Mumbai-based Tanishaa and Aashika Cunha who have their roots in Goa, recently created an immersive window installation with hand cut glass mosaic for the new Hermès store in the metropolitan city CHRISTINE MACHADO | NT BUZZ It all began in Barcelona. While on holiday there in 2014, the Cunha family came across a lot of beautiful mosaic work. “My sister and I have always been into art, be it painting or sculpting, and so when we saw all this mosaic work, our dad suggested that we could give it a try,” recalls Tanishaa Cunha.
Once back in Mumbai, the sisters decided to give it a go. “We made a really small piece, and our parents very enthusiastically shared it on Facebook,” says Tanishaa, laughing. However, a contact on Facebook liked the work and sent them a message with a request.
“This person owned a lot of malls across America and asked if we could do a piece for one of the malls there. We were a bit shocked because we had only done a small piece until then. But we decided to go for it and ended up doing a 2000 square foot piece in Honolulu,” shares Tanishaa.
Since then, the sisters have been doing mosaic work on a commission basis, with materials sourced both locally and from Italy. With their roots in Goa, the sisters’ have also completed projects for private homes in the state. Their family house in Cansaulim, which they have lent out to the Postcard group of hotels, also features a large piece on St.
Francis Xavier done by them. Similarly, the Hermès team reached out to the sisters’ about a year ago to work on their window design for the new store at the Jio World Plaza, Mumbai. “We’ve done a lot of corporate work with different brands, but this was on a different scale for a luxury brand.
It was a dream project for us because we had always aspired for something like this,” says Tanishaa. With this year’s theme being the ‘Spirit of the Faubourg’ to mark the 100th anniversary of the flagship store in Paris, the windows of stores globally are interpretations of Faubourg. The sisters’ worked on their own interpretation of this theme.
“We chose to focus on the Faubourg fairground, which we thought was very reminiscent of the energy of Faubourg,” says Tanishaa. She explains that Faubourg was the original residence of Hermès before it evolved into a store. And as races became popular, the brand adapted by introducing scarves, boots, and various types of apparel for race-goers.
“Over the years, the store has added different extensions to the building, with many staircases and hidden nooks and crannies. We were really inspired by this. It’s like a maze of activity, energy, and products, with an adventurous vibe,” says Tanishaa.
She adds that working with the Hermès team was a wonderful experience, as their design thinking and sensibilities are unmatched. “We were lucky enough to work very closely with their communication director, who really guided us and was very involved in the process,” she says. The ideation on the concept began a year ago, with the sisters’ first working on 2D sketches and 3D models.
The production of the piece was undertaken in the last three months. “Everything is hand-carved by us and our team, and it was very labour-intensive. The final step was product placement and understanding the physics of everything.
For example, for the Ferris wheel, we had to balance the teacups. So a lot of prototyping was involved,” she says. A lot of testing was also done on different materials, as Hermès prides itself on its sustainable practices.
The sisters’ tried to avoid anything that couldn’t be recycled or was harmful to the environment. “Very often, when window displays are dismantled and discarded, there is wastage. But while we were making things, we thought about the afterlife of these pieces.
So, we built it in such a way that the backdrop could be made into tables. We also reached out to rural schools to give them parts that they could use to brighten up their environment,” explains Tanishaa..
