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[rs_section_title title=”Extracts” class=”p-b-30″]Profile: Interview – Janet de Boos – AUS, Canan Dagdelen – TR / A,  Sophia Weiss – D, Halima Cassell – PK / GB
Exhibitions: AIC / IAC Conference – Taipei – TW, European Ceramic Contest 2018  –  Bornholm – DK, Frechen Ceramics Prize 2018  –  Frechen – Germany
Artist Journal: Nuala O’Donovan – IRL/NL,  Masaru Nakada – J
In Studio: Keith Varney – Evelyne Schoenmann[/rs_section_title]

[rs_section_text_block heading=”Janet De Boos” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]How did you start with clay?

My mother was a passionate amateur potter, so for many years before starting in clay myself, there was the idea of making pottery about our house. My parents were both interested in the arts – and my father played the piano. But back in those days, at high school, if you were moderately competent academically, you studied maths and science. I really wanted to study cooking, sewing and art – but I also enjoyed the sciences.
I eventually enrolled in a science degree at university, but found about half way through that I was missing doing something with my hands. So I enrolled in an evening sculpture course, but found it frustrating because I was one of only two women in the class, and whilst all the other students – the men – had done woodwork/metalwork etc. at high school, I’d done none, and the other (older) woman had been making sculpture for many years. All my work fell apart and my impatience grew, so I decided to change to a pottery class. Pottery was fashionable then – as it is once again coming to be – and I enjoyed being in a class with cool people older than me. I became a good thrower quite quickly (the courses then were very focussed on the wheel), and quickly became seduced by that process.

(Interview with Monika Gass)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”Canan Dagdelen” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]Canan Dagdelen is a clay artist who expresses herself through her big installations. Her works are composed of many identical elements; the components put together form an object that hangs from a ceiling, covers a wall or a floor. Where upon installing, the object and the space together become the installation.
The work of Canan Dagdelen is spatial; it has much relation to her history and memories. One of her works is named “Spatial Memory”.
Our personal histories and our past that form us have strong reminiscences of places and spaces. For Canan it comes in the shapes of buildings and architecture.
Concept of space is a personal entity. It has a measurable and a non-measurable side to it. One can measure actual space as four by ten, or ten by ten, in physical quantities. The non-measurable space is one’s personal judgement. “What is my space, where are my boundaries?” This space has strong cultural elements. In this part of the world, Europe, in southern European and Mediterranean cultures, for example, both physical, and personal spaces are less defined, divided. Whereas further north in Europe, physical and personal spaces have more distances.
Canan was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and lives in Vienna, Austria. She has two “spaces“ to delve from, to fit in, and create her own space. 

(Nesrin During)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”Sophia Amalie Weiß” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]It really is something to wonder at today, e.g. that a way has been developed to save the Great Barrier Reef. This Reef, so important for the world as a whole,  situated for the north-eastern coast of Australia, is a vast, unique ecosystem, which is among the Seven Natural Wonders of the World because it is the largest living organism and one of the oldest ecosystems on our planet. Perhaps this stimulated the creative powers of Sophia Amalaie Weiss, to study the diversity of forms of corals and other forms in nature.
It is also possible that her study of Ernst Haeckel’s drawings while she was training to be a ceramist contributed to her developing a stylistic idiom of forms that appeared to have been borrowed from the fairytale forms of water lilies and corals.
Miracles keep on occurring.
Here, we can look upon delicately decorated porcelain miracles by Sophia Weiss and wonder:
“However does she manage to keep on doing that with that degree of perfection?”
Of course we know that throwing porcelain is not always easy because the bodies all behave on the wheel as if they were in different moods and often only reluctantly submit to intricate modelling. 

(Annette Ody)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”Halima Cassell ” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]Inspiration and Scope
With this body of work, I aim to reflect on the shared nature of humanity by using the metaphor of a clay vessel. The individual, hand-carved ceramic pieces share a similar curvilinear approach, which incorporates a soft, rounded look, unlike my usual work which tends to have sharper edges and burnished surfaces. They also feature holes, which pierce each piece and allow light to form a penetrative connecting link through from one carving to the next. The clay for each hand-carved vessel originates from a different country and demonstrates a broad spectrum of hues, textures and behaviours. When these clays are fashioned into essentially similar forms and displayed in hue order from dark to light, they resonate together. By adopting a similar style of working throughout the installation, my intention is to implicitly link the individual works in order to embody and reinforce the idea of humanity as a single species within a shared world.
With every piece of work I begin, doubts gnaw at me – I think it won’t work out (I am self taught – a laborious path). But then I get to know the face better and better, somehow every step is logical – I have seen it all before.
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[rs_section_text_block heading=”New Orientalia – AIC / IAC 2018″ btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]The first general meeting of the IAC was held in 1954 at the Ariana Museum in Geneva. Since then, 46 General Assemblies have helped build the spirit and the network of the Academy around the world. Every second year a council meeting and an assembly take place. The last ones have been in 2016 Barcelona, Spain, 2014 Dublin, Ireland, 2012 Santa Fe, USA, 2010 Paris, France, 2008 Xian, China, 2006 Riga, Latvia, 2004 Icheon, Korea. The goal of IAC is to stimulate friendship and communication between professionals in the field of ceramics in all countries. “IAC develops and encourages all forms of international cooperation to promote ceramics and to encourage and maintain the highest level of quality production in all ceramic cultures. Since its founding in 1952 by Henry J. Reynaud, director of the Swiss Museum for Ceramics and Glass, the organization of the IAC has changed and evolved. Originally, it had a strong diplomatic background, merging representatives from national museums and cultural organizations. Ceramists were invited as consultants. Since 1958, AIC has been affiliated with UNESCO, first on a consulting basis and then, since 2001, as an official partner in the cultural sector.

