Ian Abell is a celebrated artist, designer, architect and everything in between. Along with his brother Richard, UK-based Ian has been a pioneer in cutting-edge design work that defies genre, embracing the interstices of their interdisciplinary practice. Based Upon was commissioned for their first project in India by Shalini Passi for the Yamuna Bar at her residence in 2010.
Shalini Passi: How do you view your works? Do you identify with any singular discipline in particular, or do you embrace these blurred boundaries between artistic practice, architectural intervention, and a piece of furniture?
Ian Abell: We’re really comfortable with the blur, I think categories and labels can constrain as much as they can help us to understand something and where it fits.
When we came into this in about 2004, it was at a time when, in Europe especially, the art and design world was starting to cross over. Design pieces were starting to be regarded as sculpture and attract prices at auction which had previously been the realm of the art market.
I remember thinking about this really early on as an outsider. Because I wasn’t schooled in any of the artistic disciplines, I’ll often find myself asking very naïve questions which can sometimes open something up. I remember thinking, “well if the design is basically form and function and art is basically form or aesthetics and narrative, then why wouldn’t you just have all three? Why wouldn’t you have work that had narrative and form and function?”
So that was kind of where we began. To make the best work that we could rather than worry about the category in which it would ultimately sit.
Shalini Passi: I love the use of craftsmanship in your work. What do you think the future is for crafts in contemporary art and design? How can these artisanal skills be retained and celebrated?
Ian Abell: I think craft is on the return. I think the industry went through a phase in which the concept behind the work became more important and craft was somewhat left behind. If a work was seen to be clever enough then that was enough.
And I think we’re now returning to asking how it’s been made and how well it’s been executed. We take that really seriously at Based Upon and because of the diversity of our practice, having explored a lot of work that’s about texture and materiality, we pay attention to things that are on a microscopic level, which then also takes us down the route of taking finishing really seriously.
So, a lot of our works will be very, very finely finished with a considered materiality. I think that it’s important to find the balance between something which is well crafted and something which has a lot of character. There is a fine line between technique and the real soulful resonance that you can get within handmade work.
We noticed pretty early on that handmade work can somehow carry the intention of its maker. People are perhaps more familiar with this in painting where they feel they can sense the emotional state of the artist in the brushstrokes. However, it also comes through in a piece of bronze or a piece of finely-crafted timber. So, we’re always mindful in Based Upon of that and asking ourselves what is this supposed to make the viewer feel, and therefore what do we feel in this moment. Because if there is a disconnect between those two things then we’re unlikely to accomplish that purpose.
Shalini Passi: Going forward how else do you plan to use craftsmanship in your work?
Ian Abell: Craftsmanship is really important to us, as well as developing new materials, crafts and processes. We’ve pioneered a lot of aesthetics over the years in Based Upon. Most recently we’ve developed a new material which is the first time we’ve actually applied for a worldwide patent on that material.
Tramazite is a material that we’ve used a lot in the work, based on studies of looking at the earth from the air and then using a variety of techniques using the interplay between allowing something to occur naturally and then guiding that with the hand. That interplay between a natural process and then a more direct intervention by the hand features a lot across our work.
I’d like to be doing a lot more with craft. In the beginning in Based Upon we kind of made everything ourselves in the studio but we increasingly have a network of people around the world that are the best in their field.
What I have really noticed is how few of those people there are. So many small studios have just not been able to compete and have gone out of business. And of course, when you cut the lineage from master to student you lose those subtleties of that craft. And there are actually very few, certainly in the UK, studios or workshops where you can see that lineage down a few generations.
There are new places springing up and there are young makers trying to revive craftsmanship, but that rich heritage is less evident. We need to look further to the rest of the world and ask how we can apply a contemporary creative eye and blend that with some of these more traditional ways of making. I’m sure it would be fun to explore more of that in India. We have started having some conversations and let’s see how that unfolds.
Shalini Passi: It’s great that you have such a successful fraternal partnership. How do you find working with family?
