A Place for Wonder: Vikram Goyal’s Wings and Tales

4 days ago

5 min read

In a Mayfair townhouse, the Indian designer brought the imaginative world of the Ramayana into contemporary life through sculptural furniture, intricate metalwork and the simple act of gathering.

Wings and Tales by Vikram Goyal. Photo Credit | Taran Wilkhu

A screen becomes a forest. A stool recalls a bird’s courageous intervention. Across textiles and metalwork, monkeys carry instruments, bows and rockets, their activities suspended somewhere between celebration and conflict. In Wings and Tales, Vikram Goyal approached furniture and decorative objects as carriers of stories—things to live with, but also to look into.

Presented at 7 Grafton Street in London from 13 to 16 October 2026, the exhibition transformed a Georgian townhouse in Mayfair into an extension of Goyal’s Delhi home. Drawing on the creatures and landscapes of the Ramayana, it brought together furniture, objects, brocades and rugs in an environment conceived for both contemplation and conversation.

“I wanted to create a world that feels uplifting and full of possibility; a place where mythology, craft and storytelling can come together,” Goyal explains.

An Epic on an Intimate Scale

The Ramayana has been retold through literature, painting, performance and countless other forms across generations. Goyal’s response finds its focus in the epic’s relationships: the loyalty of companions, the courage of those who intervene on another’s behalf, and the connections between human beings and the natural world.

A particular inspiration is Madhuvana, the “honey forest,” where the Vanara—the forest dwellers traditionally represented as monkeys—celebrate nature’s abundance. Its imagined luxuriance runs through the collection, animating surfaces and giving functional objects a narrative presence.

“The creatures of the Ramayana have always fascinated me, particularly the monkeys, whose stories speak so beautifully of friendship, loyalty and collective endeavour,” says Goyal.

Yet this is no uncomplicated idyll. In his accompanying catalogue introduction, design curator and historian Glenn Adamson draws attention to the ambiguity of the imagery. Musical instruments and weapons occupy the same world; the rockets carried by monkeys may suggest festivities or danger. Pleasure and uncertainty remain closely entwined.

That tension gives the exhibition depth. Its enchanted forest offers delight while retaining an awareness of the forces that might disturb it.

Wings and Tales by Vikram Goyal. Photo Credit | Taran Wilkhu

Stories Shaped by Hand

Goyal’s material language gives these ideas physical weight. His New Delhi studio has worked for more than two decades with skilled craftspeople, particularly in metal, exploring how inherited techniques can accommodate new forms and narratives. Its practice includes repoussé, pietra dura and hollowed joinery, supported by close dialogue between designer and artisan.

For Wings and Tales, repoussé brass screens handcrafted in Varanasi brought the forest’s inhabitants into sculptural relief. Hand-embroidered silk brocades and velvet seating introduced softer surfaces, while rugs made entirely from recycled sari silk extended the exhibition’s imagery across land, sea and air.

The Vana Maitri screen gathers vultures, crocodiles and monkeys within exuberant foliage. At approximately 2.74 metres wide, it gives the collection’s intricate storytelling an architectural scale. Its patinated gold finish catches the light across a landscape of creatures and activity.

The Bagh works approach the garden through flowing forms and elaborate detail, extending its imagery into screens, tables, pedestals and mirrors. Elsewhere, Whispers of Madhuvana takes jasmine as its starting point. Across vases, bowls, serving pieces and Champagne buckets, the fleeting presence of a flower becomes a lasting material motif. Brass is joined by finishes including patinated gold and silver plating, bringing different registers of light to the collection.

Furniture with a Moral Imagination

Some of the collection’s most affecting references emerge through individual creatures.

The Makara ottomans draw on a mythical aquatic being poised between crocodile and imagined beast. Associated with the guardianship of sacred waters, it introduces a fluid passage between river, forest and fantasy. Vishrama Makara shifts the emphasis towards repose: its name invokes rest, allowing the narrative to pause between journeys.

The Jatayu Maitri stools carry a more poignant story. In the Ramayana, the aged vulture Jatayu confronts Ravana in an attempt to protect Sita. Goyal’s interpretation centres on the impulse behind the act—the decision to help despite uncertain odds. Brass, velvet and embroidery bring this account of loyalty into an object intended for everyday proximity.

Adamson also identifies a broad visual vocabulary within the exhibition: Indian and Ottoman miniature painting, the cloud forms of Chinese embroidery and porcelain, and affinities with Art Deco. These references provide Goyal with ways to organise pattern, movement and material, connecting the collection’s contemporary forms to multiple histories of making.

Hospitality as Part of the Work

The exhibition’s organising idea was the baithak: a space for hospitality and exchange. Two contrasting rooms—one intimate and richly layered, the other open and communal—gave that idea different spatial expressions.

Literary salons extended the programme beyond objects, with authors including Sam Dalrymple and Gurnaik Johal participating in conversations around Indian literature, history, cuisine and design. Food and drink were provided through event partner Gymkhana, while Blooming Haus contributed the floral arrangements.

For Goyal, this social dimension was central to the exhibition’s purpose.

“The baithak gave me the opportunity to bring that sense of connection into the exhibition: a space where people can slow down, spend time with the work and, importantly, with one another.”

His interest in sensory experience has precedents. Adamson recalls Soul Garden, presented at Design Miami Paris in 2024, for which Goyal collaborated with scent artist Sissel Tolaas. Reflecting on that project, the designer observed: “Both smells and fables bypass logic and go straight to memory.”

In Wings and Tales, that relationship between sensation and memory took the form of a welcoming interior. Objects, conversation and hospitality offered complementary ways into an ancient narrative. The exhibition’s richness lay in making those stories available at the scale of an encounter: a seat taken, a surface examined, a conversation allowed to continue.

Wings and Tales by Vikram Goyal. Photo Credit | Taran Wilkhu

About Vikram Goyal

Vikram Goyal is an Indian designer whose New Delhi-based practice explores collectible furniture and decorative arts through India’s craft traditions. His early exposure to art and family collections in Rajasthan helped shape his interest in ornament and storytelling.

Educated in engineering and development economics at Princeton University, he worked in finance in the United States and Hong Kong before returning to India in 2000 and co-founding Kama Ayurveda. His creative practice now encompasses Vikram Goyal Studio and the lifestyle brand Viya. Represented by Nilufar, his work has been exhibited at PAD London, Design Miami Paris and India Art Fair.