Roha

Roha, originating from Sanskrit, means sprouting or rising . In Arabic context, Roha represents “Soul” or “Life”. The empty bowl is symbolic of our willingness to hold whatever we wish. And, here is a wish to fill the empty bowl sprouting with the purest form of life.  

Woodfired at 1300ºC in Ipoh, Malaysia during my last visit, this piece is very special to me as the whole conceptualisation was like connecting to life itself in reality. Going deeper into answering the questions that often come into our minds but are sometimes left unanswered or may be ignored .There is ample greenery around me and my studio when I just sit to do my work and there is always a tendency to incorporate nature into my forms or surface designs.

“Kirin kiln”, in which this pot was fired, in Ipoh

During the initial stages of making this big bowl, the constant view from my studio was the ongoing construction work across the canal (I have the beautiful view of a canal with lots of trees around from my studio), which was a bit disturbing as lots of trees were cut down to make way for the park connector.

And it raised the question about our wishes & our desires.  Destruction of one and construction of another. Do we really need it? The constant change in our desires brought an abstract edge to the bowl but my idea needed more ethical and moral representation and so I decided on the leaves, an upward sprouting tree within an empty bowl .

Roha is available to view and purchase at this ongoing ceramic exhibition (Details above).

Hope you enjoyed reading this post! Do share your thoughts in the comments.

Mona Malhotra

Hailing from India, the impact of cultural diversity has always acted as a seedling to my thoughts and I try to find resemblances in different cultures. Thus, amalgamating my creations with my travel experiences. I have explored and incorporated those beliefs in my work. I take pleasure in depicting the intricacies and the pleasant outcomes of the complexity in everyday's life through the crudity of clay transforming into an exquisite masterpiece. The connection from Earth to Clay to Mankind amuses me to bring out my forms and connect to them. I am inspired by the balance in nature choreographed by mother earth in the various forms of existence and their connection to each other.

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