(Monika Gass)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”European Ceramic Context 2018 – Bornholm – Denmark” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]Only recently, the sunny Danish island of Bornholm was awarded the coveted title of UNESCO World Craft Region as the first and so far only region in Europe. This honour was intiated by the World Crafts Council, the largest international organisation for the promotion of the crafts. An international jury decided last year that Bornholm should be awarded this title because of its particularly strong position in the field of craft products.
The biennial event, European Ceramic and Glass Context, launched in 2006, is especially concerned in alternating years with glass and ceramic art. The Bornholm Art Museum, which was the setting for one of the two main events, is also one of the chief organisers. An impressive museum with contemporary architecture, flooded with light and with a unique location in Gudhjem, sea views included. The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Nexø is also one of the co-organisers, and staged the communal dinner for all the artists who had arrived from all parts of the world. This offered an outstanding opportunity for networking, comparing notes and exchanging views on ceramics. The final organiser is the crafts centre in Grønbechs Gård in Hasle, which also hosted the second part of the exhibition for the European Ceramic Context. 

(Julia Saffer)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”The Frechen Ceramics Prize 2018″ btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]A wall full of numbers seems at first mysterious – is it a mathematical progression or is content concealed behind the numbers, references, perhaps human destinies? Lena Kaapke’s three-digit porcelain numbers are lined up on battens, beautiful and discreet. In spite of the title, Rot II (“Red II”), none of the figures is red, the colour spectrum of the glazes ranging continuously from white through delicate shades of grey to purple. For her research project at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Die Farbe Rot in den keramischen Technologien (“The Colour Red in Ceramic Technologies”), Kaapke tested 1701 recipes for red glazes, a colour considered to be among the most difficult to produce in ceramics. Every number refers to a historical or contemporary recipe, however the firing schedule, temperature and the thickness of application also determine the result to a significant degree. This mural installation thus documents the unsuccessful experiments in this strictly methodical approach. What is outstanding in Red II is that the coloured numbers illustrate nothing but that they are themselves the result of the research, thus demonstrating the aesthetic dimension of science in a way that is only very rarely seen. The judges of the 2018 Frechen Ceramic Prize were impressed by the stringency of the concept and the REFINED craftsmanship, which led them to designate Lena Kaapke as a prizewinner. 

(Olga Moldaver)[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”Artist Journal: Nuala O’Donovan and Masaru Nakada” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]Nuala O’Donovan     (Ireland)

Nuala O’Donovan was born in Cork City, Ireland in1962 .
Her work’s structure is delicate but intense. While revealing a dynamic energy, its configuration is inherent with an unexpected element of tranquillity and depth. Having grasped the essence of the medium, the artist has decoded the mystery of the structure of the cosmos.

Masaru Nakada    (Japan)

Masaru Nakada was born in Ishikawa, Japan in 1977.
While his works’ clear-cut configurations and complex and precise lines on the surface are very contemporary, he combines them with the traditional “zogan” technique to make fantastic porcelains with avant-garde shapes and colours.[/rs_section_text_block]

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[rs_section_text_block heading=”In studio with Keith Varney” btn_link_one=”url:%23||” btn_link_two=”url:%23||”]Keith, congratulations again on the  Innovation Award at the 2018 Keramiktage Oldenburg. I remember you were quite astonished to get the award. Why?

Thank you! I was genuinely taken by surprise to hear my name called. It’s lovely to be around when awards are given but I never expect to receive one. I’m a bit of a perfectionist so it’s easy to be critical of one’s work and have some self-doubt. There were many other deserving ceramists showing their work in the exhibition, so it was amazing to receive the award. Coming to a new country where my work is being seen for the first time and getting this recognition is a fantastic feeling.

(Evelyne Schoenmann)[/rs_section_text_block]

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