Ashes of the Living
Ashes of the Living captures a delicate ritual of transformation, where organic matter and clay converge. In this series, dried leaves are submerged in ceramic slip and fired in a kiln. The fire consumes the original form, leaving only its ghostly impression in the clay — a paradox of destruction and preservation.
Reduced to ash, the leaves nevertheless leave their fragile essence inscribed in the clay. This process reflects the Hindu concept of cremation, where fire acts as a sacred agent of release, guiding the soul from the physical world to the formless beyond. Just as a body is transformed into ash while its essence transcends, these leaves are both obliterated and immortalised by flame.
Here, the imprint of the mango leaf becomes a metaphor for this transformation. It reminds us that while form is impermanent, memory and essence endure in the traces left behind. The deep black glaze evokes the embers of ritual pyres, the rising smoke, and the silence that follows transformation. Suspended in space, the fragmented forms resemble relics of a past life, floating between absence and presence, memory and void.
In this work, fire is not merely a destroyer—it is a purifier, a keeper of imprints, and a bridge between worlds. Ashes of the Living is a meditation on impermanence; a quiet acknowledgement that even in loss, something remains.
