When a professor from the School of Planning and Architecture decides to hang up her boots and probe hidden embers of firing, glazes and  clay constructions, it becomes more than a mere pilgrim’s journey. Architect turned sculptor Manjari Sharma exhibited her works titled Sculptor that broadly represented the physical embodiments of human emotions.

About her inspirations, Sharma said, “Busy with my architectural practice, my heart longed for a deeper connect with my soul. In a world of money, power and competition, I longed for the random fluidity of life. The timelessness where  life could be still and be full. Where it didn’t matter what you did but who you were. I found all my answers, in the first lump of clay that I touched. It was a deeply transforming moment.”

 The exhibition, according to Sharma, is a representation of human expression. “I believe that we are not human beings having a spiritual existence, but spiritual beings having a human existence. It celebrates being human and its playfulness, the imperfections and nuances of the desire expressed in the articulations of human expressions. No two humans look the same and here we celebrate the wonder of this creative miracle,” said Sharma explaining the concept of the exhibition.

Talking about the new trends in sculpting,  Sharma commented,“I find that unlike before, people want the entire meaning spelt out for them. They don’t want to slow down and experience it. Its more about diversity and having many things to look at simultaneously, rather than absorption in the depths of one.  Colour and attractive forms are more appealing than raw engaging depths.” According to Sharma, creating a piece is nothing short of madness, “I quietly escape from the clutter of everyday routine, into the quiet of my studio to create. After preparing clay, which is nothing short of a workout, I sit and stare at the lump of clay, until it starts speaking to me. And then a madness takes over. Submerged and almost trance like, I am always surprised to see what has emerged in the work created.

“The work must then sit for days to dry up, before being fired to bisque in the kiln. The firing can take six hours. The piece is then taken out of the kiln after it cools. It is now ready to be glazed. It is fired again for about eight hours before we can see a finished work,” she explained.

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