Around the Table

Rooted in my southern Indian heritage from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, “Around the Table” investigates the materials terracotta, banana leaf, copper, and cotton. The project reflects on how the shift towards mass-produced stainless steel has created distance from material relationships and, therefore, considers how dining materials can hold cultural memory and identity to reconnect diasporic communities to embodied traditions.

Colour & Materials

01. persian berries, red onion, red onion citric dyed silk
02. spun silk
03. mercinised cotton
04. raku clay
05. 1220°c terracotta clay
06. manganese oxide terracotta slip
07. copper oxide glaze
08. 980°c terracotta clay
09. beeswax
10. copper plate
11. ash wood
12. banana leaf

Final Outcomes

Dining vessels are sensorial objects, holding heat, touch and aroma in ritual. Culturally, eating with the hands reinforces this relationship between body, food and material. As vessels are passed down through generations, they accumulate wear and patina through use, allowing surfaces to record memory. The work explores how the marks and imperfections produced form value through emotional durability.

sgraffito terracotta & manganese oxide slip plate no°1

sgraffito terracotta & manganese oxide slip plate no°2

Visual Research

The project’s visual expression drew on family album photographs from Southern India. Captured on both film & modern cameras from the 1980s – 2020s, I observed and explored colour by balancing the contrast in quality between the two types of photography – the film soaked in warm, golden, sepia hues, compared to the vibrant modern photography. The natural landscapes captured in the photographs inspired the development of fine-line motifs and ink sketches.