Gorn Ceramics

I was born in the village of Opishnya, Poltava region, Ukraine. I started creating my first artworks in 2001, after school graduation.

It was some kind of pottery made on a pottery wheel. I don’t remember.

The village where I was born and raised, Opishnya, is famous as the capital of Ukrainian pottery. It's quite well-known in the country. In the past, in the Soviet Union, it was quite famous as a centre of pottery too. And even before that, it was known because there were always a lot of craftsmen and a lot of clay.
Why did I start doing this? It’s a long story. When I was growing up, I could not imagine that I would be engaged in ceramics, that I would be an artist, that I would make sculpture. I was just a simple village boy, playing football, fishing, having fun, helping my parents. But I remember that I always had a talent for drawing. I had drawing skills since childhood. And when the question arose about what I should do after graduation, I had several options.

I thought about studying science because I was very good at mathematics. But my father, being a responsible man, took it quite seriously. He asked me what I really wanted to do, and I said I didn’t know. At that time, he was working as a chief engineer at the art ceramics factory in Opishnya, which was still operating. He saw that I was skilled in moulding with clay because I used to make all sorts of toys out of plasticine (playdough), so he asked me if I wanted to enter an art university in Poltava — a department of Decorative and Applied arts had recently opened at Poltava Technical University. He had friends there who could help me get in.
I was interested in the offer, but I couldn’t enter right away because university means a pretty serious level. People get in after graduating from art schools or colleges, and I didn’t have any artistic education. I just painted at home. So, I had to prepare myself for a whole year. I attended the courses in Poltava, which was about fifty kilometres away. I was going there twice a week. In order not to waste time, I worked for that whole year as an apprentice at an art ceramics factory.

I remember on my first days there, I was taught how to work on a pottery wheel with clay. When I tried it, I did very well the first time and I really liked it. That year was quite inspiring for me! I truly wanted to go to work, I didn’t want to go home, I always wanted to work with clay. The level I demonstrated while studying was very high and I learned fast. That is, in three months, I learnt how to make artworks that were made by masters of the highest sixth category at that time. I was quite good at it.
Then, a year later, I entered university, where I started to study other art forms like painting and sculpture. But I never stopped doing ceramics. I also painted a lot because I liked it. I even wanted to continue my studies in the Lviv Academy of Arts in order to study painting. But my father was against it.

He convinced me that it was better for me to do what I was doing and continue to study where I was studying. I listened to him and left those ideas behind. I continued my studies at Poltava University. When I graduated and became a freelance artist, I continued painting for another year, and then I realised that I had to do what I was best at. Around 2008, I started thinking more seriously about developing a career in ceramics. And then everything evolved gradually.

In the first years of my career in ceramics, I spent more time studying the craft. I made some simple forms — dishes, vases, etc. I was gaining the skill of working with clay. I studied the material. But later, I also became seriously interested in spiritual practices. I realised that, with the help of my art, I could preach and show people deeper truths. Art is something that should uplift and glorify a person. So I became interested in not just making decorative pieces, but creating sculptures and objects that would carry a deep, philosophical thought, that would make people think.
At the beginning, I tried to think up artificially what I wanted to do and developed some ideas. But over time, I let my imagination free and trusted the Lord, some higher power.

I’m just trying to feel what I need to do: what I need to convey and give away. I have a lot to say to people in order to make their lives better. There is a lot of knowledge that I have collected, heard, learnt, and received from others, and I want to pass it on. Because when you are full of something, you want to share it.
That’s why these sculptures, these forms, may seem complex to some extent. But they are only complex until we understand what they are about. When the viewer understands, they become easy. They solve certain issues, answer people’s questions, and make life easier.

The forms are often a kind of interaction between some creative thought and the material. It is very important for me to pay great attention to what the material I am working with dictates. Clay is a very lively and interesting material: if you listen to it and interact with it, it tells you a lot. Just like wood, for example.
Recently, I’ve also started working with wood. They are very similar. If you stop focusing on what you specifically want and instead listen to what the environment, the material, and everything around you tells you, then the forms are born by themselves. Sometimes I’m surprised by what I create. Quite often, I make some sculptures and then think what they are about, and I discover some ideas for myself.

I would like my works to be very accessible to many people. If they are exhibited in museums around the world, so be it. But I also dream of creating my own sculpture park, where I would either display only my artworks, or I would select pieces that are similar in spirit. Visitors would learn something, understand something, see something, and think about something. That’s why I would like to create a large museum. Well, a sculpture park.
But if there was such an opportunity, I would gladly bring these sculptures somewhere. I would exhibit them in all kinds of famous museums. Because the way people’s minds work is the following: if you take your artworks and exhibit them somewhere, people will later come to you. But when you exhibit only here, no one knows about you, so no one respects you much.

The human mind works in such a way that unless you have some kind of big advertising, you are not taken seriously. No matter how deep you are, no matter what level of sculpture you have. So, I think if I have an opportunity to exhibit somewhere in a serious museum, it will be good for my development and the popularisation of my art. It will be an opportunity for me to express what I want to wider audiences.

