Shirin Mehta Notes. Photography by Anupama Sebastian and Afroz Ulla. Styling by Sarah Rajkotwala. Art direction by Aishwaryashree
Puja Rao, 39 years old
Ceramic Artist and Designer
Bengaluru
What was the first thing that attracted you to this art? Are you a full-time ceramic technician or do you associate it with “regular” work?
After completing NIFT [National Institute of Fashion Technology] A fashion designer in Mumbai in 2004, I worked in Hyderabad for a year and then moved to Bangalore and worked with Munch Design Workshop in research and development and forecasting, clothing, photography, sales and packaging. Along the way, preparing for my home garden I discovered a huge difference in the field of gardening and labor. Following a short-term marketing program at IIM Bangalore in 2010, I established my own site Music Summer to create landscapes and set up a floral workshop in a variety of materials, pottery to be one of them. Initially, I took a basic course in archeology, as a way to understand medicine, but my interest grew and I became fascinated. In 2012, I set up my own studio.
What is your creative approach? What does the attraction look like to you?
I work with a clay group called gemstones using handmade and wheelbarrow techniques. I always work with individual techniques as well as combinations, top-notch, mixing materials, paintings and drawings and shiny works. At the moment, I am working with shooting oxidation in an electric furnace.
Lots of things that I explore sometimes – my experiences of things, nature, events and ideas that I try to paint. The beauty of working with pottery … is time! Pieces change when you change and vice versa. It tells stories through shapes, lines, depth, structure, color, tone, power, layers and various combinations.
What enhances your style and silhouettes?
Inspiration is a state of being. You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people.
Do you record your thoughts before or after taking them?
The more ideas there are, the more I try to write them as fast as I can, and the art seems like a re-enactment. Needed concrete, it is a mixture of form, movement, form, color, detail, feel or concept.
The cause of creation comes in all forms; sometimes by hand, sometimes by the remains of hands and sometimes by the absence of objects.
Do you always want to be creative, even when you are a kid?
As far back as I can remember, the creative passion was always there. My parents were aware of this and constantly encouraged me. From copying pictures of Rajiv Gandhi and VP Singh in Sunday newspapers, which I was fascinated with, to the use of pencil sharpener to cut on chalkboard in class; since falling in love with the creative people in my youth [out of admiration] joining a rock studio in one of my schools; from exchanging artefacts to deforestation; to fix the place and, now, the raisins. It has been related to art or nature in one way or another.
What role does art and design play in your life?
Everything we have experienced from birth makes us. Art is a tool for discovering and connecting with nature in various ways. I surround myself with nature, books, songs and conversations, and spend a lot of time alone. But I pick and choose sometimes. For example, a small jar I picked up… I like the belly-fat shape. It is cunning and deceitful; it is smaller but has more water than you think. I love drinking from… little fun!
What do you wear when you work?
I have a variety of clothes that I change at work. It puts me in mind. Anything that doesn’t stop me from moving and also adapts to the weather.
Is there any kind of Indian ceramic culture that you like? That you get inspiration from?
Indian military, temple architecture, music, dance, costumes, philosophy, yoga, have all affected me in different ways at different times in my life. I remember how on a hollowed-out road in Madurai, I was struck by small bronze statues of Nataraja and goddesses in the Meenakshi Temple. The level of detail, aging, tone, volume and volume, combined with the silence and silence in the scene, the light at the time, the coolness of the air, the smell, and the feeling that came with it all, were very encouraging. Lightweight and strong, small and strong, lightweight and heavy, noisy and much more – all at once. Sometimes, when this feeling is refreshed, I try to repeat it by drawing the other side.
Has there ever been a specific time in your life that made everyone else aware?
The period that started at the end of 2015 has really helped me change my course. Five years of that was changing. My relationship with the world inside and out changed. My relationship with clay changed. It became a way of expressing and evaluating how I work internally, and it helped me express and change my feelings. It was a self-discovery method that led me to excavate the underground remains on which I stood. And that trip, it gave me words I never found, it gave me words I didn’t have, it was a gift from an honest friend.
At Kabir doha [couplet] I remembered those days:
Maati kahe kumhaar se tu kya rondhe mohe,
Ek din eisa aiyega, mein rondhuga tohe
[The clay says to the potter why are you kneading me
The day will come when I will be kneading you]
Are the pieces always the way you think or are there changes you can’t control? Is this fun or frustrating?
Everything is in the process of becoming something; nothing is permanent, not even a viewer or a piece of art. This is true of imagery or the universe – it is the same thing.
In the case of murder … the frustration was when things went professionally wrong or I realized I did not have enough information. Those ideas are also temporary because the shortcomings only bring new lessons and ideas. Beauty lies in the fact that you do not control everything.
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