Sandra Ban

Ceramicist

©Sandra Ban

©Museo Zauli

©Sandra Ban

Layers of material, media and consciousness

Sandra is a ceramic visual artist
She values the living nature of clay in all its stages
Organic shapes and complex textures are central to her work

Sandra Ban is an interdisciplinary artist who works chiefly with ceramic sculpture and sculptural painting. She combines natural and living materials of earth and clay with new technologies of digital media, to express deep layers of consciousness in abstract representations. She was educated in Italy at the Art Gymnasium and Academy and at the Faculty of Architecture and Philosophy. Sandra has a lifelong passion to learn and explore concepts of anthroposophy. She is an active leader for the development of art and culture in various international organisations and art projects. Her work is exhibited independently at numerous international art residencies, exhibitions and festivals.

Interview

©Sandra Ban

©Sandra Ban

What are your sources of inspiration?: Inner peace, harmony, the sky, vastness, water, space, molecular particles of the macrocosm and their parallelism with the neural base of thought creation in man.
What constitutes a well made object, in your view?: The quality of the construction, which is defined by quality technique; the right ignition curve when firing; and finally the knowledge of making a stable and permanent glaze. The rest is a matter of individual style and taste.
Why do you particularly love to work with clay?: Clay is a living material whose metamorphosis should be followed gradually until the very end of the making process. It remains alive even when it is vitrified or petrified, so its communication lasts forever.
How is your craft related to where you live?: Although I travel and participate in a lot of international exhibitions, most of the time I live and work in synergy with my self-created and self-sustaining natural habitat from which I draw inspiration. I apply this in my work with clay, ceramics, or petrified earth.

Sandra Ban is a master artisan: she began her career in 2005 and she started teaching in 2010