Gunjan Aylawadi x The Social Outfit

Portrait by Levon Baird

Introducing Gunjan Aylawadi x The Social Outfit, a new print collaboration and highlight of our 2019 collection, Kinetic Bloom!

This print was developed from Gunjan's original artwork, Formed in Fantasy: 

These works used in the prints are three dimensional geometries inspired by the fantastical visual world of natural reproduction. This work was conceived while I was pregnant with my first child and thinking about the culturally circumvented topic of natural human reproduction. It was also overwhelming to think about the impending pain of childbirth and I dealt with it by attempting to meditate on it and normalise it with geometry & repetition.

-Gunjan Aylawadi

Image courtesy of the artist, at Sturt Gallery, Mittagong.

I regularly encounter people who've come to this beautiful country and struggle to find a way to employment and feel part of the society. I've always wished I knew the answer to this problem. But when I heard about The Social Outfit and how through such a simple idea you were changing so many lives, I was immediately keen to support... I am excited to be a small part in supporting the great mission of The Social Outfit. Through how fashion has evolved, it has become such a selfish act to buy something new...but I love how through the generous process of giving back & empowering people through fashion, The Social Outfit has made the decision and desire to buy new clothes a lot easier.

- Gunjan Aylawadi

About Gunjan:

Gunjan Aylawadi is an Industrial designer and a self taught artist. She was born in India and currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia. 

Placed between an exploration of memory, materials and meditative sensory pleasures, Aylawadi draws inspiration from repetitive geometric patterns and relief work found within arabesque art & architecture that she grew up around in India. Influenced by her education in the sciences and design, Aylawadi’s work is textural, pure and distinct. She takes her memories of the vibrant collage of the rich cultural environment in India and processes it through a filter of modern design and aesthetic. Her work, geometric in its formal language, is an abstraction of those visuals of wonder and tactile memories of handmade objects of her growing up years. 

In their current form, her works are meticulous paper weavings where paper is both material and colour. Aylawadi uses geometry and the tension in curled paper strips to create relief works that rise up from the surface and reveal their richness to the viewers as they come closer and move around them. You will see textural bands of deep contrasting colours that represent a remembrance of the rituals, ceremonies, smells experienced in a specific place or moment in time. With a unique technique born out of a longing to touch & feel her medium and to slow down in a fast paced world, Aylawadi's works articulate the her desire to draw out meaning from mayhem. 

Since 2013 Aylawadi has been a part of several group exhibitions and art events like the Paper Art Biennale in Netherlands 2015 and Sydney Contemporary 2015. She has been a finalist for several prestigious art awards and been highly commended for her work at the Woollahara Small Sculpture Prize 2014 and the Alice Springs Art Prize 2014.