Ian Abell: (laughs) Yes, it’s as you’d imagine. In the highs, it’s amazing and in the lows, it’s really tricky. What binds Richard and I, obviously we’re not just brothers we’re twins, is a connection which is really strong and it means we can sustain some really difficult periods.
Of course, we don’t see things the same way. Or maybe that’s not an ‘of course’; maybe some twins do. However, Richard and I see the world through very different lenses. And that’s really the strength of our partnership that we’re able to get the best of both approaches.
Based Upon, Four Part Fragmented Crack
When those two approaches are competing to lead the way then things can be tricky. Even though we’ve had some momentous falling outs, they only last a few moments. We don’t seem to be able to stay in that place for a very long time. Sure we’ve both thought “Right this has to end now, we can never work together again” but as I say, within minutes that’s gone and we’re realigned. I think that just comes from having learned that kind of thing on such a deep level you know prenatally and then as very young children.
Shalini Passi: What projects are you working on at the moment? Will you be doing any more projects in India soon?
Ian Abell: Yes, there are some lovely things going on at the moment that really blur the boundaries that we talked about earlier. We’ve just completed a large sculpture, our first large sculpture in aluminium, in New York. And we’ve got a new sculpture in stone and stainless steel going to a new public square in London.
At the design level, we’ve just finished the design of a brand new piano which will replace our existing piano the Baby, which is down to the last edition, it’s a little smaller and more classical.
And then at a material level we’ve developed the new soft material that I mentioned where it’s basically sheets of metal that are flexible and can be formed into multiple directions with form and relief. And we’re just starting to play with the applications of that now and find ways of using that as a design language as well as solving architectural problems.
The thing that I feel most connected to in our work at the moment is building on our Breath series. The Breath series brought in an entirely new category into that blur. So not just work which might be seen as architectural or sculptural or functional but starts to cross over into that field that we currently call Wellness. And these were works that were designed to bring the user into a state of calm. I was originally thinking about what is it that makes a great work of art? And it’s something that a great work of art can actually change our state.
And I think the best version of a state change is when it somehow induces us into a sense of awe. In that sense of awe, as we marvel at it, we find that it takes over and our mind and the chatter and all of the things that concern us will cease. And in that moment, we exist in a moment of peace.
When the thing which sits in front of us is enough, we don’t need any other sensory data from inside our heads, or something that we’ve been thinking about or worrying about to be in there, that which is in front of us is enough. And that for me is one of the measures of a great work.
So, I thought, how do we go straight to that, what would it mean to make a work that takes you straight to that state? And in that series which we call Breath, we look at creating modern-day sanctuaries we’re beginning to create spaces via a single object or single sculpture which can return us to the idea of sanctuary in a contemporary setting but without any ideology or symbolism or dogma. It’s a very natural and elemental way.
And that work is now shown, it showed in Milan and in London and in Mumbai and the reaction is almost always the same. We’re getting a very, very high success rate of anyone who uses it saying “yeah that work changed my state and it brought me into a state of calm very quickly.” And we find it being a work that people want to sit with.
So, I’m really excited to develop that work further, which we’re working hard on, having just completed a very large commissioned version of that for an amazing house in LA.
Based Upon, Four Part Fragmented Crack
We showed in India with Tushar Jirwarajka at Volte Gallery, we had a show in Mumbai a few months ago and the work showed there. Sangita Jindal has just bought a work from that series for her new home, so that will allow her to create a sanctuary-type space in there.
We’re also in conversation about various new pieces with Kiran Nadar who is an existing collector of ours and has work from our Fragmented series and there are various things in conversation which will be exciting but I can’t say much about.
Pirojsha Godrej has recently bought one of my favourite works called the Lost Fragment which is a musing on man’s desire to overcome nature’s impermanence. It’s a work in stone and bronze which will be set within the new Godrej headquarters, so I’m really looking forward to seeing that in its new home. Because I always find that a work changes its character depending on the context. I’ve had experiences in which I barely recognized the work, such is the power of the context in which it’s put.
So, I’m looking forward to seeing that and I expect to be over developing some of these works. I’ll come over in January for the Art Fair, I think.
Find out more about Ian Abell, his studio Based Upon, and his works on basedupon.com
