A CLAY CONNECT : A film by ADIL WRITER

Recently, I was in a tiny village, a potter’s village, five hours away from my studio in Auroville in south India, with a small film crew. A traditional craftsman, T. Palanisamy, resides in this village of 60 families. He is one of the last surviving clay artists who makes 12 feet high terracotta horses and Ganeshas; votive figures, revered by village folk. Sadly, his lineage of several generations, ends with him. The next gen is just not interested in clay. To support him financially and artistically, I have been inviting him over to my studio as a resident artist. And the two of us make collaborative works; he starts out making simple figurines he makes for temple festivals, and I take over to give them a contemporariness. An aside? We don’t speak a common language…. Just the language of clay!
This film was made to be initially screened at the congress of the International Academy of Ceramics in Portugal. Serena Aurora and AuroVenkatesh of Aurora'S Eye Films followed Palanisamy and myself to his village and my studio to film this movie.