The Clay Studio : Shop

My work weaves together personal history, cultural heritage, and the intimate beauty of the everyday. I try to capture the magic of everyday objects by recreating moments in time- particularly of domestic life. Beyond comfort in the mundane, my work also takes these objects and transforms them into items of reappreciation. I represent objects from daily domestic life- chairs, lightbulbs, fruits, ladders- on my pots as still lifes of memories. A chair is a symbol for sitting together, fruit is a symbol for a shared meal, and ladders lead back to a specific memory of working in my garage with my dad. They capture a moment in time spent with those I love the most. That I am Palestinian strongly influences the objects I draw and am drawn to. Not in the least, oranges and keys. My drawings are, in a sense, acts of rematriation. Oranges in my work reference the Palestinian city, Jaffa, where my sedo or paternal grandfather is from, a city famous for its orange groves. Keys, on the other hand, are a symbol of return to Palestine, as many Palestinians were forced to flee their homes but hung onto their house keys. They serve as images of restoration and recollection in ways that make my pots more intimate across everyday life beyond and within historical time. I opt to pinch and coil build each pot, as I like spending time with each section of the vessel. I leave all of my fingerprints and coil seams embedded in the surface of the clay. I enjoy that the viewer can place their finger where mine once was, like a fossil of my building process. Making pottery offers me a way to connect with the every day to an even fuller extent. I gravitate towards making functional work because when people use my work, it feels like I am contributing to their everyday life, the very same sphere I am trying to capture in my drawings.

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Amal Tamari

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Amal Tamari

Did you Know?

Can We Help?

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