Kalsoom Hameed A talented young ceramist, Kalsoom Hameed, has her cultural roots in Khanozai, a remote village in Pishin district of Balochistan. She was born to a family of Pashtuns, who had migrated from Afghanistan and have been living in Balochistan now for generations.
Like many other artists, she struggled to opt for visual arts and resisted her parents’ desire to go for medical sciences. “I was a silent child, inclined to make visuals from my tender age,” she says of her early days.
After doing her FSc, she says, she announced that either she would study art or won’t study at all.
After doing her foundation course of Visual Arts from the Balochistan University in Quetta, she joined the National College of Arts, Lahore, to major in the discipline of Ceramics Design.
Her initial works were mostly the products developed for interiors, small-scale intricate calligraphic panels, mosaics and decorative studio pottery. During studies, she experimented with a wide range of surface treatments and textures.
After tedious efforts in studio practice and academic research for almost three years, she developed a music instrument.
It is inspired by her childhood memories of playing ethnic music instrument called ‘Surna’.
“It was called ‘Borrindo’ in Indus Valley Civilisation and its primitive form is called ‘Ghughu’ in Harrapan Civilisation. These mouth-blown instruments, made with clay, imitate the sounds of birds, she explains.
”Before making instruments, I studied how the sound is created, how we would play hand whistle and produce sounds by blowing an empty bottle.
“I reached an understanding of the working of vocal cords and the sound produced by air pressure in mouth-blown instruments. I learned how air gets split inside, its oscillation and deflection after collision with the surface, which ultimately produces sound,” she speaks as an expert.
She makes the basic forms in terracotta employing ‘Slip Casting’ and ‘Open Mould Casting’ and observes the sound.
The shapes are further developed after the study of various music instruments, including the shehnai, flute and an ancient western mouth-blown instrument called ‘Ocarina’.