| Delhi Blue Pottery Trust is ready with another unique show. |
India’s first studio potter Sardar Gurcharan Singh started The Delhi Blue Pottery in 1952 in Delhi. It took him over 40 years of struggle to make Delhi a place where both traditional and studio potters could co-exist and expose their talent to the world. But in 1986 the Government acquired the land surrounding the pottery, and the kilns had to be shut down. His struggle for land began, and finally in 1991 he founded The Delhi Blue Pottery Trust (DBPT) on New Delhi’s Ring Road. Singh died four years later but his son Manasiram Singh and seven trustees not only live by his dreams but also help social causes today. But as one of the trustees Anuradha Ravindran puts it, “The struggle is still not over. We still have no easy funds to promote pottery.”
Yet, the trust holds interesting exhibitions, seminars, discussions, debates, classes and workshops of pottery almost every year. “DBPT’s biggest achievement came in 2002 when we invited 101 studio potters from across the world and held ‘Water’, an exhibition at India Habitat Centre,” recalls Ravi Batra, one of the founders of the trust.
Now, for the first time, it is sponsoring a painter and studio potter Adil Writer from Auroville, Puducherry. Adil will hold an exhibition of over 275 works including pots and ceramic paintings measuring eight inches to 80 feet. It is titled “The White Rabbit” (taken from Lewis Carrol’s “Alice in Wonderland”). Mundane to spiritual
Adil, whose pottery is known for its international designs, says about his show of paintings, wheels, shards, urns, covered bowls, pottery pillows and treasure boxes, “My works are from mundane to spiritual. In my paintings, I have used the same clay and sand that I use in my pots. I wanted it to be tactile. Visitors can touch my paintings to connect.”
Designwise, Adil’s works are ‘abstract’. He insists he maintains Indianness in them by putting a red dot. “I am a Parsi and a red ‘tilo’ is ever present on special Parsi occasions. It is also a symbolic of bindi, the third eye. So my works have both contemporary as well as an Oriental feel.” Initially, Adil shares, it was very difficult to retain the red dot in the work. “When I would heat the ceramic in temperatures of 1000 to 3000 degrees Celsius, the red dot would vanish. So I developed a technique and finally was able to retain the colour.”
INTERNATIONAL Works by Adil Writer.
On the look of his works he reasons, “My works look abstract as I am trained under two American teachers. Moreover, I keep getting calls from European countries to mount my shows, so my works should have an international feel.”
OTHER ATTRACTIONS
(From Monday to Wednesday between 4 – 7.30 p.m.)
A talk by Ange Peter on Haiyu Slipware. Technique in Japan taken from old English slipware. A talk by Adil Writer, “Journeys”, on his works
Mask making demo by Delhi-based architect Manjari Sharma A talk by Tanuja Jain on “A visit to China” about a group of potters A presentation “The Cloister of Clay” by Probstner Janos, director, The International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, HungaryClay workshop for children by potter Rekha Bajpe Agarwal
source: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/10/23/stories/2009102350160300.htm