Diploma exhibition
9. February - 14. February 2023
Academy of Fine Arts Munich (Class Prof. Nicole Wermers)
My earliest memory of soil is abstract, a damp, gritty cold feeling, a hazy black color. The first time I recognized clay as a material was when I made rabbit-shaped pottery in elementary school. Even though it was my first time, it seemed like I already knew how to handle the material and I remember that it formed a shape naturally.
The group of unglazed but over-decorated ceramic vessels in my diploma presentation are made from recycled clay. The pieces are the result of a technique I developed over the last 3 years which is inspired by the richly decorated pottery from the Japanese Jōmon period (14000-1000 BCE). The ancient clay pots are characterized by distinctive relief patterns in the shape of ropes and other readily available surfaces of the age such as shells and plants.
For the reliefs applied to my own works I use patterns and the negative spaces of the thin unbranded plastic containers found inside cardboard packaging of everyday products, such as cakes, soaps or batteries. They are used to separate and stabilize individual or stacks of the same product inside larger branded boxes. Born from the logistic philosophy of ordering time and space the design of these humble support structures follow purely economic principles of achieving maximum efficiency with a minimum of material and weight.
I explore plastic packaging from a sculptural point of view. The uniform negative spaces of an inlay set (often only reflecting the basic shape of the product) are filled with clay and applied to my vessels. I also use the purely functional patterned relief surfaces at the bottom of some of the containers, as well as shoe-laces and soles to imprint into the wet clay. Juxtaposing the handmade aesthetics of ceramics with the solidified ghosts of mass-fabricated industrial goods, I am contrasting the artisanal with the throw away culture of contemporary supermarkets.
With the advent of machine fabrication during the industrial revolution the concept of labour and manual work changed dramatically. Space and time began to be managed by machines, and the relationship between time and the body took a leap forward due to the transportation revolution that followed. I am interested in the transformation processes of both design and materiality in that trajectory of massproduction, as the volatile state of physicality within our mechanized and digitalized society is increasingly determined by logistics.
While researching the long bridge from prehistorical ceramics to the present, I came across Jōmon pottery. They are said to be the oldest ceramic vessels in Japan. The extensively used rope and string-like ornaments are depicting snakes, universal symbols of rebirth. In those days when there was no science or ideology of economy or reason, death was the most important theme and besides the snake, the moon
was the absolute symbol of material regeneration. The water within our bodies was considered to be an important substance that creates life, and there is a theory that the origin of this type of earthenware is to store rain (water from the moon) to pray for the rebirth of the deceased at the time of burial.
was the absolute symbol of material regeneration. The water within our bodies was considered to be an important substance that creates life, and there is a theory that the origin of this type of earthenware is to store rain (water from the moon) to pray for the rebirth of the deceased at the time of burial.
This narrative of spiritual rebirth and material regeneration I am considering through the contemporary lens of logistics, consumption and recycling.