Shaping creativity: Ceramic work incorporates traditional, contemporary techniques

Exhibition featuring over 130 pieces opens at PFID


Ammar Sheikh March 25, 2016
Sheherezade Alam shares her expertise with the participants. PHOTO: PR

LAHORE: A ceramic exhibition featuring six techniques – Kintsugi, Etching, Lustre Glaze Firing, Saggar Firing, Raku ware and Terra Sigillata – opened at the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design (PIFD) on Friday.

Students from the PIFD’s Ceramic and Glass Design Department displayed their work at the exhibition, titled Initiation. The work has been produced following a three-week workshop conducted by Gopal Kalapremi and Pukar Risal, ceramists from Nepal.

“The workshop covered simple but elegant techniques inspired by Japanese, Greek and Islamic art,” said Gopal Kalapremi, a faculty member at the Kathmandu University Centre for Arts and Design.

“Kintsugi, Luster Glaze, Saggar, Terra Sigillata and Raku are traditional ceramic techniques largely practiced in South East Asia… in Japan and China. Etching is a modern technique,” Kalapremi told The Express Tribune.

PIFD Assistant Professor Kamran Babrak said the workshop had provided the students with an opportunity to work with the best ceramic artists. “Their work at the workshop will help them in their final-year theses. It will also help broaden their understanding of art and design.”

Babrak said the technique taught by Gopal was not practiced in Pakistan. It was a specialised form of art, he said. He said the students had not only learned about research and development in clay bodies but also learned to make their own glazing recipes using local materials. They had also learned to build kiln equipment for fire and glazes to suit their requirements, he said.

Ceramist Sheherezade Alam said the students had earlier been enrolled at the Hala College of Arts and Design. She said they had moved to Lahore after the institution was shut down.

“The Nepali teacher is a magician. His work is very impressive. He has taught the students in a short span of time which is amazing.” Alam called ceramic work a lost art of the sub-continent. She said, “Clay is our tradition. Ceramic art has been found in Harappa showing our link to clay and pottery.” Mehran Khan, a student from Panno Aqil, said that he had created some Raku Ware pottery. He said the workshop had helped him understand intricacies of clay art.The exhibition, featuring more than 130 ceramic works, will go on until April 1.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2016.

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