3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

Biographical notes:
rebecca Maeder (*1978 Biel CH)
studied ceramics under Jacques
Kaufmann at the Ecole d’Arts Appliqués
in Vevey. Since 2003she has worked as a
freelance artist and participated worldwide
in exhibitions and ceramics symposia. She
has received awards internationally, including
the 2012 NASPA Talent Award for
“Mixed Media - Keramik Plus" (D) and in
2007 Bronze at the World Ceramic Biennale
in Korea, as well as 1st Prize in the
IVth Bienal de Cerámica de El Vendrell (E).
R. Maeder's work can be found worldwide
in public and private collections. The artist
lives and works in Martinsegg, Emmental
and she is currently studying at Seoul National
University in Korea.
Material and technique:
the artist found her vocation as a result
of a childhood spent close to
nature, during which her creative and experimental
nature were fostered. Her fascination
for ceramics was due to a need
to be in direct contact with the material
she was working on during the process
of artistic creation. She formed spheres
or vessel-shaped ceramic objects, and she
developed a preference for working on the
surface from inside or outside using her
fingers or wooden sticks so that a crater
landscape or blistered deformations were
formed. To achieve interesting effects in
colour or texture, the artist mixes terracotta
and stoneware, or she layers different
varieties of clay. The ceramic objects
are completed by traditional pitfiring or
smoke firing, thus being lent their characteristic
grey-black shading. She occasionally
makes use of engobes for her surface
effects.
Her study of porcelain enables R.
Maeder to delineate delicate details and
to use experimental casting and pouring
techniques. Instead of conventionally
casting porcelain in moulds, the artist
pours the porcelain slip over balloons
with the intention of achieving a marriage
of air and fluid material. She mixes
Styrofoam pellets into the viscose body,
as well as cotton wool and other materials
which disappear during the firing but
which leave their mark in the artwork.
Visual language and
artistic intention:
the artist creates evocative fundamental
forms that are reminiscent
of the shape of living creatures, organic
or inorganic matter. One seems to see in
them planets or moons, porous pumice,
coral and sea anemones, even puffer fish.
The artist demonstrates how the forms of
large objects are reflected in the small in
nature. The vibrant, often heavily worked
surfaces, which seem to be weathered or
scorched, stimulate the imagination and
tell us stories.
A fascination with the origins of all
existence is characteristic of the artist's
work, as is the concept of abiogenisis,
which was current up to the Middle Ages,
and according to which creatures could be
BONsTETTEN, sWITZERLAND
reBecca Maeder carlotta Graedel matthäi
"Every piece is a part of me and a little creature that lives on." (R. Maeder)
EXHIBITION
created from previously inanimate material.
The artist's work process reproduces
the four elements of water, air, earth and
fire as in the process of creation. But it is
not the laws of nature that determine the
creation of the form but the characteristics
of the material, the maker's urge to
form and a fair share of chance, which
occurs with the ultimate firing. R. Mader
calls her pieces “Bodies" that are born
during the creative process.
The porcelain objects form an attractive
contrast to the weathered ceramic
objects, and R. Mader likes to present
them as installations. Like delicate eggshells,
they seem to hold life within them.
They also demonstrate a subtle searching
towards the multivalence of everyday
forms. Thus a thinly enclosed space can
stand for eros in R. Mader's work, or for
nothingness, without which for Laozi all
existence is without use or meaning. It
may also represent the space inside cnidaria,
where digestion and gas exchange
take place.
Carlotta Graedel Matthäi, lic. phil., is on the
staff of the Kunsthaus Zürich.
EXHIBITION
5 may – 3 June 2012
claire Guanella (painting)
Rebecca maeder (ceramics)
sofie siegmann (painting)
GG-Elfi Bohrer - Galerie für Gegenwartskunst
Zentrum Burgwies
cH-8906 Bonstetten, switzerland
www.ggbohrer.ch
"Archigonie", 50 x 52 x 55 cm, 2010 "Archigonie, Ø 25 cm, Ø18 cm, 2010
mARcH / ApRIL 2012 NEW CERAMICS 49