Denmark-Brighton Contemporary Ceramics Project

There’s nothing like an enforced stoppage to halt the flow of creative writing and thus the onset of laziness with keeping one’s blog up to date! But I’m back finally and A-N has an updated, much-awaited sparkly new website to boot.

So where was I? Well there has been a natural lull in my project anyway, since the Brighton part – the Fantastic Tales Danish exhibition at The Ceramic House and my participation in the Regency Townhouse exhibition – ended.

I have been busy working on various commissions and organizing the next (and final) leg of this project; my return to Denmark for 5 weeks in September to participate in European Ceramic Context 2014, which is a biennial on the island of Bornholm (Danish “Potteries” if you like); every 2 years it focuses on glass and every 2 years it’s ceramic. I will create a new installation – a combination of the two pieces that I made in residence at the Danish International Ceramic Research Centre this February and exhibited in the two exhibitions mentioned above in Brighton in May. Whereas the two pieces, that are versions of the same piece fired in very different ways, were previously exhibited separately, I will now seek to combine them into one very large wall-based installation. I have been invited to exhibit in the library in Rønne, the main town on the island of Bornholm.

I have also had evaluation sessions with my mentors for this project to assess how everything went. The first was from the coaching and creative business support group Culture Shift. It was good to look back and see what worked and didn’t work, what the positive and negative results of the project so far have been and where to go next. Lots of ideas flying around and so many directions this could go.

It is exciting to think about the future and what might happen next with regard to my role as a curator, which is clearly something that it would be good to develop.

I also had a final mentoring session with my curatorial advisor Charlotte Dew, who was such a great help with my whole approach to curating the exhibition and in editing the catalogue. After three years of putting on exhibitions at The Ceramic House with no professional help or input, it was marvelous to have a mentor who opened my eyes to so many things that I just hadn’t considered or known about. The Arts Council encouragement of having a mentor on board is a blessing and its value cannot be underestimated.

Ten days have passed since the Fantastic Tales show ended and it already feels like weeks ago!

This year we had record-breaking numbers visiting The Ceramic House nearly every day we opened. The highest count was 264 in a single day! I am really pleased with how the whole thing went.

This was by far the most professional, accomplished show at The Ceramic House to date – the Arts Council funding made a world of difference. It meant I was able to afford such things as getting a catalogue designed and printed with excellent photography and professionally designed flyers and invites. It also allowed me to seek advice from mentors in the fields of business, coaching and curating, which has been invaluable. Also the standard of the artwork on display was top notch.Danish ceramics is thriving like never before and it shows!

There was a balanced mix of sculpture, tableware, wall pieces and installation. Each discipline was represented by artists working at the top of their game, with many notable highlights. A few examples include Christin Johansson’s meditative performance on the opening night and subsequent video installation, Mette Maya Gregersen’s wave sculptures, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen’s installation in the fireplace and Helle Hansen’s Dogma Ceramics designed to be made on a rocking boat. Oh and how could I not mention Heidi Hentze’s painstakingly thin works that look like fired silk? But everything merits attention so I’d better stop there. Look on the website to see the online catalogue and photographs of the work. www.theceramichouse.co.uk

I also broke a record this year with how quickly I got the house back to normal: within 5 days of closing the show! This was due to a team effort with my fantastic volunteers (mainly from the ceramics department at the university), who helped all through the festival. Involving Brighton University in the project was also a first with a great outcome. Not only did Christin Johansson and Karen Harsbo deliver captivating talks to the students, but several students then applied themselves to helping with preparation leading up to the opening and throughout the exhibition.

In the past, I have offered volunteering opportunities in the months leading up to May, usually to help me make the huge installations that adorn The Ceramic House everywhere you look. However, generally I have found that by the time May arrives the enthusiasm wanes and I don’t get the help when I need it most.

Nearly all Open Houses in Brighton rely on the exhibiting artists invigilating, but my model is different; it is like a professional ceramics gallery, and besides, invigilating is a practical impossibility if all the artists live abroad! So this year was a success also in terms of enthusing volunteers to get involved. They loved it and learnt a lot and everyone benefited!

By the following weekend the permanent collection was back on display, and I am thrilled that it has expanded significantly after the Danish show. I have bought several stunning pieces and others have been generously donated by some of the artists.

Getting the office back to normal after its annual transformation into The Tile Shop took several days. I no longer heft very heavy boxes of books around every time. I have learnt to keep most of my books permanently elsewhere in the house, as it was simply too much moving things back and forth every year. Well, heavy things, that is. The kitchen crockery and utensils always have to be moved to unfamiliar places for the duration of the show, and just as we get used to the new places, I move it all back again and leave us in a permanent state of confusion!

So now everything is back to normal and I am wrapping up the aftermath: accounts, evaluation and administration. I am also planning my return trip to Denmark in September. I am driving over with a lot of the exhibiting artists’ work and my installations that were on display in The Ceramic House and the Regency Town House, destined for their next outing at Ceramic Context 2014 in Bornholm in the autumn.

New film out now!

