Living Votive Objects

After a long time I didn’t feel that I was entering a “gallery” with “works” on display… it felt like I was entering a different space…disconnected from the hustle bustle of the real world outside that room. It was a world of the natural, quite and undisturbed surroundings where the animals moved and flowed from one place to another oblivious to any human presence…

Shampa Shah a renowned ceramic artist exhibited her works in Bharat Bhawan recently. Apart from freelancing as a studio potter she has also been working in The Indira Gandhi Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal as a museum associate. Her interaction with the craftsmen, their lifestyles, beliefs and their rituals have led her to have a deep understanding and knowledge of the tribal and folk art of India. This clearly reflects in her work.

As you enter the gallery a little note beautifully expresses the mood of her work….She talks of how the trees and plants are not stagnant at one place they move and fly… they play with the flowing wind and seeds fly along with it to different places, how even if the leaves or flowers fall the new little delicate sprouts take their place in time….the spirit of these different things combined together gives life even to the lifeless objects…. In the outskirts of the villages you find a tree or a chabutra which is considered the devsthan and becomes a host to a group of horses, bulls or elephants kept as votive objects to please or thank the devtas. Shampa sees life within this cluster of haphazardly kept votive offerings, the fear, expectation or gratitude of the villager that these offerings represent, the tree or chabutra along with the terracotta offerings transforms themselves into a space which vibrates with life of their belief and the simplicity of it.

One sees a clear reflection of this in her forms. They are not just horses or forms inspired by votive objects …but in itself they complete the whole characteristics of everything that is around those votive objects. The sensitively handled delicate buds and plants curve and emerge through the body of the horse as if the foliage is growing from within. Each piece reflects a different body language a different expression and different movements of the foliage adding to the expression of the horse. As if the surroundings and the purpose of the place have brought life to the votive object.

After their purpose is complete these votive pieces are left to take care of themselves under the changing weather, their surface peeling, their color fading and moss giving it an even more dynamic look. The textures and the treatment of clay and her use of glazes and slips did full justice to the forms. The large drawings behind some of these forms gave them a physical space, a relation with the place they were displayed in. They didn’t look like forms picked up and put into a gallery which was foreign to them seeking attention of the viewer but were very much at home in their own space and letting the viewer quietly enter and share their world.

Photos Courtesy: Shanpa Shah

Article: Mudita Bhandari

Published: Indian Ceramic Quarterly, (issue 2/2009) Delhi Blue Pottery Trust

Everyday there are a lot of thoughts that cross our minds… we wonder , we question, we observe, we judge, we debate and all this gets us to a concept, a journey of spontaneous thoughts leading to a firm and concrete concept. One day in the studio Pankaj uncle and I were discussing this along with some more issues like how art is moving away from the common man. While working in the studio he often picked up little things that I had done offhandedly, he had seen some such things at Rajesh uncle’s studio as well… we had a discussion about how interesting this trail of thoughts could get…. How the little spontaneous thoughts shift into a more reasoned and logical forms and how sometimes we miss out on a very casual but important expression.

I guess art is an expression which is sometimes spontaneous and sometimes very logical… one needs to know why we do what we do. It actually starts from being a spontaneous feeling of an artist which is analyzed, cross questioned and then becomes a very logical expression.
Today in art we get to see many conceptually strong works but somehow miss the flow of thoughts, discussions, confusions and the contradiction of ideas that get the artist to that final concept. Sometimes these final concepts become so abstract that it’s difficult for a common man to understand where it came from.

(Works by Rajesh Sharma and Me)

When Pankaj uncle told me the concept of the exhibition he was curating I got really excited. It was a small effort to bring that process in focus which gives birth to the final concept….the process which is more important and genuine and somehow more approachable to the common man…. He named the exhibition ‘Maarm’ and since these were not our mainstream works we decided whatever money is generated through this show will go to Neev foundation which works to educate the street children in Indore.

(The children from neev foundation visiting our exhibition with pankhuri escorting them)

The works exhibited in ‘Maarm’ were sketches of the artist, thoughts that otherwise go unnoticed in some corner of the studio….. sketches which come from deep within but don’t reach the gallery….here was art not to give a profound intellectual expression but simple aesthetics and rasa which would stimulate the senses……

