Artist Statement

Inspiration:

I like my ceramics to have a sense of excitement and a freshness, and they must be tactile. Making is exploring the physical law of the material, clay, in order to give form at the sensual engagement I have with. It is a celebration of a tense moment of meeting to create spacious, fine, delicate forms that reveals the speed, fluency and the ultra plasticity of clay. Into my thrown and altered forms I try to put an extremely personal sensibility that goes hand in hand with the tension and flexibility of a wet pot.I ame to develop a great variety of senses, to show the results of a very physical and palpable human gesture which is mysterious like the sexual experience. My ceramics are metaphors for ‘feeling’.
I am inspired by , I gather ideas through contemplation of a wide range of sources. By taste & hearing, tactile, but mostly visual. Images with a content that invites or invokes the sense of thouch. I focus on natural forms, human gestures, experiences .... my journeys in India are a neverending refreshing of my source in order to translate sensuality into clay. And of course I do admire work of others, among them : George E. Ohr. The confrontation with the work of “the mad potter of Biloxi” (UK) and his ‘no-two-alike’ creations were extremely incentive to me and my claywork, i found a soulmate who lived long time ago.

The making of:

I start with wheel thrown forms, streamlined, geometric, minimalist. Second I change the form, when the clay is soft and wet to become organic, sensual more feminine, this tension fascinates me. My fingers manipulate the clay bottom and wall, the whole form. They palpate the clay ,they give ritme by folding, pinching, pushing holes and bosses. It is a physical exploration of action, reaction and interaction between hand, mind and material. Perhaps it looks as if the fine walled organic forms are created in a unpredictable way. But every moment in the process of creation is determined by earlier try-outs and failures. The making-of is a long process, the different stages are accurate to follow.

The skin is a thin layer of a clay-glaze mixture with metaloxides and sand. The granular texture appeals on the feeling of softness looking at, touching is different. My earlier forms 2004 have a multi-coloured glazed surface. The glaze is an extra layer on the claywall. By layering the glaze on top of another glaze, looking for the ultimate colour and character, the skin itself became an extra form, a real skin. The forms(before firing) when glazed standing in the spray-gun cabine, covered with the powdered layer of glaze often looked OK. Therefore I ame to create a similar character and so I came to the clayglaze, a fine granular skin, soft by view.

Current Work

Thrown and altered forms, no-two-alike forms.

Work generally available from:
centrum goed werk
Tania Debruyckere
moerbeekstraat 68
B-9870 Zulte
Belgium
0032/(0)56.60.98.05
www.centrumgoedwerk.be
Puls Contemporary Ceramics Brussels, Belgium, www.pulsceramics.com/annemarielaureys.htm
Carla Koch Gallery, Amsterdam, NL, www.carlakoch.nl
Flow Gallery, London, UK, www.flowgallery.co.uk
Wcc-Bf, Mons, Belgium, www.wcc-bf.org

Technical Information

Clay = Saint Aubin clay, stoneware, a very plastic clay with a warm colour. The family Hins (father and sons) runs the only clay quarry in Belgium, at Saint Aubin, Wallonië, the south part of Belgium.
°C = 1120°
Glaze = earthenware glazes 1120°C and clay glazes 1120&1140°C.

History

1981/85: Hoger Kunst Instituut Sint Lucas Gent department ceramics specialisation wheel throwing.
Final project : saltglaze = construction of and working with a saltkiln and study of ‘de Jacobacanne’
Workshops : Portugal, UK,India

1985: set up work shop Lovendegem B
- construction of a saltkiln (gaz) production of monumental gardenpots & ornamental objects in limited edition.
- production objects for use limited editon.

1997: set up workshop Russeignies , Mont de l’Enclus. Wallonië
Project: Montagnes Russes vzw,asbl ‘ de keramiekwerkplaatsen, les ateliers de céramique’; pottery
training center, workshops, own studio.
1999: construction of a woodburning saltkiln ‘charlemagne’ together with the students of
Karel de Groote Hogeschool Antwerpen department ceramics professor Rudie De Langhe.

2008: Juror's Recomendation in Taiwan Ceramics Biennale 2008
Prize Winner - Recommendation Prize (Recommended by Claude Champy) see details

Exhibitions and Publications

1990/1992/1994: villa acacia Lovendegem B
1995: tea things Zwalm B
1996: to the mad potter of Biloxi Gent B
1997: deco art Brugge B
1998: ten huize van ... Russeignies B

Several group expositions on locations all over the country , open studio-days….etc

2002: Centrum Goed Werk Zulte B
2003: galerie link, Gent B
2005: Wcc-bf Mons B
2006: CAL London GB
2006: biennale de la céramique ‘Andenne’ B
2006: Wcc-bf- Mons B
2006: The Yard Nijmegen NL
2007: Galerie Ingrid Adriaensens Gent B
2007: Centrum Goed Werk Zulte B
2008: projects in construction

Publications:

1990-2003: magazines, lifestyle & others : knack magazine, de morgen, feeling etc.
2007: BDP ‘new directions in ceramics’
2009 "Contemporary Ceramics". Edited by Emmanuel Cooper, Thames and Hudson, publishers.