Alex Davis’ latest collection in stainless steel is inspired by African flora and fauna

Stainless steel kitchenware was, once upon a time, a favourite in Indian kitchens. Now stainless steel is the material of the moment for those who want to give their interiors a new dimension. Think of it: a stainless steel sculpture in your living room will give your home a cutting-edge look that’s tough to match.

“Gone are the days when stainless steel was considered best restricted to kitchenware. Today it has moved to the living room as art work,” says Sunil Sethi, president, Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI).

Artists like Vibhor Sogani, Alex Davis, Jeram Patel and Shiv Verma swear by stainless steel and their creations in the metal have been showstoppers at exhibitions.

Says interior designer Poonam Kalra: “It’s taken a long time but stainless steel has finally come into its own.” Kalra believes that since artists have taken to the metal, people are discovering the immense possibilities of converting it into an integral element of home interiors.

Kalra reasons that stainless steel wasn’t popular as an art medium till recently because it was difficult to weld. But today, access to technology and cutting-edge machines have made it easier to work on.

Artist Jeram Patel’s Small Work series displays his untitled wood and stainless steel creations named Mirror Sculptures

So now the metal with a silver sheen is frozen in art forms like sculpture and wall art not only to beautify interiors, but also to lend an aesthetic look to gardens, offices and homes. “Now, stainless steel sculpture is also being seen as public art installations,” says Kalra.

For artist Alex Davis, stainless steel is a New Age metal. “While bronze and copper have been around in various forms, nothing about them surprises people. But stainless steel continues to have a fresh and new feel about it,” says Davis. An added advantage is that stainless steel is maintenance-free.

(From top) Vibhor Sogani’s innovative sculpture called Beehive; An installation with stainless steel triangles called Bait; Sogani poses with steel wall art in the backdrop

Also, Sogani says that stainless steel is versatile and can be given different finishes. “It can be given a mirror finish or can be left with a raw look,” he says.

Sogani’s 6,000-sqft Aaya Nagar studio, ODD (Office of Design & Development), is crammed with steel sculpture with names like At Loggerheads, Bait, Ego, Kink Within, My Neighbour Gulliver and Life. He has also created sculpture depicting waves and even large lotus-like petals and home products. The fact, as Sogani points out, is that people with large homes leave huge spaces for art works.

The artists say that stainless steel wall art is also a winner. The largest wall art pieces created by Sogani are 3ft x 2ft (Rs 3 lakhs) and 8ft x 5ft (Rs 8 lakhs). Also there’s a big demand for stainless steel sculpture internationally. Sethi too manufactures and exports stainless steel sculpture, which is on display at his Delhi office. Some have geometric shapes like the stainless steel globes (Rs 600 to Rs 1,000) and sculpture like the one made out of steel rings that are placed one on top of the other in descending order (Rs 2,500).

(From top) Steel sculpture manufactured by Sunil Sethi in different geometric shapes are in demand internationally

Sethi says it’s relatively cheap to produce stainless steel sculpture in India and they sell for much higher prices abroad.

“Art obviously comes for a price and the beauty of installations like the famous artist Subodh Gupta’s untitled work of steel vessels, which has raked millions in international auctions, is that you can take an everyday product and lend it an aesthetic value,” he explains.

Sogani’s favourite from his collection is a functional light installation designed like a steel beehive. He believes it adds a sculptural quality to an interior.

Davis’ work, on the other hand, has always been inspired by nature and that’s obvious from his three all-stainless steel collections — My Lazy Blooms, My Lazy Garden and The Moonlit Safari. Two collections, My Lazy Blooms and My Lazy Garden have stainless steel frozen into flowers and plants.

In his latest line, The Moonlit Safari, Davis has gone a step further and combined stainless steel with felt and wood. He has created rugs with faux animal skin, horn-shaped vases in steel, steel furniture with suede upholstery and stainless steel decorative tusks. Davis says: “About 80 per cent of the work I do is art.”

Another fan of the metal is veteran artist Jeram Patel, who has combined the metal with burnt wood — he calls the result “mirrors of life”. Patel says: “I’ve never worked with stainless steel before. But in the ’60s I experimented with the blowtorch on wood and have repeated this in my current steel-and-wood line.”

The Vadodara-based artist is planning a solo sculptural exhibition in Delhi this month. Christened Mirror Sculptures, the major works are mirror-like stainless steel plates that have been inset with wood. The wood has been gouged out with a blowtorch to create abstract forms. All these can be hung like paintings.

Shiv Verma’s 3ft hybrid lamp is inspired by a nailcutter; (Above) Shiv Verma

The latest eye-catcher in steel by Shiv Verma is an outsized 3ft-long nail-cutter which can (at a push) also function as a lamp. Priced at Rs 3.9 lakhs this took Verma under three months to design. Amongst the other stunning pieces that the artist recently displayed at the Jindal Stainless Steel Gallery in the capital was a 6ft high stapler — priced at around Rs 5.5 lakhs — while a 4ft-long Swiss knife sold for whopping Rs 12 lakhs.

Verma defends the high prices and says that steel costs around Rs 300 per kg, which is steep. Says Sogani: “Steel is not a fad. It’s here to stay.”