BLURRING THE LINES CERAMICS IN A FLUID STATE

The central theme of ‘Common Ground’ is diversity and commonality and how they complement and intersect with each other.  The lines between genre, disciplines and people are blurred, realities are not black or white and everything is a matter of context. This is expressed in a multitude of ways in the work of the artists and artwork we presented at the Triennale. From dialogues between differing mediums and practices, to polarities that reflect each other and investigations of the nuances of custom, we look at the voices that trace the threads of convergence.

These themes are explored further in the symposium, lectures and demos (and in the workshops that followed in the ten-week span following the opening) under a broad heading of ‘No Outsiders’. Even the themes outlined overlap with each other. There are no neatly defined boxes.

 
 
 
 

Making and Collecting 
Perspectives on contemporary clay practices and collecting in India and internationally.

ABHAY SARDESAI in conversation with PHEROZA & DR. KUBBA: Patrons and Collectors: Contemporary Indian Ceramics

ELAINE HENRY:  The Depth and Breadth of World Ceramics 

NEHA KUDCHADKAR: What clay can do

Moderator: ABHAY SARDESAI

 

Documentation and process 
Art and creativity can mitigate the traditional roles that people play within their communities, empowering minorities and giving voice to the unheard.

HAYLEY COULTHARD AND RONA RUBUNTJA: Hermannsburg Potters  

VANMALA JAIN: Clay, Crafts and Community

NEELIMA HASIJA: Re-Imagining Craft Futures, The Design Way

Moderator: KRISTINE MICHAEL  

 

Process & Methodology  
Ceramic art practices that blur the boundaries between the traditional, hand crafted and mechanical means of creation.

SHASHANK NIMKAR: Doing more and better with less

ANDREW BURTON: Making Bithooras 

DAVID JONES: In a  world of Artificial Intelligence are there still reasons to make ceramics by hand? 

Moderator: MADHVI SUBRAHMANIAN

 
 

 
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Uplas, pancake-sized patties made of gobar – cow or ox dung - are the quintessential hand-made object. A dollop of dung comes out the back end of the cow. Scooped up and shaped by hand into a ball and then thrown, splat onto a bed of ashes. The upla is made. Now it must be left on a wall, or on a rock to dry in the sun. In the centre of the patty, a deep and clear handprint is the mark of the action of making and of the maker herself. Nothing other than the human hand shapes this simple but startling act of creativity.

This material affirmation of the centrality of the hand in human making is deeply significant to Burton. He loves the upla, both as a multi-sensorial object - smell, taste, touch, sight, sound are all present here - and as an emblem for the hand-made. Thousands of uplas are stacked into a bithoora, a fuel store, the lower walls held in place with a thick layer of gobar, womanfully inscribed and patterned by an energised performance of slaps, pinches, punches and jabs.

At first sight, people often imagine that bithooras are open, hollow structures. And they do have the appearance of a shelter or house: there is a carefully layered roof and decorated walls; even a kind of doorway. In fact, they are solid. The thought that there must be an interior space speaks to our expectations of protection or shelter. Solid objects tend to disappoint: one can’t get inside. Whereas objects with hollows, cavities, internal spaces delight and enchant, particularly when the interior space is a surprise. Burton has watched people hunting around a bithoora trying to find a way in – only to find a blind opening that allows for the removal of the uplas packed inside.

What have bithooras and uplas got to do with ceramics or clay? Despite their complexity as objects, bithooras are made solely from one material. Solid objects have a massing, a weightiness about them – with no internal space to experience we must try to understand them solely from our external perspective. What is inside? Piles of clay bricks, sometimes raw, stacked up for firing, have the same quality. Each brick is placed in a special way, narrow face pointing out so that they can be easily pushed in and later removed. Human dimensions are here too – a stack of bricks will be no higher than a man can reach. Each individual brick is of a shape and of a weight that fits perfectly to a man’s hand. Like an upla, each brick carries an impression, but here the mark is not the soft contours of the hand but the sharp mechanical angles. 

Around Delhi one often comes across stacks of bricks and bithooras in close proximity, standing on a patch of open land or by the roadside. The bricks seemingly waiting for construction to begin, the uplas to be burnt cooking chapatis – which they lend, apparently, a special flavour. Delhi is truly a gendered landscape.

 

 
 
 
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AI (Artificial Intelligence) includes CHAT GPT, Google Bard, Mid-Journey and DALL-E. 

“Artificial”: Something that does not occur in nature. (This focuses our attention on concepts such as ‘Authenticity’ and ‘Originality’. The authorship of material and written outputs that appear in the world has never seemed so threatened as it is now. Who owns the material? is it genuinely new?)

