Interview
Meet Ivana Poliakova
In May, Salemi Ceramics welcomed Ivana Poliakova, a ceramicist from Odesa, Ukraine, for a three-month residency. In Salemi, she'll research local decoration motives and techniques as the foundation for a new bas-relief mural ceramic piece for the town.
Approach to ceramics
Poliakova first encountered ceramics six years ago while living in Korea, and ever since she has been learning and working on establishing her own project "Sercetvir". Her practice focuses on cultural and historical research into the continuity of ceramic tradition, and how both materials and decorative motives carry symbology and meaning.
She works with the themes of memory and identity, as she traces how forms migrate from one culture to another, carrying meaning and evolving while remaining recognizable.
"I like to perceive clay as a physical carrier of memory," she explains.
Her research-based approach had taken shape in "Fragile Coast", a project focused on the history and continuity of the use of local clay. Without any technical support, she spent six months experimenting with wild clay and studying archaeological research on local clay artifacts to understand how to make the material plastic and stable.
"At some point I started to think of myself as a medium for the clay, rather than the other way around. It pushed me to understand the material on a much deeper level," Ivana says.
For Ivana, making ceramics is both an intellectual and a physical experience:
"My favourite part is probably the stage of creating the idea, the active intellectual process of forming it, and also the state of meditative flow you reach while working manually on big pieces."
Inspired by Ukrainian decorative traditions
Her work also draws from Ukrainian decorative tradition: floral motifs, the tree of life, hearts, crosses - all patterns found on household objects, painted on houses, and embroidered onto clothing.
"There's a trace of magical thinking in the belief that like attracts like: if you surround yourself with symbols of gardens, fertility, and beauty, you might invite abundance into your life."
Behind the ornamentation hides a deeper motivation:
"I'm very much inspired by things made with an intention, by that glimpse of hope I find in an intentional act of creating," the artist shares.
Clay as a carrier of memory
Clay, for Poliakova, is a material with its own history.
"It carries a long history of use and holds its own narratives and traces. It contains artifacts that are relevant to many different time periods. I believe that working with such materials can help mediate a connection between our past and present, and potentially open a path toward the future."