MEETING WITH BEAUTY
Marianne Nielsen & Jørgen Hansen DK
Exhibition 30 October – 29 November 2014
Poetic philosophical exhibition about beauty - from nature to nature..
Designer and ceramic artist Marianne Nielsen has invited ceramist Jørgen Hansen for a dialogue on beauty and nature.
It is a poetic philosophical exhibition of works from opposite ends of the expression palette depicting nature. The contrast between the pieces and ways of relating to subject and material is adding depth to the story of beauty.
Marianne Nielsen is concerned with the cultural underlying meaning in ceramics and wants to highlight the everyday trivial object's iconic strength. Her starting point is often the universal phenomena in small and large scale: knitting, mountains, hair and flowers. Items that in ceramics are isolated from their genuine context.
Jørgen Hansen is direct and present with the clay in his process. He shows the life of the forest, a blue pine grove, an owl and animals. He is described in the book Existence Patio to be working with sculpture as social assets, collective memory and in his site-specific works to create 'Landscapes of Life'.
Marianne Nielsen DK "It has long been naturalistic made individual items that make up my work.
I think there is an honesty and strength in the single object. And so I think it is the link with nature that does not need any more - it's greatness lies in the way it is.
The reason why I do not just use the genuine items to exhibit, is that I find the artificial, imitation so very interesting. The obvious assumption that one readily accepts, partly since it belongs to the long tradition in ceramics. It presents the idea of things - the things are transformed into concepts. This is not a carrot, it is my idea of the carrot.
I feel that the issues I work with becomes clarified. You look at the pieces because one can not do otherwise (neither eat nor smell), but also because they have moved into a category where this is what you do. And this is another aspect of the project, to move something on to a place where it does not belong. Given different meanings and values, and in ceramics, their significance evolves too.
We see nature with our human gaze that draws it into our culture. This transition from nature to culture is an important part of my thinking.
My choice of subject is not wild nature, but something that in one way or another has a cultural reference. My ceramics have a contrary to what it represents. The anthropogenic is clarified in the contrast to the nature theme. It is not self-grown, but the result of selection and processing."
Marianne Nielsen graduated from the Kolding School of Design 1999, in 2012 she received the Danish Arts Foundation's three-year Artist Award. Selected exhibitions: 'Lunch of the green', solo exhibition, Shop for Tableware, Copenhagen - 'Mind Craft', Milan Design Week, Milan, Italy 2014 - Biennial for Crafts and Design 2013, the Round Tower - 'Terres. Copenhagen Ceramics Invites .. 'Galerie Maria Lund, Paris, France 2013 -' all Elite Folklore 'with Anne Tophøj, Copenhagen Ceramics, Copenhagen 2012 - Martin Bodilsen Kaldahl Invites ..' Puls Contemporary Ceramics, Brussels, Belgium - 'Across' New Tap, Carlsberg, Copenhagen 2010 Artist residency at the Danish Institute in Damascus 2006, a freelance designer for Kähler Ceramics since 2009, designer at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain 2001-02.
www.mariannenielsen.com
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Jørgen Hansen DK - From nature to nature "From the unpredictable and seemingly chaotic in nature comes true beauty.
The clay is like nature, I try all the time what it can be - and will be. One can say that the pieces are in a field of tension between the known and the unknown. - Always processed directly with the hands without any use of moulds and the like."
In the book Existence Patio Jørgen Hansen is described as taking up sculpture as a social capital, the ceramic collective memory and in his site-specific large pieces to create Landscapes of Life.
Quote from the exhibition catalogue, Existence Patio: "The material comes in focus with the shaping of the clay as being of almost ur-like character, from simple dishes and pots to highly complex structures. (...) elements like fish, birds, trees, pots or plates of soft organic shapes with colours from pale pink to deep yellow and green tones. After the firing, the unpredictable surface of the glaze and richness of colour bring dreamlike lightness to many of the pieces, which are contrasted with grey raw-clay plates in everyday earthy tones, creating a span between the magic of clay and earthiness.”Jørgen Hansen was educated at studios in France, England and Canada 1965-72, after which he established his own studio in Tirstrup .. He moved to Hyllested in 1987.
Selected exhibitions: 'Ring of Bones' Alken 2014 - Rosenvang Community Centre, total commission 2013 - Existence Patio, Brænderigården, Viborg 2012 - Bronze Medal, Arts and Crafts Award 1879 2010 - Judges Special Award, Mashiko, Japan 2008 - Architectural competition Madrid 2007 - 'Pisces' the Biennial of Arts, Crafts and Design, sales to the Design Museum Denmark 2007 - firing sculpture 'Verwandlungskreis' Berlin 2002 - 1.Award Westerwalder Ceramics Museum 'European Ceramics 1999' - Artist in Residence in Tasmania with construction of firing sculpture 'After The Cowboys' 1998 - Sales of white vessel 'Longing' to the Danish Arts Foundation 1998.
Member of BKF, Danish Arts&Crafts Association, Artists Society and Prokk.
Grateful thanks to Dalhoff Larsens Fond and Danish Crafts for funding in 2014,
and to Danish Arts Foundation for funding of international transport in 2014.
