Gallery for Small Sculpture

Kathryn Walker is an Emmy Award–winning actress and director, a novelist, and an artist. Walker’s installation SANGHA was made up of nearly 1,000 miniature pots embellished by the artist.

The exhibition’s title, SANGHA, comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “community.” In this installation, the pots range from crude to more refined, reflecting the diversity within a community. These simple, unglazed, earthen pots from Mexico are reminiscent of the vessels that have been made for centuries in rural cultures everywhere. Each of the pots is painted with acrylic media, contains a fragment of a Tibetan prayer flag embedded in the surface, and is finished with wax and varnish.

Because pottery has traditionally been used to save or store things, Walker feels that simple pots such as these have always represented hope and the promise of tomorrow. She has commented: “These jars, descended from ancient prototypes, carry ancient emblems. They stand in testimony to what has been achieved, what has been hoped for, and what may also be lost. They are at once spectators and votaries.”

This exhibition was organized by Curatorial Assistant Ilana Chlebowski.