Objects That Inspire: Four Indian Creatives Tell Us About What Inspires Them

In December 2025, I moved into my own apartment — a small 2BHK on the second floor of an old residential building in one of the older neighborhoods of North Calcutta. I like to call it my crappy little flat. The bathroom is too small to move in, and the kitchen is barely usable, but the afternoon light in the smaller room — which I’ve since turned into a makeshift study — is delightful. Diffuse, warm, and solid, it’s almost like French butter. On weekends, when I have some free time, I like to sit on the floor and go through my growing collection of artists’ monographs and photobooks in that light; to look at the sculptures, sketches, prints, and photographs I’ve acquired over the years. Over the course of this year and, hopefully, many years to come, I intend to fill this small space with objects that inspire, ground, and influence my work.

The idea originates from the French modernist Henri Matisse, who was inspired by his personal collection of everyday objects, which reappeared in his works throughout his career. Matisse believed that the objects we surround ourselves with express our lives, interests, desires, and often our hopes, fears, and axieties. He had a vast collection of vases, chairs, carpets, furniture, and other objects that appeared in many of his paintings. Also scattered around his studio were objects and artefacts from around the world that inspired him. They weren’t always expensive pieces, but each had a certain quality or sentimental value that resonated with him. All these items kept the artist company in his studio. “I have worked all my life before the same objects,” he wrote in 1951. “The object is an actor. A good actor can have a part in ten different plays; an object can play a role in ten different pictures.”

Over the last four weeks, I spoke with leading Indian creatives about the objects that inspire, ground, or shape their practice. From an heirloom glass sphinx to a kitchen door plastered with memories, here are four such objects that inspire Indian creatives:

Sunhil Sippy

“My entire home is a treasure trove of photos, books, and old letters and diaries, and all these combine to give me a safe, cocoon-like space, where I’m able to create with a sense of both calm and courage. I’m particularly fond of an old glass sphinx paperweight that has sat upon an old wooden desk; both have been in the family since the 1950s. I now use it to flatten film negatives that have a tendency to curl! Many of the books are a prized inheritance — a first edition of ‘The Graduate’ by Charles Webb and an old copy of Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ whose cover has remained etched in my mind from my childhood in London. Elegant photographs of my grandparents always remind me of my own history, provoking a nostalgia that always seems to suggest that their lives were sophisticated and stylish, and also filled with substance.”

Sunhil Sippy is a filmmaker and photographer whose work spans advertising campaigns, feature films, and documentary-style visual storytelling. Sippy’s extensive photographic explorations of Mumbai’s daily life have gained recognition for their intimacy, texture, and depth of storytelling. Follow @sunhilsippy on Instagram.

Kavya Trehan

“I’m a sensorial son of a gun! I’ve learned to account for how profoundly my surroundings shape my mood, tempo, and ultimately the foundation of my creativity. Lately, I’ve kept trial scents around the studio! These are used as deliberate pauses and resets. There’s something about stopping to smell No. 04 that cuts through the chaos and restores a sense of calm. Could be because scent is inseparable from memory, and this one returns me to my time on the beach.”

Kavya Trehan is a multi-disciplinary singer-songwriter, recording artist, and performer based in New Delhi, India. Follow @kavyatrehan on Instagram.

Jessie Sohpaul

“I have a small Basquiat Bear brick that somehow always ends up wherever I’m working. I didn’t think much of it when I got it. I fidget with it during meetings or when I’m thinking. Always bending the arms and legs, twisting them, etc. I wouldn’t say it inspires my work, but it keeps my hands occupied, especially during meetings.”

Jessie Sohpaul is a Punjabi-Canadian multidisciplinary artist. Sohpaul works across murals, furniture, branding, exhibitions, and public installations — using each medium to explore how identity is constructed, inherited, and challenged within the diaspora. Follow @jessiesohpaul on Instagram.

Gresham Fernandes

“The kitchen door acts as inspiration to a lot of dishes we cook at Bandra Born. The door is plastered with stickers I’ve picked up over the years, bars I’ve loved, restaurants that changed me, festivals that I’ve attended, gigs where the music stayed with me longer than the night. Every sticker is a memory, a feeling, a moment when food or culture made sense in a deeper way. When I pass through that door, I don’t just enter the kitchen; I revisit those places and how they made me feel. That feeling becomes the starting point. The dish isn’t about recreating a meal or copying a place; it’s about translating a memory, a mood, an energy onto a plate. That door reminds me of why I cook in the first place.”

Gresham Fernandes is one of Mumbai’s most influential contemporary chefs, known for his boundary-pushing approach to ingredient-driven cuisine. His menus show a restless curiosity and a dedication to honest, straightforward flavours. Today, he continues to experiment through his restaurant ‘Bandra Born’, pop-ups, collaborations, and independent projects, solidifying his reputation as a chef who constantly reimagines what Indian dining can become. Follow @greshamfernandes on Instagram.

Learn more about Henri Matisse’s personal collection of objects and artworks here.

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