Looking at Hannah Bhatt’s weird and wonderful ceramic sculptures from her many exhibitions, you might not guess that she had only been making them for three years. The former lawyer started learning about hand-building pottery as a way to fill her time in between sending her two children to school. “I didn’t want to just lie around and do nothing, so I took the nearest pottery class, which was Clay Expression. I took their hand-building course, and over the course of six months, I eventually finished all their classes with nothing left to learn,” she laughed. Then, someone took a chance with her: Adeline Chong, founder of Snackfood—one of the best curated lifestyle stores in Kuala Lumpur. With only three ceramic cups to her name, Bhatt said that Chong really took a leap of faith in her and offered to debut her in the store; all she had to make were 50 sculptures in a month. And that was how The Uncanny Valley Studios came to be. “I looked at her, and I was like, oh my God. But I wanted it. I wanted the opportunity. I wanted to challenge myself, and so I said yes. One month in, I did my 50 sculptures, and we sold out. That was the start of my journey, and I haven’t stopped exhibiting since,” she said.
When we asked if it was tough to produce 50 sculptures in a month, she confessed that it wasn’t at all difficult. After five years of pent-up creativity in her—from being a stay-at-home mother—it was so much fun to create things again. Three years later, this well of creativity is still going, evident in the sculptures that she continues to produce, each time evolving and growing—quite literally, from little shot glasses to large sculptures. These days, though, she’s stopped doing solo exhibitions, focusing instead on collaborating with different artists to produce a mixed-media exhibition that’s closer to her heart. “I want to see how we can empower each other as artists and grow as a community. And I love working with other artists because they bring in a new and fresh perspective—coming up with something new and something you don’t usually see is, honestly, very fulfilling for me,” she said.
Her bigger goal, however, is to see ceramic art gain more appreciation in Malaysia. It sits in a niche corner of the local art collector’s community, with most people either unsure how to display it at home or unaware of the work involved in creating a ceramic sculpture. “I don’t blame them, because they don’t know the process behind it,” said Bhatt. “It’s weeks of work—we pick the glaze, the clay, fire it in the kiln. That’s why in every exhibition that I do, I try to also include a workshop so people are aware of why it costs that much.”
It’s hard work getting to where she is, and three years is not very long in the grand scheme of an artist’s journey. “When I came out of raising my babies for five years, I knew no one in the [arts and creative] industry. I literally did not know what I was doing or where this would lead me. So I worked really hard—every little goal that I set for myself, I held on to it lightly, but also eventually it manifested itself into being real,” Bhatt confessed. But she doesn’t chalk it up to just pure luck; it had to do with the hard work she put in and timing.
“With hard work, eventually, I feel like whatever you’re working for will come back to you.” She ruminated on that, comparing hard work to self-care. After five years of being a stay-at-home mother, doing her own thing as a ceramic artist wasn’t only serving herself—it was filling her cup and also other people’s cups. “If you’re just doing things for yourself, you’re not going to last. For me, the bigger purpose is always community. When you’re adding to other people’s lives, it will also fill your soul,” she considered.
And that has always been her thing.
Producer: Sarah Chong
Assistant: Joseph Cheng
Photography: Innsyirah
Photo Editor: Farna Syhida
Video Director: Qila Qla
Videographer: Syabil Ng, Farna Syhida
Video Editor: Farna Syhida, Ezza Izzati
Camera Assistant: Nick Luffy
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