Hi All,
For people who don't know me, I am Antra Sinha artist, educator and community builder in local, national and international ceramic community. Originally from India, I currently live and work at Utah State University in USA. My position at school is of Gallery Coordinator & Art Instructor. This provide me with the much needed stable life for my own creative practice and making endeavors for community projects.
Mapping the activities of my studio in the past year, Jan 2025 onwards and to delve into the places I traveled to and projects I accomplished. Here's a little visual story.
The elements: Fire, Earth, Water.
तत्वों : अग्नि, भूमि, जल।
These are interpretations of my understanding of the elemental aspects that make our lives on this planet exist. These works are the forms made with the inspiration of the shapes associated with these elemental materials. Triangle for fire, square/rectangle for earth, circle for water have been shaped with different processes used in the creation to form in clay.
The fire अग्नि symbol of the triangle, in my practice, has evolved into a shape that I call Tetrarc. I was taken by the zen monks drawing of the triangle, square and circle which was called ‘The Universe’. I researched and learned more about these shapes associating them to platonic solids or root forms. After making the tetrahedron several times, I chose to break the straight stiff edges and came upon the Tetrarc by pressing a scrap of clay between my forefinger and thumb of both hands. In my childhood I saw fire transform my grandfather's body into ash, fire used in rituals, in cooking and later transforming clay into ceramic. In the process of creating my work through fire, I realize that parts of me are transforming too. I relate to parts of my being as the Tetrarc in clay and then in ceramic.
The earth भूमि symbol of square or rectangle, took the shape of cube and vases. I completely understand that earth collaborates with the other elements to be able to grow things from it. Though we see, plants, trees and scrubs sprout and stand on the ground/earth. My abstract interpretation of this inspiration led me to create functional vessels in this form. These will hold plant life during the exhibition, and if these find places where they would be used for holding flowers.
The water जल symbol of circle, evolved in to sphere, and then abstract of a meditative pose with the inspiration of being in rendezvous with the Buddha Shakyamuni Dhyanamudra ध्यानमुद्रा from Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India that is part of the Asian Art section of Chicago Art Institute museum. I had visited this museum right after we had received vaccines after quarantining because of the Pandemic. I noticed the different gods and goddesses carved in different materials from various regions of India in this collection. Reflecting and introspecting, I recognized the commonality between these statues and difference in color and material, connecting it to the metaphor of our lives. All us human beings are so similar in many ways and in addition have differences in culture and color.
We welcomed many indigenous members to the conference and were able to start the conference with prayer and blessings from the Spiritual leader and Council member Malcolm Lehi, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, White Mesa, Utah, USA.
My proposal for a talk was accepted by the jury at Starworks for SUSTAIN, a wood-fire conference hosted at Star, North Carolina. May 22 - 25, 2025.
In addition to the talk I had three works in the exhibition which was part of the conference!
Next trip was to MidWestern Stat University, Wichita Falls, Texas, USA for firing the train kiln.
