Zeerkhaki | Pottery From The GroundSanam Emami January 2nd, 2024

Zeerkhaki // pottery from the ground      
Part 1 - Nishapur Polychrome ware series

This is the first of three exhibitions prompted and inspired by specific historical pottery forms from Iran. This body of work is a bridge between historical pots created along the trading routes of the silk road and my contemporary practice as a studio potter living and working in the Mountain West of the United States.

Zeerkhaki is a Persian word from archaeology, meaning "artifact" or object from under the ground. In Iran, the contemporary meaning of this word has accumulated layers of meaning, implying simply something old, or someone with old information. This contemporary meaning resonates with the experience of living between cultures and the challenge of making contemporary pottery that is inspired by ancient artifacts. It is a continual search to understand something that is just out of reach; a never-ending question about the relevance of old ideas and old objects within our contemporary culture.

The work in this show was inspired by a specific object: a bowl, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand that was among the objects that my parents carried with them when they left Iran. On the surface of this bowl, painted in slip, is a bird, perhaps a peacock, surrounded by Kufic script.

In the 10th century, Nishapur was a site of pottery production in Iran, creating polychrome slip ware. The earthenware clay was covered with a yellowish ground and then painted in polychrome slip in green, manganese purple, tomato red, yellow, mustard and white, that was then covered in a colorless lead glaze. Nishapur designs - ranging from figural, animal, floral and geometric - have been described by western art historians as having bold coloring and strange abstractions o indigenous invention pre-dating the influence of Chinese imports. These decorations hold similarities to Sassanian and Central Asian paintings.

All of the work in this exhibition is made with a blending of locally dug clay and my studio scraps, which come from industrial mines in the United States and abroad. The colors are ground, painted and layered, much like the Nishapur polychrome ware. The surface of the small bowls are my interpretation of the small bowl from Nishapur. Like this bowl, made over 1000 years ago, these forms are also made and decorated with materials that come from the ground. Like this bowl, these object will also one day return to the ground, as Zeerkhaki.