“Intelligence”: The ‘Turing test’ requires that we can compare the responses from human and computer and we can recognize the thinking as human. 

There are grounds for optimism as well as anxiety.

As ceramicists, we are not involved in the software developments; we are concerned with application. Clay and computing exploit different qualities of the Silicon atom. The ‘intelligence’ of AI is based on connectivity, mirroring the structure of our brains. Can the arrays of interconnected transistors that mirror our neural pathways, become sentient, original and creative? Can an AI entity hold a patent, or is it just a tool? Will an AI entity ever have a capacity for self-awareness?

One of the most recent applications of AI to our field has involved some of the oldest written objects: the interpretation of 5000-year-old Sumerian clay tablets (the size of a mobile phone). It has been noted that when the medium (the prostheses) of ‘the message’ is changed then it also influences the content – an SMS text reads very differently to a letter written with a stylus, quill or pen.

We want to insist that human content (authorship) should be protected; this may be possible with litigation by the rich, but it will not work for the rest of us. Philippe Starck demonstrated a very creative way to employ AI by requiring the AI to construct an ergonomic chair that used inputs that exist on the Internet (from himself and the manufacturer, Kartell); this works because he cannot contravene his own copyright, and most significantly, there is sufficient information on the Internet to employ. But for lesser-known mortals there is insufficient material and information to produce an authentic looking work.

Can AI replace the maker-artist? Can it think? In experiments we can see that it can do ‘visual-thinking’ – variations on a theme, so it is making progress. The final decision made by the human designer. 

In conclusion, AI can be a useful, generative tool, but it brings implications concerning ownership, authenticity, and the direct communication that the touch of the maker brings to the audience via the ceramic object. AI can be a creative tool, generating ideas, based on our own work or synthesizing new combinations, but it can also enable our work to be appropriated by others. As artists, ownership of our creativity is a central concern – and basis of our livelihoods. Perhaps we want to hold onto that simple gesture that is recorded for all posterity in a simple squeeze of a soft piece of clay between two hands.

 
 
 

 
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The past 20 to 25 years have been exciting and expansive for ceramics. During this time, the field has expanded to include everything from performance, video, installation, ephemeral raw clay sculpture, and 3–D printing, to traditional sculpture, industrially-made slip-cast dinnerware, studio production ware, and one-off pots. I am sure this list can and will be expanded as time progresses. 

Artists such as Edmund deWaal (UK), Gwynn Hanssen Pigott (Australia), and Julia Galloway (US), to name a few, gave studio potters new ways to exhibit their work and new venues in which to do so. The installation of functional pots means the pieces can be sold individually, but the overall installation is a statement beyond the individual works themselves. Others use ready-mades to make political statements, such as Paul Scott’s (UK) personalization of the Blue Willow pattern. 

Marek Cecula’s (Poland) work spans many of the above-mentioned genre. In the 1990s, his installation of plates, whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts, links loosely to Judy Chicago’s earlier Dinner Party. “Since 2013 Cecula’s Ćmielów Studio in Poland, together with Modus Design and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, have been organizing student workshops, called ART Food Project. As a part of this project students from prestigious universities from all over the world come to Ćmielów to ponder upon the issues of the contemporary ceramics. The goal of the workshops is also to develop future cooperation between students and the industry” (Cecula). 

NCECA’s annual Fab Lab has popularized the expansion of 3–D printing directly in clay (explored and perfected by John Balistreri [US] and others) which was unheard of 10 to 15 years ago. Eliza Au’s work in the Indian Ceramics Triennale is an example of the versatility of the 3D printing technology.

We are seeing more and more work by the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, finally. Theaster Gates, Paul Briggs, Sana Musasama, and Lydia Thompson have had a firm hand in making this happen. And ceramics artists are using their work to make political and personal statements. 

In addition, artists such as Linda Sormin deny the tradition of ceramics with their work. Sormin explores fragility, upheaval, migration, survival, and change. Lynda Benglis is one of a group of artists who built her reputation in sculpture before including clay in her abstract forms. 

As mentioned, it is an exciting time in ceramics, and we can only sit back and see what happens next, as Artificial Intelligence and other future innovations penetrate the field and artists continue to push the potential. I have faith, however, that embracing the new will not diminish our love of the traditional in the ceramics field.

 
 
 

 
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Located in the Central Desert of so called Australia, Hermannsburg Potters have been making pots in terracotta for over 30 years. In their language, Western Aranda, this remote community is called Ntaria (pronounced in-taria). Aboriginal Peoples have been living here for tens of thousands of years, long before whitefellas came.

