TAKE on Art (ToA): What drew you personally to curate this retrospective on Vimoo Sanghvi and how did the idea for Whispering Clay come to life?
Kristine Michael (KM): I first met Vimoo Sanghvi in 1997 as a young NID graduate student as I was on a research project about pioneers of Indian studio pottery. I was referred to her by Primula Pandit and Malti Diwecha, as she had never shown her works in Delhi, only Bombay. However, Sardar Gurcharan Singh did inaugurate one of her exhibitions in the 70s and admired her work. The Sanghvi and Shah family contacted me two years ago, and I was delighted to finally use my interview with her for the base of this exhibition celebrating her life.

ToA: Could you share your curatorial strategy in structuring this retrospective? How did you select and organize the works to reflect her artistic evolution?
KM: We have tried to match the style of her works, earlier functional, with her training in the UK at Willesden Art School in the late 50s and also with Marianne de Trey at Dartington. The later works in Bombay more sculptural and the figurative, using both wheel work and hand-building techniques and modelling, were also grouped stylistically and not chronologically, as we are still to properly identify the dates on many of her series.

ToA: How do you see Sanghvi’s ceramics engaging with or diverging from broader trends in Indian modernism?
KM: She was influenced by the Bombay Progressive Artists’ work all around her, as well as teaching at JJ School of Art brought her in touch with many of the well-known artists of the times. Being an international traveller, she was exposed to museums and galleries of both the USA, UK, and Europe. She even spent 1 month in Tehran working with the Iranian potters at the request of the Shah. However, her love for ceramics made her experiment with form and techniques using clay but with a contemporary resonance, please note her figurative heads series.

ToA: Sanghvi’s work is noted for its subtle narratives and evolving forms. Are there particular pieces in this retrospective that you feel encapsulate these aspects best?
KM: The figurative Heads series and the Cubist period stacks are some of her most advanced techniques for the period, as no ceramic artist was making this kind of sculptural works at the time.

ToA: What aspects of Sanghvi’s visual language or philosophy do you think continue to resonate with contemporary ceramicists or artists today?
KM: The move into the sculptural once the technical side of ceramics as a medium was accomplished. She struggled with the raw materials, glazes, and clay mixture and firings over all her life, as processed materials and equipment were not available then.

ToA: In the process of curating this show, did you uncover any surprising or lesser-known facets of Sanghvi’s life or work that shifted your understanding of her?
KM: Her perseverance and commitment to the medium and the quality of her works give us an insight into the person she was juggling all her roles as artist, wife, mother, family. Please see Vir Sanghvi’s essay in the catalogue about her fierce determination to continue with her art despite all odds.

ToA: What kind of audiences are you hoping to reach with Whispering Clay, and how are you envisioning their engagement with the exhibition?
KM: We are trying to both celebrate Vimoo’s life and works as well as bring her into the spotlight once again in the history of modern art in India, which often overlooks clay as a medium of expression and lesser-known artists. Much more work needs to be done in the project, for example, in both her teachers’ archives Ronald Cooper of the Willingdon Art School and Marianne de Trey’s archives in the UK. She did exhibit at the Commonwealth Artists Exhibition at the V&A Museum as well in the 70s.