The Technique: Wheel thrown cups altered, transformed and connected into two hanging rows. A line of blue glaze was sprayed over the bowls.
The rows are fired in a reduction atmosphere up to 1260°C
The idea beyond the artwork
When I realized that making wheel thrown cups is a lifelong challenge for me, I started a project in which I could be on the wheel as long as possible. Once done I pushed together many cups on one shelf to try to interrupt the process of repetitive hand movements as much as possible. I skipped the need of usability of the cups. Just as with cycling or running, it became a cadence, a flow. The continuous repetition of a perfectly round shape gives the feeling that the cups are essentially making themselves. I was creating for the sake of creating. In this meditative way I made saucers for twenty cups, turrets of thirty cups, blocks of forty cups, round spheres of fifty cups and cups series with the maximum length of my shelves.
To emphasize the meaningfulness of this project I used porcelain, the noblest type of clay. For the connecting line across the chain of cups, I chose cobalt, a precious raw material that gives an indelible royal blue. The woman figure represents birth and that's exactly what an artwork is.
Some may consider that the wheel only allows round shapes, such as containers. They are right, indeed the wheel has its limits, but it is the artist behind the potter’s wheel that moves and crosses the boundaries. I call it dancing on the wheel! From this point of view the wheel is my dancing floor and porcelain is my partner. It’s all about mastering the material while remaining as playful as a child.