Led by artist Hayley Coulthard, the potters began searching for local clay- arna-urrkgna, going out in the bush car to find it. Collaboratively the artists began refining the found clay and making it workable.

From when the clay is collected, all the arna-urrkgna, to its final product, the Hermannsburg Potters are paving the way for the technical and conceptual use of found clay. This project not only requires  longevity of skill but also careful cultural consultation and consideration in using clay from their ancient land.

Rona Rubuntja’s work speaks about this experience on country. In using this found clay these stories that are painted become a literal projection of such experiences. The positioning of the artists as Traditional Owners for this land allows for a unique means of communicating old and new stories. 

Collectively, this work engages with notions of land in relation to belonging vs ownership- reflecting the First Nations experience of belonging to the land  in partnership and questioning the colonisers desire to own it.

 
 
 

 
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The Indian crafts are a repository of culture, heritage, and traditional wisdom. Anchored in indigenous knowledge, diversity, environmental care, community engagement and livelihood, they exemplify socio-ecological integration. The traditional craft community, custodian of this legacy, have passed it from one generation to another and ensured the continuity and economic value the practice brings to the region. These include the Prajapati and Kumbhar communities, the traditional potters of India. With the emergence of mass-produced industry, traditional craft practices were severely affected, disrupting rural economies, and resulting in the loss of cultural connections and regional heritage. As a result, the Potter was disengaged from their context and, hence, the market. Additionally, in recent years, potter communities have been facing challenges from the loss of natural resources, such as good quality clay and fuel and loss of skills. 

Established in the early 1960s to fill the country’s design needs, the National Institute of Design remains deeply engaged with traditional craft communities. While design education hugely benefited from this rich repository of culture and heritage, NID also identified the pressing issues that the sector has been impacted by and undertook initiatives to preserve, promote, and innovate through design interventions. “The Rural University” experiment and initiative of IIM Ahmedabad and NID Ahmedabad, with the leather workers and the weavers of Jawaja of Rajasthan, set the tone for the NIDs interaction with the Indian craft sector. It sets the design pedagogy and objectives, such as facilitating self-reliance and dignified life for the community through the practice of handmade. 

After establishing the broader objectives for the craft sector, the presentation further informed the audience about the process and the pedagogy adapted for design interventions specific to the tribal artisans of the Tangkhul Naga tribe practicing Longpi pottery in the hills of Manipur under the USTTAD scheme of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. While the material, techniques, and processes of making the black pottery were documented in detail, the field research also brought about the material culture and other elements that contribute to the ecosystem within which the pottery has evolved and perfected. 

The potter’s welfare is central. The process emphasized bringing the community’s collective and individual voices to the forefront, translating them into opportunities for future development. The community is constantly looking for avenues to express individuality and explore new dimensions of the craft while seeking inspiration from tradition. However, despite the ingenuity and the abiding belief in tradition, the tribe’s sense of pride, ownership, agency and conviction to continue needs support from multiple stakeholders. 

 
 
 

 
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This presentation is a deliberation on the work and practices of 6 contemporary artists practicing in India  – Kushala Vora, Priyanka D’Souza, Parag Tandel, Nandini Chandavarkar, Birender Kumar Yadav and Elodie Alexandre. Neha Kudchadkar’s perspective as an artist frames her reception and interpretation of their work. Far from being a systematic charting/ survey of clay practices across India - historical, hereditary or contemporary – this is the presenter’s personal reflection on meaning making through ceramics practices and a consideration of their practices in relation to her own. Not all these artists are primarily ceramicists. But each project highlighted demonstrates a rich, thoughtful, deliberate engagement with the material. This deliberate engagement is the focus of this paper – exploring how these artists use and manipulate their material and what clay can do through their voice. 

Fossilised in the layers of clay of Kushala Vora’s work are traces of establishment and authority, traces of confrontation and rebellion; as she challenges the many forms of power and preconditioning one lives with in the post-colonial world.

In her work The Crow Shat Over the Monument Priyanka D’Souza paints with terracotta, imitating  the sandstone of Akbar’s elusive Ibadat Khana. In her use of  material and in her distortion of history, she implicates herself as an unreliable narrator. 

Parag Tandel’s Into the Bones is an exchange of material culture between the coasts of Mumbai and the landlocked forests of Chhattisgarh. Parag takes from and breaks away from both traditions simultaneously as he builds his work to be archival and archeological sites and understands process as product. 

