10.9 2010

The Master Class is open for enrollment for all professional ceramic artists who wish to extend their knowledge or seek inspiration and for their daily studio-practice.
Venue The Danish Design School Bornholm.
Tickets 60 Euro /450 Dkr. Buy your ticket here!

Instructors
Katherine Morling UK
Louise Hindsgavl, DK
Philip Eglin, UK

Moderator
Karina Bautz Jensen, DK

The figure today

Historical anomaly, or contemporary development.

Scenes of idyll, cherubic girls in summer dresses, healthy boys leading a calf by a rope.  Scenes of heroic nature, the noble bear it’s paws grasping for the springing salmon such are the images that spring to mind when speculating on the porcelain figures to be found in “grandmothers house”.

Ceramic figures and specifically porcelain figures have lived a life as status objects in the homes of the middle classes, an indication of wealth creation, symbols of stability, magnanimity, indicators of the status quo. The have been given places of honour in the home, the mantelpiece, the mahogany dresser, and behind glass in a timeless capsule of a dust free environment.  Porcelain figures have long been associated with the past and an ideal of middle class values.

The figure and its place in our society has previously largely been ignored and sometimes sneered at by ceramic artists who consider themselves to have more to say than just romanticism and chocolate box sentimentality.  Nevertheless story telling through the figure is making a strong comeback in today’s vibrant ceramic community many prominent artists have discovered the potential in figurative work to express the issues they want to address.  Many younger artists are realising the subject as a platform for a strong expression.  In this field they have the potential to play with references and ideas to push boundaries that both surprise and seduces.  The old figure is being dusted down and set up in tempo both in regards to the stories they tell and to the new ways in which the ceramic materials are used.  Experiencing the new ceramic figure is a journey of many dimensions, be a part of that journey when 3 international ceramic artists hold a master class on the “New figurative form”.

Figuren – færdig eller flyvende?

Søde piger med sommerkjoler, raske drenge med kalve i reb og isbjørne med poten på en springende laks.
Sådan kender de fleste porcelænsfiguren fra mormors hjem. Figurerne har levet livet som værdi skabende statusobjekter og har borget for sunde værdier i middelklassens hjem. De har haft ærespladsen på kaminer og teaktræs skænke, bag glas i støvfri vitriner. Porcelænsfiguren har længe været forbundet med fortiden og det idylliserede borgerlige hjem. Der er blevet vrænget på næsen af dem og spurgt til hvad de egentlig kunne i en tid hvor kunstnere og kunsthåndværkere havde mere på hjertet end glansbilleder og romantik. Fortællingen i figuren er på tilbagetog i dagens keramiske kunsthåndværk, mange yngre keramikere har opdaget mediet som en platform for en stærk udtryksform. Her kan leges med referencer og begreber i en grænsesøgende version som både forundrer og forfører. De gamle figurer bliver støvet af og sat op i tempo både med hensyn til historien der fortælles i disse nye former og  selve måden leret bliver brugt på. Her er både klassiske porcelænsoverflader men også tegneserie lignende måder at bruge materialet på. Oplevelsen med de nye figurer i ler bliver til en rejse i flere dimensioner på helium.
Kom og vær med på denne rejse når 3 internationale keramikere afholder Masterclass om denne nye figur form.

The instructors are:

Katharine Morling
“Katherine Morling creates whimsical and often outlandish sculpture from porcelain and ceramics.
A world away from the often stuffy stigma of the form, her work attracts a solid base of admirers on the strength of her imagination alone.Her current body of work takes the notion of animating the world of toys through her dynamic approach to ceramic art. “The objects can be described as three-dimensional drawings at first. However the true nature of the material is not so apparent at first. Is it paper? Textiles? It’s clearly ceramic to the touch though,” explains Morling. “The pieces work together as a tableau as stories start to unravel in the mind of the viewer.” Coolhunting.com

Louise Hindsgavl DK
“Nobody could accuse Louise Hindsgavl of being politically correct. Her porcelain figures break just about every thinkable rulefor what we can and can’t do. The emanate violence, mutilation, obscenity and a wonderfully coarse humour. All created in the material – porcelain – of mawkish Rococo shepherdesses, loveable sparrows and rosy-cheeked peasant girls in national dress” Tom Jørgensen, Art Critic.

Philip Eglin UK
Philip Eglin‘s work carries references to a heterogeneous array of sources. Inspiration for recent figures comes from Northern Gothic religious woodcarvings, Chinese export porcelain, English folk ceramics and the language of symbols used on contemporary packaging. His interest in such artefacts is not solely because of their intended aesthetic, but extends to the characteristic shapes and marks that are found on the underside and backs of things. Barrett Marsden Gallery UK