Ceramic everywhere
A few days ago I was invited by my friend Maria Jeglinska to see the new Nightingale tea set she was presenting at What Goes Behind / Contemporary Polish Ceramic Design at Tent London.
This could explain how, looking back at the pictures I took there, I realise that ceramic pretty much stole my attention from the rest of the show. I don’t know if there was more of it than in previous years, but that’s what really stayed with me after I left.
Here are a few images.
The art of Korean ceramics had quite a special place in Tent, with a show entitled Constancy and Change in Korean Traditional Crafts. Park Gang-yong’s and Jung Sang-gil’s lacquered works, pictured, particularly hit me as pieces organising the contradictory encounter of the full and the empty, of human hand and mathematical perfection.
Matryoshka lacquered bowls by Park Gang Yong & Jung Sang Gil
Nightingale Tea Set by Polish Designer Maria Jeglinska
I follow Maria’s daily graphic research and drawings on her Twitter account, so seeing those patterns I had seen in 2 dimensions come to life on objects had something of a through-the-looking-glass (screen?) experience. The name of the collection, Nightingale, refers to the eponymous tale by Hans Christian Andersen in which an emperor is tricked to prefer the sound of a mechanical bird to the song of the real bird. For this set, the ceramic is treated in two different ways: a mechanical process imitating a handmade pattern drawing in conversation with a hand glazed one.
Mineral tableware (here Terracotta), by The Ceramicists
Stéphanie Sommet from The Ceramicists was the first designer/maker I photographed and interviewed for this blog, less than a year ago, so it was quite special for me to meet her again in this context. I love her Mineral collection and I’m lucky enough to be enjoying the few pieces I own of this series every single day. The press-mold technique she uses gives it that rough heaviness that makes everything it contains seem delicate.
Tortus Unika by Tortus Copenhagen
The most striking thing about this collection by Tortus is how all the pieces lived together, with the shapes and textures talking to each other through a very soft palette of pale colors and lines, as if they were always meant to be seen together as an installation.