Snowflake films have just released a brand new film of Christin Johansson’s performance piece Ceremony of Her Porcelain Spirit, created especially for The Ceramic House and performed on the opening night of Fantastic Tales. Nicki Lang, owner of Snowflake Films, spent the day of the opening filming Christin with her assistant Petra in the basement of The Ceramic House and involved several white doves and trips to Brighton Beach.

Gorgeous, evocative, mesmerising, watch it and feel the calm…

Last weekend of Fantastic Tales coming up!

It’s been a wonderful festival this year. The Ceramic House has definitely become a must-see landmark on the Brighton map. Popularity has been growing steadily since launching 4 years ago with the profile of the venue and the quality of the shows rising in line.

This year has undoubtedly been the best show so far, with a broad range of types of ceramic work, all of the highest standard by well known ceramists. It has been an inspiration to have such extraordinary work surrounding me and to have spent time (albeit short in some cases) with this group of extremely talented Danish artists. The choice of having a theme has been a natural progression for me and has inspired me to continue being more selective. Each year I learn more about curating, communicating with artists, what works and doesn’t work, how best to run a show in this context. Who knows where it will go from here?

We have been blessed this year with fabulous weather during the festival. Last weekend saw Brighton at its very best. I felt proud and inspired to call Brighton my home. The sun shone gloriously, the festival was in full swing, the streets of the city were teeming with people – visiting, watching, performing, busking, enjoying the festival. Add to that the allure of Brighton beach – a constant attraction on any sunny day drawing visitors from near and far – and it’s a hit!

We have had record visitor numbers this year. At certain moments I have found it difficult to believe quite how many people there are in the house at any one time – in every room, on all levels of the garden, looking around with wonder, exclaiming, pointing, gasping with oohs and ahs, commenting on the displays, the tiles, the artwork everywhere you look. This is all good! Makes me feel it’s all been worthwhile.

So, it’s the final weekend just around the corner. Come along if you get the chance and say hi!

Fantastic Tales: Danish Contemporary Ceramics at The Ceramic House, 75 Stanmer Villas, Brighton BN1 7HN Saturday and Sunday 24^th/25^th May, 11am – 5pm

Christin Johansson at The Ceramic House, video and description of performance: Spirit of Her Porcelain Spirit

On the opening night of Fantastic Tales: Danish Contemporary Ceramics, Christin Johansson performed a new piece of work created especially for the occasion: Ceremony of her porcelain spirit.

This is the first piece of work produced by Christin since she won the coveted 3 year development grant from the Danish arts council. The Ceramic House is honoured to have hosted it, performed for one night only on the 1st of May. It was a triumph. An intimate performance, designed for one person at a time. On the night two observers were also invited in to allow more guests to experience it. Nevertheless, the queue stretched through the garden all night. The participants donned white clothing and removed their shoes before entering an all-white environment. Here is a sense of what I experienced:

The curtains part and you enter a billowing white tent. The floor is earth, swept meticulously clean, and there is an arrangement of white objects carefully laid out on a white cloth. The purpose for each item becomes apparent during the performance. An egg timer is turned over, and then, for 15 minutes, the Spirit of the Porcelain embraces, invades every pore, lays her calming hand upon you and makes you still. There is gentle meditative music in the background, and you are entranced by the woman in front of you. Every movement she makes, every gesture, is methodical, ritual, symbolic, has a purpose. No words are spoken, yet with an incline of the head, a minute gesture of the hand, she tells you what to do. She takes a parcel of white fabric and opens it up, layer after layer, to reveal a porcelain egg. This she crushes, revealing a piece of paper which she offers to you. You read words of wisdom, and it is burnt, leaving the ashes. These are added to the porcelain powder, which is then transformed back into plastic clay over the course of the performance. She comes to you and performs various actions; she takes your hand, rolls a huge ball around the palm, smoothing it, before sprinkling it with porcelain powder and marking you with liquid clay. You feel the sensation of clay in all its stages: powder, liquid, plastic, hard. She pours you a white drink from a small white stove; it tastes of cardamom. The porcelain egg, crushed to dust, has become solid enough to work with. She offers you a ball of clay – your clay, and gestures for you to pinch it into a pot. This pot is placed in the bank of earth at the side of the space. She fills it with oil, and lights a wick. The egg timer runs out, she bows to you and you rise, feeling cleansed, calm, touched by her presence. You leave, silently. You feel blessed to have experienced this.

Dr. Louise Mazanti, PhD in contemporary craft, writes,

“Christin Johansson is one of the most radical young artists within Scandinavian contemporary ceramics. Moving between space design, performance, ritual and creation of ceramic objects, her artistic practice is truly groundbreaking.

Clay as bodily experience, as transpersonal mediator, as a bridge between layers of consciousness, time and space is the new territory that she is defining, leaving the spectator with a sense of having touched a new space within. Her practice is relational and embodied. She works with the senses, intuition and direct experience by creating settings where the rational mind has to let go, expanding into an unknown reality. Yet very far for a conventional ceramic practice, Christin Johansson is true to the very essence of clay as material. Clay is raw from the earth, intensely physical and thus offering an important aspect to contemporary life, which is often deprived of direct, physical experience and contact.

Christin Johansson recently received a prestigious Danish three-year work scholarship, which recognises her pioneering work.”

Ceremony of Her Porcelain Spirit by Christin Johansson