Chatti in Clydebank

In late 2024 I had the opportunity to take part in a series of temporary exhibitions with the organisation Artist Window. This organisation makes use of disused spaces, often old shop windows to give a platform to artists whilst also enriching the local community by bringing art to otherwise derelict spaces until it is decided what will be done with them. I used this space to bring some of the pieces I had made during my residency in Kerala, India, to the shopping centre of Clydebank. In Kerala these unglazed cooking pots are known as Chatti and are used for cooking different types of curries. Clydebank shopping centre may seem an odd place for these pots to end up straight off the shipping from India but I love the that their first home was in this somewhat deprived area of Glasgow. Those who have been to Clydebank shopping centre will attest that it is not the most beautiful of locations, but to me it felt very familiar and reminiscent of the town centre of Rochdale where I grew up. It was really great to see how the pots intrigued people as I was setting them up. A few passers by were understandably confused as to what I was doing, and why I was putting some clay pots in their old local charity shop window. A few other passers by stopped and told me how familiar they looked and compared them to the traditional cooking pots of their own home countries.