Nandini Chandavarkar’s fractured clay objects, are printed with distorted images of the mis-judged female figure – from Durer’s ‘perfect’ Eve and Mandakini under the waterfall, to the artist posing as Venus herself – Nandini uses clay and glaze ‘faults’ to talk about patriarchal and colonial gaze.  

In Birender Kumar Yadav’s work clay is the medium of expression and also a crucial player in his subjects’ lives. His work immortalises everyday objects used by brick-kiln workers while talking about the transformation of their own bodies and identities – lost fingerprints and footprints, broken and deformed bones.

Elodie Alexandre creates new mythologies and rituals as she makes votive offerings to Olop, her skin goddess. Her work makes reference to indigenous roadside shrines while also being an extremely personal conversation with and record of her own body. 

In the presenter’s own work she asks for clay to be a medium of research and performance,  pushing for the re-imagination of its material qualities and its possibilities. All the artists in this presentation have expanded the material and conceptual framework of ceramics, making challenging and thought provoking work in clay. In the context of these artists and their genre disrupting practices, Neha  reconsiders what it means to have a ceramics practice.

Fire-eater (Auto Ethnography Through Objects), 2023. Film Still, Neha Kudchadkar 

The singing Hearts, 2023. Ceramic Votive Offering, Élodie Alexandre

Konkani Beauty - Durer’s Eve, 2023. Porcelain, Nandini Chandavarkar

The Crow Shat on the Monument - The Orientalist and the Historian, 2019. Priyanka D’Souza

 
 
 

 
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Shashank started his journey as a postgraduate student at National Institute of Design (NID) to find a universal solution regarding the prodigious waste of glaze-fired ceramic rejects at industries. The need to work on this situation was realized during NID’s student industrial visit to a ceramic manufacturing cluster of factories. His inquiry started by understanding what is considered to be ‘waste’ in a human society, the secondary research involved diving deeper into the various approaches adapted in different parts of the world to address various challenges to keep waste in check. The focus was then laid on how various designers, artists and industries around the world approached ceramic waste to address the situation. A very diverse set of solutions were found from the approach, but not universal enough to be able to readily adapt.

To be fully aware of the on-ground scenario a first-hand knowledge was required and an experience of the situation at Indian production units. Thus began the journey of primary research through extensive interactions with stakeholders of the ceramic manufacturing cluster in Gujarat. Many vital changes were observed from the secondary research and the on-ground scenario. The waste was now nowhere to be seen on the streets but was accumulated within walled landfills, collected since almost five decades of industrial production.

After enough understanding about the material and scenario hands-on tests with materials were carried out from 10% waste to 90%, compositions were tried in various production methods. After hundreds of tests high quality prototypes were developed with 70% recycled content and exhibited at Makers Faire at NID-Gandhinagar to offer potential users to interact with the prototypes and gauge the market potential for this innovation.

On receiving a very enthusiastic response from different stakeholders the project was then turned into a commercial venture ‘Earth Tatva’. The brand now offers TatvaMix, pugged clay containing 45% recycled content and ready-to-use casting slip containing 60% recycled content to studio potters, artists, students and educational institutes to use in their various projects. Makers can use it for various processes like throwing, hand-building, 3D printing and casting for firing in the range of 1180 °C to 1260 °C . TatvaMix can also be used for raku firing. The material can be used with almost any existing glazes and is certified to be microwave safe for functional wares.

As more and more makers adopt using TatvaMix for their creations we as a community can together create a huge impact of saving natural resources by reducing mining by up to 60%. Doing more and better with less.

 
 
 

 
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Vanmala Jain’s journey is a coming together of clay craft and community. She spent her formative years studying at the National Institute of Design and then went on to work at Palam Pottery with the legendary Kripalsingh Shekhawat. It was here that she cultivated her entrepreneurial skills and learnt about limited edition art ceramics. In her early years she taught in several design institutes and built a practice from learning to teach, applying theory to practice and working with and researching with large groups, which are skills she brings to Kuprakabi today. Kuprakabi is a where her community centered practice comes to life. At the Kuprakabi Ceramic Design Studio, Vanmala or her other colleagues provide the community with designs and ideas, which are then executed by the growing community. Kuprakabi aims to develop the best in ceramic design and create an ecosystem for sustainable livelihoods for all stakeholders involved in the craft. She has been training people, who have not inherited craft traditions, people from all walks of life, traditionally labeled unemployable, to become new craft communities. 

She has worked on a number of government projects enabling her connection with craftspeople from across the country. Kuprakabi products see the convergence of multiple skills and craft practices to create products that are economically viable for their makers and highlight their core values – handmade, sustainable and ethically made. 

 
 
 

 
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