Artistic research- Day with the potter

‘ Wet clay is plastic, it yields to the pressure on one’s hands and can be modelled into various shapes…

…To the contrary, it has its own body dialect. It rolls, folds, cracks, fissures, dries or bakes in a special way, behaving almost like a flesh.

So it is a living thing.’

-          From The Magic of Making by K G Subramanyam

 

As described in the above passage, clay is a surprising material. Though I had once used clay as part of my undergrad class, but it was for too less time and with minimal exploration. So to understand the materiality, we watched stop-motion animations by Jan Swankmajer. The fluidity of the material comes through brilliantly in his films. I was astonished to see the range of exploration that he did with clay. Clay is not a subject that helps him fulfill the goal of the story. Surreal, funny and visually stimulating are few words to describe his works. His work on food is still prominent in my memory. I liked the way of linking it to various connotations like power/ politics and culture.

Other than that we read about the craft of clay and its philosophy by K G Subramanyam and ‘Centering’ by M. C. Richards from The Craft Reader. A very poetic take on the philosophy of the process of centering and the way we live.

Few quotations that stood out for me:

‘I yield, and my being increases and takes form by having been given up in this way.’

Potter has to prepare his body as he does that of the clay.

The entire process of centering is linked to the tensions in the fingers, in the arms and back, holding the breadth.

I realized this only after seeing how a pot is made. The force in the hands of the potter seem to be over-ridden by the ease with which the pot changed its shape, smooth and fast, almost as if it has a life of its own and the hand seemed to be nothing more than a support, and not a necessity.

My short experience at the potter’s was an invaluable experience.