Growing up in Fustat, the Cairo neighbourhood with a centuries-old pottery tradition, ceramicist Ibrahim Said learnt the art at his father’s workshop. He acquired the craft through immersion, watching the artists around him and developing an instinct that comes only from years spent working with a material. His father built his foundation and Said carried them forward. “When we talk about Egypt, we speak of the craft tradition that goes back 7,000 years,” he says. After leaving the country in 2002, he displayed his work across Asia, Europe and the Middle East before settling in North Carolina in 2012. America became home, but his inheritance travelled with him, shaping a practice that draws on ancient Egyptian forms, Islamic geometry and all the possibilities of clay.
This dialogue between heritage and contemporary creation brought Said to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) as part of The Artisan Residency Programme with Vacheron Constantin. Over 18 months, the initiative brought together three creators working with very different materials: American furniture artist Aspen Golann, British Italian goldsmith and jeweller Joy Harvey and Said. The residency took them to New York, the maison’s Geneva manufacture and their own studios. Each was given access to collections, curators, conservators and specialist artisans before returning to the material they know best.
The aim was never to reproduce history. “It’s not about replicating the past but using our creativity and innovation to make the artworks relevant in today’s world,” says Christian Selmoni, style and heritage director at Vacheron Constantin. The idea sits naturally between the two institutions. The Met holds 5,000 years of art, bringing objects from different cultures and periods into conversation. Vacheron Constantin, meanwhile, has a long history of preserving traditional craftsmanship. Since Jean-Marc Vacheron took on his first apprentice in 1755, the maison has remained committed to passing down its savoir-faire from one generation to the next. Engraving, enamelling, guilloche and gem-setting remain active within its métiers d’art workshops, where ancestral techniques are continually reconsidered rather than simply conserved. “We are a watchmaking brand because we do actually manufacture timekeepers. However, we are craftsmen at the end of the day,” says Selmoni. The residency extends this thinking, creating an exchange between artists and artisans whose disciplines may differ but relationship with their materials is rooted in patience, precision and practice. “Both institutions are committed to keeping traditional craft going, which ultimately means ensuring it reaches the next generation,” says Heidi Holder, chair of education at The Met, on her last day at the art institute.
For Said, that transmission begins with his father. When he speaks about him, pride gives way to emotions. “He is the man who taught me the craft, and without him, I might’ve never pursued this profession. I hope he is proud of what I am doing,” he shares. This inheritance is visible in the forms and motifs that run through his ceramics. Said looks to the proportions and finials of ancient Egyptian vessels, as well as the geometry of Islamic art. He draws inspiration from the rich cultural heritage of his native country and earthenware of the Naqada period (4,000-3,000 BCE). That beauty has stayed with him. In his own ceramics, the artisan pushes the limits of clay to create vessels, vases and sculptures of shapes that defy the laws of gravity, which he decorates with intricate patterns.
