Quartz Inversion
Quartz Inversion

ADIL WRITER

AUROVILLE / BOMBAY, INDIA

 
Adil Writer working on La Corona Familia in his dining room during the lock-down.

Adil Writer working on La Corona Familia in his dining room during the lock-down.

Adil Writer, 1 Out of 5, from the Sweet Dreams series, 2019. Soda/wood-fired stoneware, 17” H. Photo: Marco Saroldi.

Adil Writer, 1 Out of 5, from the Sweet Dreams series, 2019. Soda/wood-fired stoneware, 17” H. Photo: Marco Saroldi.

Adil Writer, Departure Series, 2020. Soda/wood-fired stoneware, 6” H. Photo: Marco Saroldi.

Adil Writer, Departure Series, 2020. Soda/wood-fired stoneware, 6” H. Photo: Marco Saroldi.

“No man is an island,” they taught us. Welcome to 2020—do we have news for you! We’re living the island life, only it’s called “social isolation” these days. Surely not the island life where the shade is palm and the mango’s ripe. The internet is full of images of animals queueing up, looking through glass panes at self-quarantined homo sapiens. I unknowingly escaped this sort of imprisonment in Bombay —where I was co-curating an exhibition called Table Manners, now indefinitely postponed—a few days before lock-down.

Fortunately I live and work in Auroville, an international community in the tropical forests of south India. It’s been over two months and we haven’t had a single COVID-19 case reported here. But the lock-down was national so we all had to stay put, at home. I converted my dining room into my work space, and repainted over an old canvas with clay powders, sand and acrylics I had lying around, resulting in A Slight Shift. Clay soon beckoned; I made a dash to my studio and brought home clay, slip and moulds, and so arrived the La Corona Familia also featuring a work titled Corona Pyar Hai that pays homage to a Bollywood movie of the 80s. Between cooking, cleaning, swiping, and Zooming, I also managed to frame some prints of photos I had taken some time ago in Bombay.

Is this going to become our new normal? Naah! We’re social creatures; we need our interaction, our beers, and our soda-firings.

La Corona Familia has almost reached Cone 10…

Adil’s first selfie-video… filmed in his dining room which was his workspace through the lock-down months.

During the lockdown, adil writer found that “Home alone” took on new meaning. He made Sculptures and paintinGs, and did some calligraphy—between rounds of harvesting cashew nuts from trees in his garden.

Adil Writer, Happy in my Solitude, 2020. Ink on rice paper, 28” W x 14” H.

Adil Writer, Happy in my Solitude, 2020. Ink on rice paper, 28” W x 14” H.

Adil Writer, Daughter Corona, from La Corona Familia, Sweet Dreams series, 2020. Soda-Woodfired stoneware and porcelain, 5” H.

Adil Writer, Daughter Corona, from La Corona Familia, 2020. Soda fired stoneware and porcelain, 5” H.

Adil Writer, Social Isolation, from La Corona Familia, Sweet Dreams series, 2020. Soda-Woodfired stoneware and porcelain, 5” H

Adil Writer, Social Isolation, from La Corona Familia, 2020. Soda fired stoneware and porcelain, 5” H

SANDSCAPES-photographs-on-archival-paper,-10-inches-x-13.5-inches-each,-2020.jpg

Adil Writer, Sandscapes, 2020. Photographs on archival paper, each 10” x 13.5”.

BIO: aDIL WRITER

Adil Writer was born and raised in Bombay, India, and now lives in Auroville, an international community in the forests of south India. He has a Master’s degree in Urban Design from the University of Houston, Texas, and practiced as an architect in San Francisco and his native city before heading to Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry for a “short term course” in ceramics. Clay took over, and since 2000 he has been a partner at Mandala Pottery in Auroville, where he strikes a fine balance between making functional tableware and producing his own ceramic sculpture—usually soda/wood-fired.

Adil is a trans-disciplinary artist working primarily in clay. Wanderlust is what takes him around the world for invited residencies, workshops and exhibitions. His ceramics and large-scale unfired clay paintings feature in numerous public, private and corporate collections and have been showcased in solo and group exhibitions internationally. He is also a prolific curator and is a member of Art Axis, USA, and the Geneva-based International Academy of Ceramics.

 
 

rate of affection

As co-curator with Janet Abrams, Adil Writer jointly nominated all the artists in Round One, and we have passed the baton to them to nominate all the artists for Round Two.