This is an exhibition, and we plan to open it soon. This series is called Emptiness. It’s a continuation of another series of sculptures that are currently on display at Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, called Shadows. There are eight pieces that symbolise certain problems that people face and suffer from. They raise question on why people suffer. It is logical if we show the reasons for people’s suffering, and it’s also logical to find an answer. It's not good just to point out that you’re suffering because you’re such a scoundrel. This series, these eight artworks, are about the way out, what I propose.

I propose to base action on certain knowledge, on certain spiritual practices. I offer what I myself am trying to implement and practice. Because to propose or talk about something that you haven't learnt or don't practice yourself is wrong.
This series describes the progress of a person on their spiritual path. The sculptures symbolically show how the mood and silhouette of someone’s image change: when they start from a certain state of sleep (they are in complete ignorance and don’t understand who they are) to a certain exalted state when they find themselves and understand what they need to do. Then, this person restores their connection with the higher powers, with God.

The first sculpture represents a person who is sleeping. It is said in the Holy Scriptures that if a person does not engage in self-development, doesn’t search for connection with God, then he or she is identified with a sleeping person. And when that person awakens (by the way, it was the working title of the series, Awakening, but then I changed it to Emptiness), then their journey begins. The last sculpture symbolises a figure who gives God everything they gave. That is, it gives God everything precious, gives all of itself, and only then it becomes truly happy.
Each sculpture also has a hollow in the chest area, which symbolises that each of us feels there is some kind of emptiness in our hearts that can’t be filled with anything material. We try to fill it with friendships or material love, but in the end, we are mostly disappointed. The farther we are from the connection with God, with the Divine, the greater this emptiness is. Gradually, in each sculpture, this emptiness decreases and this hollow gets smaller. Only in the last sculpture it disappears.

There’s an interesting poem on this very topic, although I don’t remember the author, she's from Georgia. At the end of this poem, she says that “the emptiness in the heart is the size of God.” It means that this emptiness can only be removed with God’s help. Because this emptiness is precisely due to the lack of God in the heart. When this connection with God is restored in our lives, God fills this emptiness. And then we calm down and begin to live fully.

I can tell a lot about each sculpture, but it would take so much time. In short, it’s about the spiritual path. Some of the sculptures are with torn heads. One could say that it happened by chance, but it’s not accidental. Because this spiritual path is very difficult. Even just the material path leading to some kind of peak is also very hard. And the spiritual path is even harder because the goal is very high, it’s beyond our reality. Only a few people can reach the end of this path in one lifetime. That’s why many people stop.
These torn sculptures, to some extent, symbolise the complexity of this path and the complexity of life in general. And especially now, for example, in Ukraine, everyone understands how difficult life is.

Although it’s not about that, not about material difficulties, not about the fact that your head or leg can be torn off at any second. But nevertheless, it resonates to some extent. That is, people are becoming more aware that material life is not so simple and quite deceitful. You can hope, for example, that your country, your family, your husband, your parents will protect you. And in one second, all this can be gone and you will have nothing. Even you may be gone. Or you may have no arms or legs.
People realise that nothing material can protect them. Then they start to really think about who they are and whether they can be happy with material happiness, material things, material life. The purpose of these sculptures is to make people think about their lives, about who they are, what they are, and why do they live here.

I don’t think it matters. I believe that we get exactly what we are supposed to get. There is a book, Isha Upanishad, that says that everyone is given a part of their destiny, and you should not trench on the destiny of another. This mantra is always on my mind, it gives me the opportunity to be creative, to be alive. Because when we think that we can snatch a piece somewhere, earn more, it makes us slaves to it. Slaves to our desires to become rich and famous.
But if we understand that we only get what we are supposed to get, then we calm down and start doing what we truly want to do. It is this truth that helps me to work creatively. It helps me not to stop at what I have achieved. The biggest danger for an artist or ceramist is when you have learnt to make something, it has some popularity, people buy it, then you stop there and that’s it. This is the beginning of degradation.

My success is that I am always interested in doing something new, and this helps me find new forms, new ideas, and new things. Anyone who observes me and my work, how it has changed over the past six years… I started making some cups and now I create mostly sculptures, I have a brand called Gorn Ceramics, and I teach different craftsmen to make household items and some decor.
I don’t make them myself anymore because I feel that I can do more. If we can do more, we should use our talent. In my opinion, when we are given talent, there is a certain responsibility; you need to use it somehow, do something good with it, help and make the world a better place.
I think all the artworks that I'm creating now are a sort of preparation. Maybe someday I'll create something that will be worth some attention. Or maybe not. I don’t rule out the possibility that I might abruptly stop my work and do something completely different if I feel that it's necessary, that it will be more useful. Because if a person develops more broadly, then maybe over time they need to think more broadly and expand their activities.