Sculpting meaning: the path of ceramic artist Violetta Bora

In issue 32 of #ourstudents we meet Violetta Bora — a ceramic artist for whom clay has become the main means of self-expression. Violetta experiences art not only with her eyes but through touch, making sculptures charged with deep meaning and personal reflection.

In this interview she explains why she chose ceramics, how the material helps her carry across ideas and emotions, and talks about her path into contemporary art and about building her own art space.

– Tell us which media you work with.

My name is Violetta Bora, and I am a ceramic artist. I think I am the kind of artist who feels and senses rather than sees visual images. That is why clay is the most natural material for me: it lets me work at the level of sensation and give my thoughts volume and texture.

– Why did you choose clay, and how do you feel the material?

It often goes like this for me: I have an idea I want to express, but as soon as I start putting it into words it turns out flat, not what I actually mean. When I try to express it in sketches, that does not capture the essence of my thinking either. Only when I start modelling do form and content take on exactly the shape I was after. I think I think through modelling, and it is clay that helps me reflect on myself, on how I feel about the world and how I relate to the reality around me.

That is how the series “Subpersonalities” came about. I was walking to the studio meaning to sculpt my “inner monsters”, the ones devouring me from within, which felt hideous and frightening to me. On the way I saw soft toys thawed out after the winter, lying around in the yard of one of the buildings. The image hit me hard: they looked wet, dirty, abandoned — a pitiful sight. I photographed them and thought that if this had moved me so deeply, I ought to work through the moment somehow. In my head I called the image “Tired Toys Are Sleeping” and switched back to working on my “inner monsters”.

But when I saw the result, it turned out my monsters were not really monsters at all. They looked rejected and abandoned, stirring pity and sympathy. That is the value of clay as a material for me — it helps me express myself and my sense of how this world is put together.

And those are the most interesting subjects in art for me — the development of the individual and of humanity as a whole. I can see that process moving towards accepting polarity, opposing points of view, greater tolerance for the otherness of other people. It seems to me that when a person accepts that polarity within themselves, their level of self-directed aggression and inner criticism goes down. It becomes easier to accept other people’s imperfection and the imperfection of the world at large.

– What is your mission as an artist?

– Has studying on our program been useful to you?

Over this year the right algorithms have been written straight into my bones: how to work with my art, how to deepen and strengthen my artistic statement, what steps to take to move into the institutional world. If not everything, then a great deal has become clear — how the art world works, how to move within it, and above all, the fear of doing something wrong is gone.

– Tell us how you came up with the idea of turning your studio into a showroom, showing other artists’ work and building your own gallery.

The idea of making a showroom in the studio came up spontaneously, when a colleague and I started thinking about swapping coworking for a space of our own. We began planning what we wanted the place to be like and realized that we cared not only about function but about how it looked. We wanted to work surrounded by art.

That is how we arrived at the idea of an exhibition space inside our studio. First we put our own pieces there, then work by ceramic artists we knew, and eventually we announced an open call — now we want to help talented artists working with ceramics show their work.

You can apply in free form by email: contentum.artspace@gmail.com.
You can take a look at our space on Instagram.

– What would you advise artists who would like to start working with clay?

While I was studying, fellow students often came to me with all sorts of questions.

The most important piece of advice: if you feel like trying ceramics, do not overthink it, just try. I fell in love with ceramics the very first time and knew at once that it was the only thing I wanted to do.

And if you have an idea for a ceramic art object, the fastest and most effective way to realize it is to make the most detailed sketches you can or gather references. Work out what shape your object should be, what size, what textures and colours you want to use — and bring those materials to a professional ceramicist. They will either make the object to your brief or help you try to bring the idea to life yourself under their guidance.