Iskandar Jalil fired up by imperfection

About two dozen prized works from his family collection will be on show at the Singapore Clay Festival

- Shawn Hoo

Master potter Iskandar Jalil's three-storey terrace home in Jalan Kembangan stands as a visual compendium of the 85-year-old's aesthetics.

His ceramic kitchenware pieces have been in use for decades, wavy twigs of assorted girths are piled up neatly in a crate, even the tree outside has been chopped to beautiful imperfection in his eyes.

Some of his most prized works sit in a rooftop private gallery, six decades of art-making - what he could not sell or bear to sell - concentrated in a single spacious room. About two dozen works from his family collection will be on show at the Singapore Clay Festival, which returns for its fifth edition from Nov 6 to 9.

"When it's too good, it's rubbish," says the Cultural Medallion recipient from his home, which he shares with his wife Saleha Amir.

Observing the pots lined on his table, his verdict is that many of the things he made are ugly - too symmetrical, too perfect. Recalling a tall water container in the Istana Art Collection, he declares that it, too, is ugly - too beautiful.