“D o you have a business card,” asks an interested buyer. Artist and potter Adil Writer shrugs and answers with a laugh, “We don’t do business here.”
The Third Auroville International Potters’ Market brought together an eclectic collection of 30 potters this weekend at the Auroville visitors centre. The pottery, a joyful blend of bright utilitarian bowls and wildly creative installations, sold out gratifyingly quickly, proving that the market for craft in India is steadily growing.
“Look at the crowd. It’s incredible,” says Writer, perched on a stool behind his Mandala pottery stall. Enthusiastic and inquisitive, buyers throng the market, asking questions about technique and getting into animated discussions with artists. In a corner, on a low mud-splattered table, their children learn how to make pots, delightedly squishing clay through their fingers.
Writer is right. This market is not about business, even though it’s clearly doing great business.
Inspired by English and Japanese potter’s fairs, which bring together high art and practical everyday pottery, the market is more about creating networks and educating buyers than economics.
Auroville potter Ange Peter, who has organised all three fairs, says, “In Japan, young and old potters all stand together to show and sell their work. Now there are potters’ markets all over India too, although some of the more prominent potters are still reluctant to stand alongside the newer arrivals in the field. Galleries in India are very expensive, and these markets provide a major viewing and selling point for ceramics.”
Hence, the show features local village earthenware: traditional pots and cups in red clay. There’s also stoneware, introduced in Delhi by Gurjaran Singh in the early 50s, and then in Pondicherry in the early 70s by Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith at Golden Bridge Pottery. Many of the best-known potters from Auroville have studied at Golden Bridge, so their styles do have a unifying thread, even if they are determinedly unique.
Arranging her dramatic soda fired pieces, Rakhee Kane chats about the Golden Bridge stamp. “We discuss this often, because so many of us are students of Ray and Deborah. Is our work very similar? But then, when we put our pieces into the community kiln, they come out looking very different. Ray taught us to be different.”
Sabrina Srinivas, for example, creates pottery inspired by folk traditions. At the market, her blue Kutchi mugs, covered in delicate navy-blue Indian motifs, are in demand.
Intriguingly, the weekend crowd is not just buying conventional mugs, plates and planters. Priya Sundaravalli’s delicate flower sculptures are selling out as well. She chats with buyers, explaining how her work is inspired by Nature. “It used to be ocean-inspired,” she smiles, “Now, I’m doing more and more flowers.”
“In the beginning, people were shocked to see ceramics priced on the same level as other art work,” says Ange. “But overall, pottery is increasingly well-received in India and by collectors. In my own work, everything is made from scratch in the traditional manner. There’s a tendency today to buy ready-made clay, rather than make your own composite, and to find shortcuts, but if you understand the original materials and the whole process of drying and packing, and the wood you are cutting and stacking to fire your pot, every step shows in your work.” She adds, “There are so many variables — pots can crack, glazes can run and things can warp; you are working with Nature, with fire, and earth, and in my case, a lot with the ashes from the forest trees. A bowl speaks to you of its whole creation.”
“People are buying platters for Rs.15,000. They’re buying a cup for Rs. 200, because they understand the value of these hand-crafted pieces,” says Writer, discussing why the market is so interesting to both buyers and artistes. “Buyers now understand the value of sleight-of-hand. The flaw of a glaze, a bend in the rim: The best thing about this market is realising that people appreciate that. And want that.”
(With inputs from Radhika H for Auroville Art Service)
