Shaping stories
- Srabani is following in her mother's footsteps
- She tells stories of our humanity
- Her patterns draw on her Indian roots
Srabani Ghosh lost her mother at the age of eight. She was a ceramicist. When later in her life Srabani looked for a way to channel her creative energy, she chose to follow her mother’s footsteps. She quickly realised the power of ceramics as a medium that was able to combine two dimensional drawing with sculpture. Quitting her previous career in consulting, she ended up graduating in Ceramic Design in 2016 at Central Saint Martins School in London with a first class honours. As an artist with roots in India, the surface patterns of her works carry the unmistakable and extravagant hallmarks of her native country. The stories and forms in her ceramics are strongly influenced by the last 25 years she has spent working and living in Europe.
Interview
- How do you combine tradition and innovation in your work?
- I use some of the oldest and most traditional techniques to create my works: coiling and slip decoration. However, both the shapes of my ceramics and the fact that I use them as vessels portraying modern-day stories are what make them contemporary.
- Do you master any specific techniques?
- I believe one’s working relationship with clay is ever evolving and I do not think I will ever be able to say I have ‘mastered’ it. Yet, I dedicated the last 6 years to coiling hand-built forms and I acquired an uncommon skill in slip decoration using sgraffito and inlay methods.
- When is a memorable moment in your career?
- One of the most memorable moments for me was finding out that a work of mine had been accepted, out of 16,000 entries, into the London Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in the year of my debut.
- What advice would you give to aspiring ceramicists?
- Be prepared to work harder than you ever have and then some more. Never give up and never surrender. Challenge yourself to find out: "why not?" and "what if"? Remember that to produce great work, it is important to learn to listen.
Srabani Ghosh is a rising star: she began her career in 2018
Where
Srabani Ghosh
