An immersive celebration of marble, music, cuisine, and craft at Kanoria Centre for Arts
Guests experience stone through sight, sound, touch, and taste in an evocative evening
Bilkul Online | 21 Sept 2025
By Rafat Quadri
The Ahmedabad edition of StoneX’s acclaimed Stone Portraits found its soul in ‘I Am Cotton’, a breathtaking installation by Vadodara-based sculptor Azgharali Shaik. A fine arts graduate and a reputed sculptor, Shaik described the opportunity as “a great honour to work on an international product.” Speaking to Bilkul Online, he shared, “I was very happy to receive this offer to work on stone.
StoneX was kind enough to contact me and I readily agreed. I was given a solid block of Carrara Italian Marble from which I decided to carve a cotton flower. I worked entirely by hand, without using any machines, shaping its forms as it blossoms. Cotton is extraordinary — it makes our clothes, mattresses, diyas, and so much more. I wanted to honour its many lives.”
The result, completed in just 15 days, was a voluminous, marble-sculpted meditation on fragility and endurance. Juxtaposing cotton’s soft whiteness with marble’s hard permanence, the piece became the hero of the event, embodying both labour and poetry.
Stone Portraits is designed as an immersive encounter where every sense is awakened. Guests were invited to see, touch, hear, and taste the living essence of stone. Enhancing this sensory journey, five budding architects — Deboshmita Ghosh, Cheshta Vashishtha, Abhinaya V, Shruti Patel, and Kritika Bhardwaj — interpreted the story of each stone. They traced its origins, revealed its geographic and cultural resonance, and physically presented marble samples to the audience. Their narrations transformed stone from static material into a living archive of time and place. The experience extended to taste as well, with ITC Hotels preparing a special sweet for the occasion, reinforcing how heritage can be savoured not just through sight or touch, but also on the palate.
Stone Portraits also pays tribute to master artisans from the Rajasthan–Gujarat border, heirs to centuries-old marble-carving traditions. Their chiselled works, marked by physical precision and spiritual depth, were displayed alongside Shaik’s installation — a dialogue between heritage and contemporary imagination.
Explaining the significance of the showcase, Prachi Bhattacharya, CEO of StoneX Global, reflected on the dualities that make ‘I Am Cotton’ so powerful, “There is a striking juxtaposition here — cotton is white and soft, while marble is white and hard. By carving one into the other, Shaik compels us to think about materiality, memory, and meaning in a fresh way. Each stone tells a story, and our aim is to situate it within cultural and human geographies.” Her words underscored StoneX’s mission to transform stone from raw resource into cultural conversation — situating it as both timeless and deeply local.
Founded in 2003, StoneX is globally recognised for its unmatched expertise in over 700 varieties of stones, refined at its advanced facility in Kishangarh, Rajasthan. Beyond supplying the world’s finest marble, granite, onyx, limestone, and semi-precious stones, StoneX has stepped into the art-driven luxury lifestyle space through initiatives like Stone Portraits. With a presence across India, USA, UAE, UK, Australia, and Singapore, StoneX continues to redefine luxury living — positioning stone not merely as building material, but as a vessel of memory, culture, and imagination.
Speaking on the occasion, Sushant Pathak, Chief Marketing Officer, StoneX Global, shared “With each edition of Stone Portraits, we seek to situate stone within new cultural geographies, reminding us that its presence is both timeless and deeply local. Ahmedabad, with its enduring architectural heritage and living craft traditions, provides a resonant setting for this dialogue. Here, we are honoured to foreground the artistry of regional artisans alongside contemporary practice, reaffirming our commitment to celebrating stone as both material and memory.”
(Rafat Quadri can be contacted at editorbilkul@gmail.com)
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