Passage - Ceramics at the Hyatt, Chennai

Sharbani Das Gupta Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

Connection explores the duality of separation and connection. Each human, individual and separate, is also connected to others, to the world and to the physical environment. Water with its flowing connective properties and earth with its stable immovability express this duality. As a rock or piece of earth that is cast into a pool of water creates a series of successive ripples, so too does a person, in the pool of life. For me Connectivity Bench is a leap in scale of extraordinary magnitude. In it I fashion 450 kilograms of coarse stoneware clay into six irregular blocks with ragged 18” high vertical walls, unglazed and fire - flashed to a varying earthy brown. Set closely together they become the fissured earth. On the bench - top a rich Chun blue glaze, water - like, covers low ridges of concentric circles that expand continuously across the six parts, reuniting them, each center representing a receptive individual connecting to those around.