Tile by Tile

An exhibition in the Capital brought out the creative expressions of 75 artists on a rarely used medium tiles.

Ceramic tiles have been an important part of human habitation since ancient times. Glazed earthenware tiles found in several archaelogical sites in Egypt, dating back to the fourth century BC, were used to adorn buildings — religious and otherwise — while China has a treasure trove of painted pottery from the Han Dynasty. In this context, an exhibition in the Capital called "Tiles Forever", which concluded yesterday, was an attempt to encourage artists to consider creating individually sculpted tiles as artwork in itself, at a time when mass production has replaced handmade tiles in India.

The exhibition, hosted by Delhi Blue Pottery Trust as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, featured more than 100 works by 75 ceramic artists from all over the country at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre. Each of the tiles was hand-crafted, which took the artists months to create.

Falguni Bhatt Sanghvi's ceramic work The Grid deals with the relationship between real life and virtual world in today's times. She said, "Our real world consists of rooms, houses, windows and books, which are in arrangements of squares and rectangles. Similarly, whenever we operate a phone, applications such as emails, calendar, radio, games and contacts appear in horizontal and vertical rows of square images." The 38-year-old artist from Kolkata, who has been working with clay for 14 years now, says she is inspired by the softness and flexibility that the medium offers.

On the other hand, Noida-based Neeru Bhargava's "passion for fashion and love of pottery" was the inspiration behind her clay tile collection, which was on display. Her background as an apparel designer was quite evident, as her hand-crafted tiles took various forms — off-shoulder dresses, skirts, frocks and tops.

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