DRAWINGS OF CLAY
Louise Sidelmann and Jane Holmberg
Exhibition 10 January – 16 February 2019
Opening reception Thursday 10 January, 16-19.00
Dogmas, heritages, materials and intuitive grip.
Two Danish ceramic talents in exhibition on drawing - and image making in clay.
Lines of the drawing challenge 3D-form, and abstractions occur working with the nature of materials.
Both work intuitively, but based on sets of rules, so that method controls material and vice versa. Creation of the pieces are based on the qualities of the material and exploration of the line in spatial form.
Jane Holmberg examines the spiral, colours and nuances of throwing in shades or sharply defined layers, created in a dogme-like process based on natural colours of clay and the monumental character of a tree trunk. 
Louise Sidelmann explores the character of line and spatial expression of drawing - in a clash of details that makes a poetic musical composition, with passages of interval, colour, relief and sculptural form.Grateful thanks to The Danish Art Foundation for project funding in 2019.
EXHIBITORS
Jane Holmberg
The special features in Jane Holmberg's pieces are her use of pure raw clay and colour scaling of the infinite possibilities, which lies in only few colour variations of natural clay.
She gives the viewer an insight into the wide potentials of working almost dogmatically with few elements and the 'life of clay', while she seeks new opportunities in the constraints without any use of glaze and other means.
JANE HOLMBERG - Transitions
"I work both with utility and unique, often in the line of Danish ceramics tradition and from objects like cups, bowls, vases, dishes, etc., where function plays a major role.
When I work with uniqueness, utility items such as a spoon or a dish are also the starting point, but here in a non-functional and abstract, decorative or symbolic direction. Thus I move in the intersection between utility ceramics and sculpture.I am based on what the material can do, and make use of various clay qualities.
The past four years, it has entirely been turned pottery: red, white and black clay. It is hand-thrown objects that are stacked or presented in groups in a different context than the usual. It challenges my view of utilisation when they are compounded in new ways and interact in new contexts.
In the new pieces, I work from a simple design concept, inspired by the jar, bottle and tree trunk. Normally we see the opening of the jar or bottle, but not the bottom. But we often see fallen trees; massive cut stems with their annual rings, which tells about the tree's age. This plane, I have always found very beautiful and alluring.In this project, I decided to focus on form and particularly the surface flat, and thus the closed form that does not dictate a specific function, but simply form and presence. The pieces appear massive and monumental, such as stylised tree trunks or closed jars in mixed shades of black, red and white clay.
I am inspired by the earthenware colours in all its simplicity.
Where I previously have thrown different clay colours together into wild marbled patterns, I use now also the clay tones in a very controlled way, with the tree trunk and annual rings as inspiration.
In spite of the control in my design, it is basically an intuitive study and development of my investigation in raw and pure clay that underlies my work.
TECKNIQUE AND MATERIALHand-thrown and modelled jar and bottle-like forms in earthenware.
I work with nuances in the clay by mixing my own colour scheme from a white, red and black clay. With transitions in the clay colours, sometimes smooth and sometimes sharply defined colour differences.
My approach to the design is simple: 3 types of clay, no glaze, wheel-thrown."
JANE HOLMBERG (b. 1973) graduated from the Design School Kolding, ceramics, 2001. Exchange student, Bezalel Art Academy, Jerusalem 1999-2000. Has for years produced utilitarian objects of her own design, but in recent years worked in the intersection between sculpture and utilitarian objects. EXHIBITIONS Rotation, solo, Officinet, Copenhagen, 2017. Biennial for Crafts & Design, Carlsberg, 2015. Crafts Collection 16, 2012. CeramicsUnderGround, Bunker DG 177, Copenhagen, 2004. Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg 2004. Gallery Ra, Holland 2003. GRANTS Danish Art Foundation, work grant 2017, 2018 , award 2008, Arts&Crafts Award, bronze 2015. Studio at Designer Zoo 2007-10. Now: collective studio, Birkedommervej, Copenhagen. MEMBER Danish Association of Crafts and Design.
Louise Sidelmann
Louise works casually with the material and almost meditatively in the process.
It is an intuitive experimental work process, a search for the quirky and fragile, - to find the harmony between tenuous and robust.
She is interested in combining details, colours and space forming compositions of lines, where the drawing moves from surface into the spatial, on the edge of drawing and ornament.
A personal interpretation of 'Less is more' makes for a dynamic and unsentimental expression of form and image.
LOUISE SIDELMANN
"To work within a small set of rules, to get much out of little. It's my strength.
I perceive myself as being a composer. Just like in a classical piece of music, where the pause also makes the music lively.
In my 'composed' pieces, the pauses consist of spaces that create a rhythm.
The ceramic pieces consist of 'clay-lines', which are joined together so that the lines form grits and the applied decorative elements create depth in the piece.
I work on experiences from my previous ceramic processes - and also with other materials than clay.
My starting point is the nature of the material with my intention to underline the qualities of the various different materials.
Common to all the pieces, regardless of material, are the collision of detail and form that all together form an image, a sequence of intervals, colours and forms.
It interests me that there is no 'upside down', - it appeals no matter how the piece hangs or is placed on a surface.
My focus is often decorative elements - that something is about adornment or decoration. Opposite to 'Less is more', which has long been a concept in which decoration has been scrapped away, and the word decoration is a scorn. Then in my pieces, appear a 'decorative' simple and sometimes a bit naive form language.
MY EMBROIDERIES are 'heirlooms', found pieces of dyed fabric attached white crocheted border, on which coloured surfaces are sewn with chain stitching. There is no signature, so the composition works regardless of how it is moved and turned.
Exhibited together with coloured patterns on paper.
I found the fabric in an old bureau left in a nursing home. In one of the drawers lay finished handicrafts. The lady had been very active in crochet and embroidery. When I looked down in the drawer it was like opening a treasure chest full of gold.
Unlike before, my basic material is made by someone else, so it already has a story. The fact that I sew images on gives it a new story.
I am fascinated by drawings and the character of the line, - architectural and urban spaces, buildings in the city and their architectural processes. - How windows and doors are placed in relation to each other and the beauty when it all harmonise and interact."TECHNIQUE AND MATERIAL
Modelled objects of porcelain and stoneware. Sinter-slip is painted on in layers and in parts washed of again.
Embroideries with chain stitching on square pieces dyed fabric with sewn crocheted edge and yarn. Drawings and patterns on paper.
STUDIO PHOTOS - and previous pieces
LOUISE SIDELMANN (b.1976, Lemvig) was educated at the Design School Kolding, ceramics, 2002-2007, Aarhus Art Academy 1998-99. EXHIBITIONS Ann Linnemann Gallery: Drawings of Clay, duo 2019, Master Pieces 2018, World-Cup 2017, Dialogue 2017, FormSprog-TankeSpind 2016. Landscapes, Kammer Gallery, Lemvig 2016. Til ingen verdens nytte? Curated by Lars Kærulf Møller, Officinet, Copenhagen 2014 and Illusion 2013. Sikken Fest, Møstings Hus, Copenhagen 2012. Form Art, Glinde, Germany 2011. Limfjordens Autumn Exhibition, Gimsinghoved 2009. Spring Exhibition, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen 2009. Ler08,SAK, Svendborg 2008. Project Network, Denmark's Ceramics Museum CLAY 2008. Collective studio, The Formatek, Copenhagen.
