How to choose Art for your home: A guide to creating an Artful, meaningful space
The relationship between South Asian culture and Art & Aesthetics is one which is very personal to me. I know of the profound impact beauty can have on ourselves and our lives and I advocate for beauty in unexpected places, and sometimes completely atypical of places. In other words, beauty is waiting to be discovered; it is not confined to polished, predictable settings.
Growing up I didn’t encounter many South Asians with an interest in Art. Even fewer was the representation of artists from emerging markets, as I alluded to when reflecting on modern Indian Art. Which is why I always took interest in the families who would home an Art piece or two.
This Autumn, Sahir's friend Kabir, his wife Billie and their two little baby girls, welcomed us into their home for the weekend. I visited once before and the Art on the walls was not lost on me then either, but it was during Billie's baby shower so the time was spent celebrating and connecting with their gracious family and friends.
However, the visit this time was intimate, enabling space and time to quietly take in the walls from which striking discoveries emerged. To start, I loved how the Art was from the Subcontinent; practically every piece was a reflection and a celebration of South Asian culture. The absence of any Western Art had no meaning per se, but it did unfold the realisation that this home has been intentionally curated from a combination of personal interest and personal History.
From deconstructed prints of a guru, to framed ancestral family photographs, to modern paintings representing the life and love's of South Asian culture, to realist paintings of day-to-day life being lived in the Subcontinent, abstract patterns symbolic of South Asian heirlooms… right to a metal hammered tray depicting an Indian jug placed near the stairway - nothing intricate or substantial, just a quiet reminder that even when rushing down the stairs you're greeted with an every day object showcasing its beauty. The Art was diverse and wholesomely representative of different worlds within worlds.
Kabir's mother comes from an aristocratic family from Punjab, and his father is a medical professional, both now semi-retired and living their golden years in Dubai. They were one of the first South Asian families to move to Sutton Coldfield in England, and experienced a fair bit of conflict by doing so.
Like most professional couples, they spent their years raising a family alongside demanding careers to build a future, and Art became a personal interest of Kabir's mother who has many ventures - an eye and love for beauty being just one of them.
She has sourced pieces through all means a collector in the making does, who is not conscious they are becoming a collector; from her travels, amidst leisure and when just passing by that stall or two. It’s the kind of instinctive, lived collecting that mirrors what many people search for today: how to find unique art for your home or how to begin collecting Art without formal knowledge.
This isn't a home trying to emulate someone else's identity, or a home trying to reflect a message of some kind, trying to be something it's not. It's a byproduct of a life lived and personal choices practiced.
Whilst some arrive at this by accident, there are others who curate consciously towards an end goal. One approach isn't necessarily favourable over the other, and many times it can be the combination of two.
This would be the fundamental differentiation between the homes which feel lived in, and the homes which feel like a showroom; the showroom homes might look elevated, but you can't quite put your finger on what is missing, what feels out of place or dare I even say… what makes it vacuous even amidst its beauty.
In today's social sharing culture, the race is always on to either adopt the latest trend, secure validation or even simply feel as though life isn't leaving you behind when comparing your reality to what's seemingly other people's.
I can't speak for the social sharing culture however, what I would say is for those who have a desire to build a meaningful life, one which is marked by your own agenda and built through your own perspective, one you can own and shape, there is a way to cultivate this… should you so desire.
While some people would naturally be inclined to have discerning taste and the skill to curate, that is not to say it's something that cannot be learned. Many people today actively search for how to develop their taste, how to choose Art for your home, and how to build a home that feels intentional rather than copied and that journey begins with learning to see on your own terms.
That level of independent artistic confidence doesn't only come from experience and practice, but it comes from developing a love of life, and all the adversity bestowed upon you, and developing a personal love of things that matter to you.
So without further adieu, below are the five considerations to practice as you embark on your quest to create a beautiful home: your own interpretation of how to choose Art for your home and how to curate an artful home.
