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Journalism of Courage
A DYSLEXIC young Briton who grew up in Tehran, Sebastian Bergne discovered that his strength lay not in the written word, but in the art of design. Born in Tanzania and raised in Britain, Pakistani Lubna Chowdhary found the best way to deal with diasporic angst was to let it permeate her ceramic works. Spanish at heart but British by birth, Roberto Feo and Rosari Hurtado8212;an artist partnership called El Ultimo Grito The Last Scream8212;tap into aesthetics that go beyond local idioms.
The travelling international exhibitions8212;Import Export, Globo Local and Contemporary Ceramics8212;are perfect meeting points of utility and art. The former two aren8217;t just lessons in style but microcosms of how local sensibilities get interwoven into international markets. The overriding concern is integration into a smooth finished product.
Sebastian Import8230; is driven by 8216;8216;functional re-evaluation of objects, cultural reference, humour and a close contact with the material8217;8217;. But Chowdhary8212;who visited India after her post-graduation in ceramics at the Royal College of Art, London8212;says, 8216;8216;I was stimulated by both Western and Asian culture. This gave me the confidence to go my own way.8217;8217; Her tiles and 8216;sculptures8217; for Import8230; have subtly melded Asian pottery designs with international standards of urban utility. Like her minimal pen stand with a bright Indian palette.
Delhi-based potter Manisha Bhattacharya Contemporary Ceramics says: 8216;8216;Although India is rich in traditional ceramics, the medium as an art form is still young.8217;8217; At the Design School in Cardiff, Wales, she learnt techniques under Deve Roberts, an expert in the Japanese firing technique called Raku. Ironically, though, 8216;8216;this ancient method was brought into the mainstream by Briton Bernard Leech. He made it accessible to other Asians,8217;8217; she says.
El Ultimo Grito Import8230; also embraces international urban needs, with its designer dirty clothes basket. Fitted with a spring, it gives the user a clue when its load has approached five kilos, the typical weight a domestic washing machine can take. 8216;8216;We didn8217;t want to design look-at-me objects. Our aim is to reduce design to a minimum,8217;8217; says Feo. Designer Manish Arora Globo8230; could fit the other end of that spectrum, with his objects screaming for attention. While Arora8217;s creations are 100 per cent India8212;bright colours, kitschy motifs8212;25 per cent of his clientele isn8217;t. Just goes to show design recognises no boundaries.
Import Export and Globo Local, NGMA, Mumbai, until September 28. Globo Local moves to National Institute of Design Gallery, Ahmedabad,on October 4. Contemporary Ceramics, British Council, Mumbai, till September 27; moves to Bilmart Zeramics, Mumbai, till October 30
