New Delhi, Feb 28 My journey with art is inextricably intertwined with my journey as a woman. As a child, I remember being surrounded by works of art at home, and sitting in on conversations between my mother, Urmila Kanoria, a champion of the arts and the many inspiring architects, designers and artists with whom she worked and who always happened to be around the house.
My mother started the Kanoria Centre for Arts in Ahmedabad in the 1980s - a space she founded with the guidance of architect B.V. Doshi which enabled a host of creative minds and practitioners to come together and learn from each other in an interdisciplinary setting like never before.
India's greatest living architect Doshi sahab also had an abiding influence on my way of looking at the world. My conversations with him imbued in me a deep understanding of the social and communitarian bases of architecture. If my mother gave me my sensitivity to colours and forms, my understanding of space was enhanced thanks to Doshi sahab. I also realised the crucial relationship between artworks and the built spaces that house them. Later in life, when I took on the task of renovating monuments like the Chandramouleshwara temple in Hampi, the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue and the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, and the Shalimar Gardens in Kashmir, among other great heritage buildings, my discussions with him guided me greatly.
I moved to Mumbai after my marriage in 1984,where I set up the Jindal Arts Creative Interaction Centre
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