In 2023, Sarin began handcrafting ceramic objects and embellishing them with designs inspired by her AI-generated artworks in a practice she playfully calls potteryGAN. Combining traditional craftsmanship with strains of generative spontaneity and sharp wit, potteryGAN embodies Sarin’s technical brilliance, humor and thought-provoking approach to craft in the age of machine automation.
To create her ceramics, Sarin draws from multiple processes that bridge the digital and the handmade. In some works, she begins by selecting one of her GAN-generated images and modeling it in Blender, a 3D tool she uses to craft forms suitable for printing. The printed shapes then serve as plaster molds for casting her ceramics. In others, the process is entirely manual, combining slab and coil building techniques. Once the pieces are fired in the kiln, Sarin paints them with underglaze, developing intricate designs that echo the colors and patterns of the original GAN imagery. After a second firing, a transparent glaze gives them their final, glossy finish. Moving fluidly between analog and digital methods, Sarin layers each stage with creative nuance. Her vessels exist between worlds, neither fully human nor machine made, expanding our understanding of what is possible when GANs are embraced as one of many tools in a multifaceted approach to art-making.