Select with intent
….but not with pressure. Intent can sometimes imply putting pressure on yourself by needing to achieve a certain kind of outcome. That is not the kind of intent we are referring to here. Selecting Art with intent speaks to being grounded and present when absorbing and discerning. You might very well have an agenda (something for the hallway, needing an additional piece to complement the existing one etc) but always start with a curious temperament, ready and willing to continuously explore and unpack as you go.
2. It’s ok for things to be incomplete
This can be difficult to reconcile in a culture obsessed with showmanship. I understand the desire to complete furnishing a home because the incompleteness can feel unsettling. But I wouldn't prioritise time over taste simply to finish. Many people searching for how to curate an artful home fall into this trap: speed over discernment. If you get lucky enough to furnish your home within a certain period and it's according to taste, then that's fabulous. Alternatively, moving at pace to continually create things as and when you identify them and fall in love with them, enables you to do things according to your timelines and makes the process just as meaningful as the end result of furnishing your home.
3. How it makes you feel matters
If ever you looked at something and wondered: do I like this or not? Rest assured, everyone finds themselves in that position at some point in their lives, including those which are considered to be taste makers. Sometimes the practical question ‘does this work with what I have?’ is secondary to the deeper one: what does this piece make me feel? It’s from this place that you begin to develop taste, piece by piece, moment by moment. The solution isn't in having a clear cut answer, nor is it always best to look at it practically to constantly think does this complement what you already have or not, sometimes the best way to approach things is truly to give yourself space and time to absorb it and ask yourself how it makes you feel - and not just whether it makes you feel happy, excited, inspired, but whether it's something that you have an affinity towards.
It's this feeling from which you can embark with magpie tendencies; sourcing and collecting things which in the moment may seem like they have no connection or relationship to each other, but just as life itself, when you look back at your creation you can see you've built a home, a room, a place filled with all the things that made you feel a certain kind of way.
And that is one of the main ways of intertwining meaning and depth to an atmosphere to prevent it from feeling vacuous and empty, despite its superficial beauty.
4. Create and follow your own logic
People second-guess themselves according to someone else's framework. But working against someone else's logic eventually leads to confusion. Most people searching for how to choose Art for your home are really trying to learn how to trust their own logic.
The problem with working with someone else's logic (e.g. does this reflect ‘this’, would this work with ‘that’ etc) is not knowing how to continue to follow it through. At some point your access to that logic will come to a standstill, and if you were abiding by someone else's motive to guide you and create a framework for how you approach things, do not be surprised if you still end up feeling confused or detached from the spaces you've created.
Don't hesitate to push forward with an unformulated logic and justification, and don't further hesitate to pivot when you learn or feel otherwise. The goal is not to have a consistent output per se, the goal is to consistently work towards creating an output, even if that means changing paths halfway.
5. Keep your home a reflection of your lived history
This is where the magic happens. Because this - the accumulation of meaning - is what separates a home from a showroom. Amidst all the Art, Billie and Kabir’s family home was peppered with personal keepsakes, mementos and photographs. It all looked and felt effortless; a picture of Kabir's father hugging his mother hanging on the kitchen wall. An old black and white photograph of their family from previous generations, children's books and a world map perched over a fireplace… it was a reflection of a home which is celebrating love and life.
A slow weekend in the English countryside…
This weekend in the English Countryside truly did feel like an antidote to City living. London is my first love, that is for sure, and in recent years I have been focusing on how to embody slow living with big ambitions. However, in the current landscape it is becoming harder to find and build authentic relationships, let alone to find people who will invest their time with you. For this I was truly grateful and humbled to be welcomed by Billie and Kabir; well wishers with good hearts. So much so in fact, we stayed up till 2am in the morning near the fireplace, candidly talking about all the struggles and aspirations that we have as British South Asian couples raising a family, and juggling everything the modern world is throwing at us. That kind of heart-to-heart is becoming scarce and one which I did not take lightly.
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