When artist and teacher Kaveri Bharath turned 50, she decided it was time to pause, take stock, and in her own words “put out there what I have done for 50 years.” For decades, she had been known in different circles as a potter, a teacher, a sketcher. But rarely had anyone seen all these facets gathered together in one space. Her first solo show, 50-Fifty is a joyful coming together of her life’s work in clay, fabric, pencil, and paint.
“I’ve always been part of group shows, or shared exhibitions,” she reflects. “This time I wanted to celebrate my journey—the old and the new, the personal and the shared.” The title draws from a peculiarly Indian phrase: 50-50. “It’s never really half and half,” she laughs. “It’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that—like life itself.”
Clay has been her constant companion. As a child, she played in mud alongside her grandfather, a professor of engineering and a sculptor at home. Later, at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, she honed her craft under Ray Meeker and Debby Smith, developing what she calls “a lifelong love for ceramics and for teaching.”
But 50-Fifty is far more than a pottery show. Quilted frames nod to a period when health challenges kept her from her studio. “I had scraps of cloth, a sewing machine, and an urge to make. That’s how quilting saved me during lockdowns,” she says. Drawings and watercolours reveal another rediscovery—her return to sketching, encouraged by the late theatre artist AV Dhanushkodi, who tutored her over Skype. “Watercolour scared me,” she admits. “It’s immediate—you can’t touch the same place twice. But with his guidance, I began to enjoy its speed and unpredictability.”
The exhibition spills over with ceramics, both functional and sculptural, as well as intimate portraits of family, whimsical sketches, and bold, fluid washes of colour. Some works are deeply personal and not for sale, but much of it has already found eager buyers. Kaveri says. “When someone wants my work in their life, it feels like validation. You feel less lonely in the world.”
True to her spirit of connection, 50-Fifty also has an interactive corner where visitors can leave their mark.
Open to all. On till August 22. 10 am to 6.30 pm. (Closed on August 15 and 16). At Espace 24, Alliance Française of Madras, Nungambakkam.
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