For centuries caravans carried silk, spices and ideas along routes that stretched across Asia toward the Mediterranean. Pottery travelled with them, and its shapes, glazes and decoration still show where the roads went.
Traders needed containers that could survive long journeys, so jars, bowls and bottles were made sturdy and often glazed to keep out damp. Potters along the route adapted their designs to local clay and to what buyers wanted, which is why similar forms appear in very different places.
Turquoise and blue glazes appear across many of the regions the road crossed, and they remain among the most loved colours in ceramics. Sasha Grigoryan's Blue Glazed Dish, made in porcelain, belongs to the same family of colours, although her glaze is mixed and fired in Almaty rather than in a historic kiln.
Carved and incised decoration is one of the oldest ways to mark a pot. Tomas Varga's Glazed Plate with Figure is a modern panel cut by hand in glazed stoneware, but its lines follow the same logic as the stamped and incised bands on old vessels. The effect is quiet and very direct.
Today's studio potters keep returning to these traditions. They study old shapes to learn how a form holds weight, they test glazes that were used centuries ago and they treat each piece as part of a longer story. The results are not copies, but they carry something of the road.
About the author. Kamila Sarsenbaeva is the Senior Curator at Focus Gallery in Almaty.
