As an island that was a major destination in the Silk Route dating back to the second century BCE to colonial times, Sri Lanka has absorbed multitudes of artistic influences through literature, clothing, visual art, architecture and design with a gentle touch of hospitality. Barefoot, an independent, artist-led design house began as a space for exploration, innovation, creativity and most importantly as a space for the growth of unique Sri Lankan artistic practices.

In the 1960s, Barbara Sansoni, a Sri Lankan woman of Dutch Burgher heritage, founded Barefoot as a workshop for women to learn and experiment with weaving. Her artistic sensibilities and training in fine art from the Chelsea School of Art in London fostered a love for colour, vibrancy, detail and simplicity. As an adventurous creative thinker, she travelled around the island and made notes of colour, composition, intersections and her bountiful days in the rural, the urban and the suburban. Although recognising that representing these ideas primarily through abstract, non-figurative designs of woven textile would be challenging, Sansoni decided to try with the support of a group of women designers and artisans. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Sri Lanka was a closed economy under the regime of the Bandaranaike family, which meant that all designs and materials had to be produced locally by Barefoot. Adapting to these initial challenges, over the past 60 years, Barefoot has become a place of communal gathering, discourse-building, jazz nights, pub quizzes, a modest yet warm gallery space and a café. The Barefoot team developed a signature line of textile-based products that they practise to date. They still refer to early notes by Sansoni daily to create functional and aesthetically pleasing pieces for their admirers.

In 2022, Sansoni passed away. Having never met her, I remember walking through a retrospective show put together by her team and running into her son. He showed me a cartoon she had drawn as a young woman, where she mocks rules imposed upon women and their ways of dressing in Sri Lanka heavily influenced by colonial Victorian values. This was a side of Barefoot that I had never seen before––the quirks, strong opinions and conscientious nature of the founder began to seep through the textiles I would encounter at my regular visits to the space. A deep red dress with a slight sheen and sharp geometric sleeves is one of Barefoot’s iconic designs I hold dear.

This dress is a recent possession––while growing up in Colombo in a middle-class family, Barefoot was not a space I inhabited regularly. My Christmases and other expeditions with family and friends would be spent at more affordable department stores. However, my mother would momentarily stop with us at Barefoot to admire the quality of their handloom work, the local weaving techniques, the unique textures and the exhibitions happening at the gallery space. In August 2024, when the Barefoot team put together an exhibition showcasing their designers, it felt like those working behind the scenes were finally in a refreshing encounter with the public. The worlds of the design company, gallery and café were colliding in a manner that accentuated not just Sansoni’s vision but also the teamwork that had gone into inventing and reinventing the initiative’s legacy.

Exploring the four main classic artistic and design themes of Barefoot as imagined by Sansoni, the exhibition’s galleries mimicked practical and functional spaces in a home. Upon entry, we came across handwritten notes by Sansoni from 1991, about Barefoot Primitive, an artistic and design theme based on nature in the tropics:

“Elemental, natural, raw.
Sand, rock, shells
Sea in a coral bay.
Limestone kilns, snowy salt paws
Silvery moonlight, cumulus cloud.”  

A verandah space, usually used to hold dinners, performances, panel discussions and more, had been redesigned as a ‘study’ - transformed into an intimate yet open space of breathability in the presence of nature-inspired woven designs. Facing the garden, the aesthetic replicated the Barefoot Primitive concept with earthy colours and strict geometric shapes. A wooden table and chair sat on a white, black and dark brown rug mixed with triangular pops of blue, red and other vibrant hues reminiscent of Sansoni’s moonlit nights near the sea. Next to it laid a cupboard with shelves holding keepsakes, notes and other important paraphernalia. The ‘conservatory’ of the home, was meant to capture the “silvery moonlight, cumulus cloud” from Sansoni’s original notes on the Barefoot Primitive. As we walked indoors passing the verandah space, we experienced a relaxing living room atmosphere filled with various hues of sky blue in the carpeting, tapestries, paintings, a sofa chair, a six-feet handloom fabric chandelier and indoor plants. The protagonist was a pale brown handwoven cane lounge chair, designed using age-old artisanal weaving techniques mixed with Barefoot’s signature geometric shapes.

Barefoot’s true vision in bringing together form and function, with its defining aesthetic has not been shown as powerfully as this before. Sri Lanka’s modern art history continues to be dominated by narratives of fine art, and this recently concluded exhibition is a rare occasion that I covet as an attempt to invigorate a discussion about design being unleashed from its identity as fine art’s scorned, lesser-than relative.

'HOUSE' was on view at Barefoot from August 29 - September 29, 2024.