Multi-art destination Arthshila stands tall in the heart of Delhi’s industrial area of Okhla. The newly opened centre, part of the Takshila Education Society, is one of five across the country that aim to encourage critical thinking through performances, conferences, and exhibitions on architecture, cinema, design, literature, performing and visual arts. Last month, the Indian Ceramic Triennale (ICT) opened its second edition at Arthshila Delhi. ICT is a platform that is committed to clay as a material to explore the diverse and experimental contemporary expressions.
A broad-based theme, ‘Common Ground’, explores the idea both literally and metaphorically. Ground as the place we stand and walk on is deeply loaded with privileges, histories and experiences. And ground also denotes earth or clay, the very medium that is at the core of all the projects. This edition continues to engage in the multiple realities and various possibilities with clay. The triennale will feature 34 projects by over 60 Indian and international artists from 12 countries.
Vineet Kacker, co-curator of ICT, says, “Common Ground is not just about negotiations of privilege. It can also be forged between different mediums and disciplines, between the handmade and the technological, between ancient traditions and modern expressions. Some of my favourite projects look at areas between the material and the ephemeral, between being and non-being.” For instance, Efrat Eyal’s in-situ installation in earthenware clay has partly missing grid of ceramic fragments. Pasted on a wall, the seemingly two-dimensional work appears three-dimensional when seen from the side, penetrating into viewers’ space. Titled Attendance Check, it suggests unclear boundaries, moves between form and formlessness, brokenness and wholeness. The artist expresses the ability to grow with little mass, while shifting the focal point from the prominent to the peripheral.
Kate Roberts, on the other hand, created a work titled The Space in Between made with raw fibre-clay and nylon fishing thread. She creates a large-scale unfired installation that examines the temporary physicality and meaning of structures and the spaces they exist within. Her artist statement elaborates, “This structure could dictate a split between class, race, wealth, beliefs and territory, a moment in-between. The installation questions the gate’s permanence. By leaving the clay unfired it is no longer able to contain or protect, its vulnerability unmasked.” Inspired from iron gates found around India, the work will be cut and brought down denoting its death. She hopes the material will be recycled leading to rebirth.
Kacker says that the triennale is less about promoting ceramics in a traditional sense, and more about showcasing the diversity of artistic expression in clay-based art practices. He explains, “Ceramics has long been overlooked by the art gallery system and stereotyped into the functional or the decorative expressions. ICT showcases projects where the narrative goes beyond seductions of materiality into an exploration of modern paradigms.” Demonstrating this intent is the project of Birender Kumar Yadav, titled Re-presented from the Traces. He documents the lives of brick kiln workers in Mirzapur, about 60 per cent of whom are lower caste migrants. Yadav notes, “They work long hours and suffer malnutrition. Most brick kiln workers suffer broken ribs from the hard work. Children do not go to school. The season extends from November to June, after which their temporary homes are demolished.” Over the years Yadav has used his art to portray their plight. In his terracotta work at ICT, the artist has made casts of ordinary artifacts left behind after demolition, reframing them as sculptures. Aimed to carry a large emotional registry, Yadav remains conscious of the gap between the objects and the lived experiences of the workers.
“It is not about objectivity, but about making deliberate choices to include projects that fulfill a curatorial vision,” Kacker sums up.