Techniques

Repoussé involves hammering low-relief designs into malleable metal sheets from the reverse that originated around the 3rd or 4th century B.C., in the Middle East. In India, popularly practiced in the North, in particular, Varanasi and parts of South India, including Kumbakonam, Tiruchirapalli, and Mysore, the technique was traditionally used to make temple doors and ceilings with devotional themes. The studio explores this process through organic abstract patterns and also gives contemporary life to classical themes from the visual decorative arts.

In order to achieve this, months are spent experimenting and sampling the detailed, time-consuming technique; using the traditional repoussé process to create an unconventional design language. The final outcome is a result of the synergy between designer and artisan: a detailed two-dimensional artwork is realised in sheet metal through the intuitive and skilled process of applying the right amount of pressure to elevate the forms.

Traveling from Rome to Persia before making its way to the Indian Subcontinent, Pietra Dura, also known as inlay, is one of the world’s most beautiful and detailed decorative arts. It involves embedding highly polished, richly-hued semi-precious stones into a range of materials like wood, marble, sheet metal, and cast brass. Each stone is sliced, assembled, and set by hand, and often combined with other techniques like repoussé to form a smooth and seamless collage.

Vikram Goyal’s inventive take on merging materials and processes led to the birth of Hollowed Joinery, the studio’s own technique, which refers to a painstakingly detailed process involving multiple pieces of  hammered brass sheet metal, welded together, leaving a hollow structure within. Weld marks are then removed and the resulting forms fit together like harmonious compositions of separate yet intertwined parts.

The undulating curves in many of Vikram Goyal’s pieces are a result of fluting, a technique wherein smooth metal sheets are scored with lines or breaks. These flutes rise and fall with a rhythmic consistency, lending texture, and sheen to the piece. Creating these flutes is a highly skilled process, with the depth and dimensions of each line depending on the amount of pressure applied to fluting pliers, the specialised tool used by artisans to practice this technique.

Vikram Goyal uses the metalworking technique of spinning to create some of his signature symmetrical, tiered structures. Also known as spin forming, this process has been practiced on clay, wood, and iron for centuries and involves rotating flat sheets of metal at high speeds to shape them into axially symmetric parts. Spinning can be performed using a CNC lathe or by hand, in which case a specially trained artisan must skillfully apply pressure and compression to determine the final thickness, form, and quality of the metal.