun, moon and earth suspended overhead.

Across the exhibition, copper is a way to think about transformation. In Shah’s hands, the material is a living archive: familiar yet always evolving.