Pierre Jeanneret’s Chandigarh furniture meets South Asian diasporic art in an unusual London exhibition

Just a ten-minute amble from the utilitarian whirligig of the recent Frieze London 2024, we discovered an altogether more cordial art happening. Rajan Bijlani – who for the last two decades has amassed a collection of some 500 pieces of Pierre Jeanneret furniture from Chandigarh, the city formed in 1952 by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and masterminded by Le Corbusier – has opened a show, working with co-curators Truls Blaasmo and Michael Jefferson, which unites six artists of South Asian origin at his home, the historic London townhouse of Fonthill Pottery.‘Syncretic Voices: Art & Design in the South Asian Diaspora’ in LondonArtwork: Harminder Judge, Untitled (wrist over chair), plaster, polymer, pigment, scrim, oil236 x 228 x 4 cm, 2024. Furniture: Pierre Jeanneret, ‘Committee Chair’, 1955 High Court, in Chandigarh Teak & Loro Piana Interiors Cashmere – Dark Zen. Pierre Jeanneret, ‘Clerk Desk’, 1957 Secretariat, in Chandigarh Indian Sissoo…