The love of life through clay

Amidst a downpour of monsoon rains, the Citadines Art Centre hosted a remarkable exhibition of ceramic works by Priya Sundaravalli. The public’s responses were unanimously positive, with some people judging the pieces as ‘exceedingly beautiful’, ‘a wonderful expression of creativity’, and ‘a work blossoming like flowers, constantly getting finer, more interesting and gorgeous.’

It’s only since 2000 that Priya started doing pottery as a hobby in addition to her teaching work at various Auroville schools. The hobby has meanwhile turned into a full-time occupation, with Priya gradually finding her own, very unique way.

Many of the works in this Auroville exhibition were created over the last year, with about a quarter of the work being made following her return from South Korea in June, where she had spent four months on a ceramics art residency.

“South Korea taught me a limitless freedom in expression,” said Priya in an interview with Auroville Radio. “The Koreans are far ahead in the field of modern ceramics, you could call it post-modern ceramics. There is a complete abandon, letting oneself go into clay without boundaries, not thinking that this is impossible or not, just accepting whatever comes. I became more fearless in my expression. Korean pottery has no concept of ‘beauty’ or ‘ugliness’ - duality does not exist. All forms of expression are accepted as being part of one sweeping spectrum. And what a freedom that is! I have even learned to embrace ‘defects’ or ‘accidents’. A piece sometimes becomes more valuable because of a flaw – it feels even more alive and true. So I throw nothing away. Pottery is like any person – it may be flawed but shining.”

The Korean experience emboldened her creative approach. “For me the day starts with an unknown – I have no idea what I want to create. When an inspiration comes, I follow its thread. I try to pick up and flow with the energy. Sometimes I feel I am hollow and the wind is blowing through me. I may just create one piece based on that inspiration, and nothing more may come. But that is enough. I don’t judge what I make. On the contrary, I feel I am falling in love with each piece as I am making it. Each work opens for me a little ‘window into the universe’. But I am impatient that every piece must be finished on the day I started it. I do not cover up my pieces with plastic and continue the next day.”

Her influences, she says, are from nature in its myriad forms, and from images of desert landscapes “that want to tell me something or a place where my spirit yearns to travel to, such as the ‘song lines’ of the Australian Aborigines, the Australian outback, the high desert of New Mexico, and in Korea, the volcanic island of Jeju-do.” She specially enjoys the shallow and wide bowl forms. “Like the sky, they are so open and embracing and at the same time allow for an active play of images and texture on their surface.”

Was she happy with this exhibition? “It was almost too much,” she admits. “When I saw my pieces so splendidly illuminated and beautifully flower-decorated, there was a moment I couldn’t believe that I had made them – I was overwhelmed and a bit scared, I could hardly take it. In the studio, I try to make these works as an offering to the Divine. But when I saw them here, I realised just how much they had to say. For me, they expressed ‘transcendence’, the sense of deep silence and peace, and delight in the joy of life and living.” Judging from the comments in the visitor’s book, many people experienced something very similar.