TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Storytelling as Craft
For a country whose craft histories stretch back across millennia it is sometimes difficult for the contemporary practitioner to set aside established canons. Folk and artisanal forms are full of stories, which might well be oblique, but they reside in the pots of Harrapa and in the seals of Mohenjodaro waiting to be understood and experienced. To imbue new artisanal forms with personal narratives is a heroic challenge for the ceramic artist. This is alongside questions of authorship and identity.

Javaria Ahmad takes on exactly that kind of challenge through the diverse strands of storytelling which run through her practice as a ceramicist. The functionality of the vessel provides a foil for her observations about the foibles of her surroundings. She animates the surfaces with anecdotal drawings which amuse and enchant you as you sip your brew. These are not mass produced, repetitive, motifs, predictable in their suitability for a vessel of this nature. They are sudden in their pop-up appearance, full of energy which demands engagement, thus seizing upon the opportunity to interrupt the functioning of the vessel.

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