HYDERABAD: City-based Akila Chungi studied ceramics at the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry in 2011 - layering her glazes to achieve a shiny, painterly effect - and has founded Kalaachakra an art center primarily consisting of a potter’s studio, the potter being myself. “I always envisaged running a multi-disciplinary art space and it has finally come into existance with Kalaachakra,” says Akila, who went to Auroville to work with an architect. “The space is equipped with an amphitheater which can be used for visual and performing arts, the same can double up for various workshops and events. It comprises of an intimate gallery space to display paintings, sculptures and mixed media,” she adds. Her urge to work with ceramics, comes from the fact that it is characterized with simplicity and often crudeness. “As each day passes by, and, maybe as long as I am going to work with it, I realise and will realise the various attributes of clay,” she says.Sharing her story of how she became a ceramic potter, says the computer science engineer, “I find architecture and working with clay fairly similar. The process in particular. While working with clay you have to make sure you start making the pot right because eachstep that follows depends on the previous one. Similarly, establishing a strong foundation for any building is crucial.” Akila, who had earlier worked with an architectural firm in Hyderabad and later went to Golden Bridge Pottery, says “Architecture is about envisioning, putting together and most importantly getting an integral sense of the space around you, where as clay creates stories for me and my habitat. What would be a playful relationship for me is to create something in clay for a specific space or create a space with clay itself.”
Talking about her latest pieces, Tower vases, she explains, “The process involves making slabs of clay, joining and drying them, and finally firing them in a kiln. These are vases that are tall and rectangular in shape.” So what inspired her colour choices? She says, “There was no inspiration nor choices there, all the colors you see are coming from glazes and wood fire.”