Lokesh Ghai

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will study the unexplored history of shoemaking in the Dehradun Valley to understand what the craft and making of essential objects tell us about the history of a place and people, especially the shoemakers in this case. Lokesh Ghai is the Coordinator for this project. 

Lokesh Ghai is an artist, researcher and Professor at the School of Design, UPES, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. As a founding faculty member of Somaiya Kala Vidya, an institute dedicated to empowering artisans, he has extensively worked with them in Kutch, Ladakh and Uttarakhand. As an artist he has showcased textile narratives at the Museum of Childhood, London. As a designer and Associate Curator, he presented an exhibition titled India Street in Scotland, which was a runner-up for the most sustainable design practice award at the Edinburgh International Art Festival 2014. He has also worked with Warli artists on various collaborations over the last two decades. He showcased a Warli Art show as an Associate Curator at British Council, New Delhi, as the inaugural event for Craft Week 2021. Lokesh regularly contributes articles for Garland, an Australia-based Craft Magazine. Recently, he was awarded the Karun Thakar award by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His vast experience as a researcher and practitioner makes him best suited to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project by IFA.

This project will inquire into the untold history of the shoemakers of Dehradun and how their lives are intertwined with the valley. Dehradun Valley’s layered history speaks of travellers, invaders, and rulers, and it has been a melting pot of different cultures. While shoemakers here are custodians of a living cultural heritage, the community has been stigmatised because of caste. So far, there has not been any study that presents the voices of the shoemakers in the context of the region, and this project addresses this gap. It will enquire into the evolution of the art of shoemaking over the years in tandem with shifts in the political, geographical and sociological environments in Dehradun. Furthermore, it will examine how shoemakers sustain their practice and what the future of shoemaking holds with the increase in the popularity of the ready-to-wear brands of shoes. 

Through participant observation method, informal interviews and filming, the project will document the lives of a select set of shoemakers at work. To understand the tacit aspect of shoemaking according to the needs of a body and its relationship with material, each shoemaker will be commissioned to make a set of new shoes. The project will also reflect on the aesthetics of handmade shoes. 

The outcomes of this project will be a photo essay and a short film on a select set of shoemakers from Dehradun. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be the photo essay and the short film.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme as it attempts to study an unexplored area of craft that is discriminated against in the context where discourse is dominated by religion, tourism and politics. 

IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and that the funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees. 

This project is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.