The Wall
2023 | Stoneware
Common ground is where we stand.
Common ground is the base of the mass(es).
Common ground is our fate, our destiny.
The work comes from the belief that the earth is a register of our footsteps.
Asish Chowdhury has shaped, or shifted clay collected from various sites of protest into the form of bricks and arranged them into a wall. The bricks hold their imprints, and bear witness. Drawing from his long-time work centered on common people’s voices, their sorrows, and their anger expressed as protest, the artist paints these social moments onto bricks that will carry the stories into the future. Images from the recent past are interspersed to create a series of ever-changeable fragments. These stories are a celebration of those who fought for us amidst the pain of daily life. The wall is a gigantic silent scream.
ASISH CHOWDHURY is a ceramics artist based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Using clay as a vehicle for interrogations of the complexities and harsh realities of modern life, he draws from national news of social upheaval and signs of protest to the ubiquitous presence of architecture to inform the shape of his narratives.
A graduate of Visva Bharati, Sriniketan in 2003, he now runs his own studio while also working as Ceramics Mentor at the Arts Acre Museum, Kolkata.
He has won many awards and had major solo shows at the India Habitat Center and several private galleries in New Delhi and besides participating in group shows. He also frequently joins workshops around the country, the longest of which was a 45-day International Ceramics Workshop in exchange program with Korean Ceramic Artists, at Kalakshetra, Chennai.
He is currently immersed in a project based on the ideas of Borderland.
