It’s that time of the year when architects, designers, collectors, and possibly anyone with an aesthetic-led viewpoint flocks to India Design ID Mumbai, the annual gathering of art and design in Mumbai’s BKC area. It’s the sort of playground where your eccentricities and blandness can be rewarded with something worth bringing home. People from the former camp are likely to veer towards Kolkata-based Atelier Arunika, a furniture brand by Arindam Chatterjee and Arunika Sarkar that launched earlier this year with a perfectly symmetrical and pastel-hued collection of cabinets and credenzas.
After wowing Milan this April with their debut ‘Ramino’ series (and that powder pink and green Canasta bar cabinet!) that you cannot help but deem worthy of a Wes Anderson set, the duo is back with another whimsical collection. ‘Forma Pois Memoirs’, a playful, five-piece polka-dot collection, is likely to make you think of the late Yayoi Kusama and her dotted universe. There’s a personality-packed stack called the Cromatica totem, inspired by the childhood game of pittu; a wall art piece inspired by Bengali hand fans (Euphorica) and a powder-blue and pink storage cabinet in the shape of a child’s frock (Teatrica). But the piece that has us going dotty is Dolce Chaos, a chocolate-coloured console inspired by a bioscope and generously peppered with powder-blue polka dots.
