3. Juni 2012 - New Ceramics

KontraKtiOn
From Contrast to Action
Under the title of “KontrAktion -
Von Kontrast bis Aktion", graduates
of the Institute of Ceramics and Glass
Arts (IKKG/FH Koblenz) are presenting
their graduation pieces at the former
NATO ammunition dump, now the arts
centre b-05 in Montabaur.
Work by Géraldine Anton with the title
“Quae pulchritudo deformato, or beauty
deformed" was displayed in three separate
bunkers. An eight-minute film on
the cycle of life and death formed an introduction
to her work, which originates
in a fascination with the human body,
both anatomically and psychologically.
The ceramics displayed in the second
room are characterised by their expressive
formal vocabulary and glazes. She
is interested by the ambivalent perception
of beauty and ugliness. Besides this,
graphic and three-dimensional representations
of various areas of the body were
presented, from connected systems to the
smallest unit of the cell. While passing
through these three rooms, visitors find
themselves in a state of questioning. Recognisable
but manipulated forms produce
a sense of conflict, between fascination
and revulsion.
Corinna Frahm drew inspiration for her
theme of “List Og Nàtùrra – Art and Nature"
particularly from travelling in Iceland.
She takes up forms from the natural
world, develops them further and combines
glass and other materials. She has
made an intensive study of the combination
of glass and quartz ceramics. Experimentation
predominantly determines
her work process. She is trying to find
the limits of what is feasible and to move
them back by permanently combining
glass and ceramics. However, she works
largely intuitively, producing forms unexpected
even to herself.
For his gradation piece, Thomas Kuhn
chose the theme of “Marks and Material".
The act of making, which the word marks
refers, is minimal in his piece “Sulfur
Imago": sulphur, which has been melted
by the application of heat, is poured onto
wooden boards mounted on iron frames.
In the glass picture “Dust Drawing" gestural
marks are of significance, besides
the materiality of the dust and the glass.
In his piece “Scratching the Surface" – an
installation of five sheets of laminated
glass suspended freely in space with a
drawing has been scored on each – the
mark of the gesture as drawing is most
expressive.
In different ways, the three graduation
pieces study the concept of an image. In
“Sulfur Imago", it is the material itself that
has the quality of an image. In “Scratching
the Surface", the image occupies space.
The scored marks on the sheets of glass
seem to disappear when viewed from vari-
PaRIS
EXHIBITION
ous angles, and then to reappear again.
The sculptural pieces by Brigitte Wüste
on the theme of “Spielräume" (“Room to
move", “Scope" or “Space in which to
play"; Trans.) deal with the limits and
the potential of perception and action.
In the confusion of the world around us
it is difficult to recognise existing possibilites
and to expand them through one's
own actions. One possibility to find orientation
consists in asking oneself what
is superfluous and what is dispensable?
From this, concentration on essentials
follows. Besides a restriction to clay as a
medium, both in relation to the work and
to its presentation this reveals itself as
approach to the Zen idea of “the silence
of artistic quality, with forgoes emotion"
and “turns towards the beauty that inhabits
things".
In the installation, “Two Forms of Being",
the finished work in the shape of
a constructed cylinder is juxtaposed with
what is possible but which has not yet
been realised in the shape of a pile of unconnected
individual elements. Ed.
work by
top Géraldine anton
left Thomas Kuhn
below Brigitte Wüster