Performances
Kumbhar ki Niyani
Shampa Shah
Shampa, the urban ceramist and storyteller, has come to the remote village Khavda, in Kutch to meet with Sara and Ibrahim, the traditional potters. Sara is painting the earthen plate and describing the patterns to her as she draws them. Slowly the patterns begin to reveal the map of her house or an entire tree hidden within a motif. Her fingers roll out newer patterns. She challenges the modern artists by promising to paint a hundred platters without repeating herself! Various techniques are discussed. It becomes apparent that in a potter’s family, young learners graduate when they become skilled at throwing a pot on the wheel and get a postgraduate degree when they can beat the pots into desired shapes or paint them beautifully!
The conversation brings up their first visit to Bhopal, and how their ten year old son Ayub’s training in the craft had already started informally under the couple’s loving gaze- a craft that also sustains Ayub’s family now.
As they reminisce, a group of buyers comes visiting the potter’s hearth.
“Ask the Hijras (eunuchs) why they insist on paying for our pots while from everyone else they take money?!” quips Sara to Shampa. The question is deeper than it appears. It eventually leads to the wonderful story of how the kiln came to be known as the ‘Niyani’ or the darling of the potters… May we remember the story told by the potter and all it stands for!
Shampa Shah’s practice in clay is located in the dialogue between the traditional and the modern and overlaps with her writing and curating. In a three-decade-long journey, she has exhibited widely in India and abroad. She established the Ceramic Section at Indira Gandhi National Museum of Man, Bhopal and headed it for over two decades. At the IGRMS, Shampa curated important exhibitions around mythology, tribal, folk, and contemporary art and craft practices including the permanent exhibition Mythological Trail. A five-time recipient of the AIFACS Award, she has also received the Junior National Fellowship of the Ministry of Human Resources and of Roopankar Bharat Bhavan. She publishes widely on contemporary art and storytelling traditions of India and has many publications including Tribal Arts and Crafts of Madhya Pradesh published by Mapin.
Clay Beats
Sumana Chandrashekhar
Ghatam exponent Sumana Chandrashekar and British artist duo Copper Sounds at at residency at Art Ichol in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh
In a unique opportunity curated by the Indian Ceramics Triennale and facilitated by the Indian Ceramics Triennale and British Ceramics Biennial International Artists Residency Exchange, British artist duo Copper Sounds, ghatam exponent Sumana Chandrashekar and hereditary ghatam makers U V K Ramesh and Hariharan K met in a truly a collaborative and creatively enriching residency at Art Ichol in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh
They came together in the spirit of curiosity, discovery and artistic freedom. Moving from clay to sound and from sound back to clay, through several trials, disappointments and moments of joy, the residency brought a sense of circularity and fullness to the entire process. The lines between the maker and artist were blurred, thereby creating the perfect space for inter-cultural and intergenerational conversations and exchanges.
The residency was also unique because as the makers and artists they intimately engaged with the local context rather than functioning within a silo. The language, folklore, histories, materials as well as artistic and cultural sensibilities of the Maihar region effortlessly found their way into the project. By pushing the boundaries for both the maker and the musician, this residency is undoubtedly a groundbreaking experiment.
Sumana Chandrashekar presented discoveries from the residency and a short ghatam concert as a part of the closing event of Common Ground.
