Mahdavi's glazed ceramic Landscape vases were cooked three to four times to get the right colors.
In her chic VIIth arrondissement Parisian atelier, architect and designer India Mahdavi creates furniture pieces, 3D spaces, and objets d’art of an unusual sensuality. One of her most recent works is a collaboration with Carwan Gallery in Lebanon, that features a collection of oversized ceramic and gold vases, and high and low tile top tables. These limited edition handcrafted pieces, called Landscape Series, are the results of a journey across Beirut, Istanbul, and Paris. As a re-imagining of where opposites attract, these sculptural furnishings take extra inspiration from the vibrantly coloured Iznik tiles of Bursa in Turkey, and the indoor/outdoor lifestyle of the Middle East, where strong furniture pieces “have to exist against some kind of infinity, like the open/endless blue sky,” says Mahdavi.
As a child of an Iranian Shiite father and an Egyptian Copt mother, who moved countries continuously while growing up and speaks several languages, Mahdavi naturally combines Occidental with Oriental in her work. “I am always mixing, renewing, surprising,” she says. In the elliptical stories that her designs tell us, we are able to sense, and participate in, where East metaphorically meets West.
Landscape Series is on view at Carwan Gallery’s stand C11 at Collective 2 Design Fair in New York City through May 8-11. Mahdavi will create a special installation for the occasion and will be on hand to sign her latest book, Home.