Yasmin Falahat, With these hands
‘Care’ is at the heart of SPACE’s public programme this year as we reopen the gallery at Redbridge Town Hall. A new billboard art commission from local artist Yasmin Falahat launches the programme for 2021, with an artwork that reflects the multicultural area of Ilford in which Yasmin grew up, and highlights the sharing of food as a symbol of care and community.
Yasmin is a ceramicist and multidisciplinary artist whose work is inspired by her Iranian and Turkish Cypriot heritage. She creates pomegranate and fig ceramics as a way of exploring her personal connections to her mixed culture through art and food.
Food in most cultures and households represents a way of caring for one another. Cooking for loved ones, helping prepare food with friends or family, helping to carry food from the local fruit and veg market, are all small examples of how we show care towards one another.
Yasmin asked friends and family to choose a fruit or vegetable that held a particular meaning for them – perhaps one that reminded them of a special moment in time or a loved one. She then created ceramic pieces out of these stories, each one made and glazed by hand. In this way, she transformed everyday fruits and vegetables into precious handmade ceramic art objects. The photographed hands that appear on the billboard are all the hands of local friends and family, and are positioned sharing, passing and offering the ceramic fruits to one another and to the viewer.
During the pandemic, where hands touching and sharing food were seen as ‘taboo’, this billboard celebrates our reconnection with friends and family as we emerge from lockdown, showing how we love and care for each other and spreading a message of joy and hope.
Yasmin Falahat graduated in Textile Design BA at Chelsea College of Art in 2014. After doing various creative jobs, she took a short ceramics course in 2018 and started selling her ceramics later that year.
Her pomegranate and fig ceramics have featured in Real Homes Magazine, Living Etc, Homes & Antiques, The Observer Food Monthly, Mollie Makes and Olive magazine.
Yasmin designs, makes and glazes each piece by hand. For enquiries please email: yfalahat@gmail.com.
This site for public art is commissioned by SPACE to create visibility for artists based in the London Borough of Redbridge.