Pictures: Pranshu and the first one by me

Shilpayan was a beautiful attempt in getting the contemporary designs, techniques and the traditional potters together. The idea was to have five contemporary studio potters as experts, five traditional potters and 100 potters from different districts of M.P. It was a ten day workshop organized by Madhya Pradesh Vigyan Evam Prodyogiki Parishad and Indira GandhiManav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal. The five studio potters called in as experts were Shantanu Jena, Arun Kumar Sharma, Devilal Patidar, Jyotsana Bhatt and me. It was an awesome experience to be working with them all….Shantanu da with his infectious energy and a fantastic sense of humour kept us all laughing, he amazed me with his knowledge of the medium and the simplicity of his personality…. And hats off to Shampa di, she seemed like one super woman… managing everything as a host…. between work, paper work , the potters and our requirements and then her little ‘superman’ Tuka…who would worry everyone by being in the sun all the time :)

I was thrilled when Shampa di (Shampa Shah) told me that Rashtriya Indira Gandhi Manav Sangrahalaya was doing a workshop with hundred traditional potters and five contemporary studio potters as experts and that I’m invited as one of the experts. At the same time I was a little skeptical about the outcome of this workshop. But nevertheless the thought of working with craftsmen has always fascinated me and the fact that Shampa di was involved made me think this would be different….I have always wondered how they manage to create forms and objects which are so original and characteristic of their surroundings, it reflects their belief, their gods and goddess and their social and economical structure, each district would have a style of their own which reflects their surroundings and way of living.…it seems effortlessly done without any intellectual talk just their tradition and folklore coming to them through generations and assimilated within them.

The times are changing and so are the needs of the individuals along with their social structure. The demand of what the potters make has gone down as other materials have replaced the market. Therefore the need arises to create objects which are used more often and regularly in the contemporary lifestyle so that the market for these products increase. Our aim in this workshop was to interact with them, see the methods they are using, understand the work they have been doing and then give them ideas to develop new products keeping the characteristics of their work and designs intact. Also to sort any problems regarding the techniques they are using and introduce some new ones.

Shampa di’s understanding of the traditional crafts and the craftsmen is so deep that it works as a bridge between them and us…..I refer to this subject as “them and us” as this was something I have always felt while working with any traditional crafts person.…. Many times in such workshops the potters end up feeling that what they have been doing so far is not good enough or on the other extreme might block all ideas thinking ‘what will these ‘shahari’ people know about how we work and what we do’ which I feel is very natural. There was an interesting situation in case of one group that had come from Morena. I felt I was being checked out thoroughly before they started listening to what I had to say….It was a lovely feeling though, had they just heard me out without any cross questioning I would have felt they are hardly listening but since they put all sorts of tricky technical questions and even challenged me on certain topics, I knew I was being tested. By the time they were satisfied we had developed a lovely relationship of respect and understanding. They even sang songs in their native language curiously those songs were not folk songs but songs based on folk tunes and wording spoke of the contemporary changes in their village. There was one which described the famine they had and one which was a sarcastic take on their younger generation women wearing high heals….;) It was lovely to be a part of them.

After the first two days they left behind their awkwardness and we had a good and open interaction. We did one low temperature glaze firing, a raku firing and a smoke firing, made three different kinds of kilns and the techniques of slip trailing, mocha and resist in smoke firing were also introduced … they were all very keen to learn the new techniques and also teach us some of their own, we also ended up comparing notes and figuring out the possibilities of each others materials. By then they became very open about their interests and problems and accepted us as one of their own which was a huge honour.

I left Bhopal with a positive feeling but the only thing I was wondering was that while speaking to them I really felt they lacked confidence in going beyond their village and locality…. They feel almost lost when you ask them to go in search of a wider market. Probably experiences like taking their work to a craft mela or for them to interact directly with a lager and more varied customer would help in developing their confidence. But in just ten days we were successful in raising their curiosity about the possibilities of the medium. It did bring a new zeal in the potters and they were keen to go home and try these techniques on their own which in itself was a huge accomplishment.

Here are some new visitors who came to my studio some time back and made it their home.....they gave birth to 4 baby squirrels and when these little ones grew old enough to get out of their natural dwelling they were like little brats having a blast all over the place....:)

So one day I had a field day with my camera trying to catch everything they did... posting some of the pictures here ....

One of the regulars is Pankaj uncle who is an artist himself but now is into advertising. He’s trained as a painter but he’s totally fascinated by clay. He paints, reads, writes, is a photographer, has keen interest in gardening and is an encyclopedia of music….all this after his full day’s work at office! I wonder how does one brain and 24 hrs hold in so much…. :) His consistancy at work inspires me to do more…our topics during the tea break range from politics, music, books to social issues…. And now the studio doesn’t feel complete when he is out of town and doesn’t come….

Last year I did a raku workshop with some interior design students ….. They did some fantastic work and all through we had a great time… here’s Megha, Nikita, Anusha and Jeenal.