Bharti Kher (in collaboration with Priti Paul
Belladonna. Life-sized objects and table. 2003

A visit to Amrita Jhaveri's flat in South Bombay is not recommended for the faint-hearted. In the living room, Bharti Kher's fibreglass woman - with cloven feet and sagging breasts - offers you pink cupcakes topped with nipple-shaped cherries. In the kitchen, Subodh Gupta's gleaming steel bartans have unaccountably migrated to the walls. A peek into the bedroom reveals Anita Dube's ink-blue velvet sculpture, Desert Queen, poised like some avenging angel over the king-sized bed. Jhaveri - if you haven't deduced already - likes living with art and her home has been recently 'curated' by sister, Priya Jhaveri, and exhibition designer Mark Prime. Zehra Jumabhoy talks to the ex-Christie's representative about the much-disputed distinctions between owning, collecting and investing in art.

ZEHRA JUMABHOY: WHAT MADE YOU START COLLECTING?

Amrita Jhaveri: When I met my husband (Christopher Davidge) and we decided to renovate an apartment in London in 1998/ 9, we began to look at interesting art to live with. Initially we collected Anglo-Indian furniture, Company School paintings and early Indian photography. We began collecting Indian contemporary art when we refurbished a flat in Bombay the following year.

Z.J.: Do you favour a particular type of art?

Surekha. Eye Of A Needle. Fabric, thread and
needles. 2003. ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY MA

A.J.: I favour Indian art in general from classical antiquity to contemporary art. I am drawn to materials and interested in how artists use and transform them - how an anonymous artist from the past can breathe life into stone or how an artist, like Subodh Gupta, can fashion sculpture from everyday objects.

Z.J.: Has your taste altered over the years?

A.J.: I think my tastes have changed through exposure to, and the study of, contemporary art from other parts of the world. I was not initially interested in certain artists because I didn't really know their work well enough and their galleries were not able to communicate what they meant to me. The more I read about a work, or learn to see it in a broader context, the more interested I become in it.

I veer between works that are minimalist and rely on an economy of expression and those that are highly decorative and over the top. It's a back and forth relationship that in many ways captures the two extremes of creative expression in India. I am also drawn to work that has its roots in craft or design.

Z.J.: What's your opinion on the relationship between investing and collecting in India? Is the distinction a legitimate one?

A.J.: It is a legitimate distinction but after a certain point - where acquisition becomes an investment by virtue of the sheer cost of an artwork - it may not be relevant.

I think collecting should be an intellectual engagement and that investing is best left to financial advisors. It is regrettable that Indian art has become so investment-driven, but the positive fallout of this trend is that it has brought a lot of people into the ambit of art - some of whom have consequently been seduced by its aesthetic dimension and turned into committed collectors.

Z.J.: You've also started an advisory service for collectors called AM art. Do you find this causes conflicts of interest with your own collecting? Are you a 'dealer'?

A.J.: I don't think of myself as a dealer as I do not buy art to sell it. Neither am I a gallerist, as AM art does not represent or exhibit artists. What we do is introduce artists and art to collectors who trust our judgment and are willing to pay for it.