SENSE of Material Ueda & Plesner Aug-Oct 20

A small SHOWCASE EXHIBITION next to the exhibition LUNAR CONCRETE

SENSE of Material
Mayu Ueda, Japan and Morten Plesner, Denmark
EXHIBITION 27 August – 3 October 2020

Sence of material – tales on materiality from Japan and Denmark
Fired clay and nature's materials are included in the works of both artists.
The universes of nature fused with clay forms, where materialities sensually touch and influence each other in different ways.

Mayu Ueda has collected pieces of rock from various places in Japan, which are fired together with glazed decorated ceramic elements. She calls the work series 'Lumps of Feelings', which may be freely translated into indefinable 'clumps' of emotion, substance of feelings or mixed emotions.
Morten Plesner shows sculptural pieces out of special work processes with nature, such as 'beehive growth technique' in collaboration with bees, who build around a manufactured ceramic object, and other material-investigating experiments in connection with clay.


MAYU UEDA - JAPAN
Watching the forest fires decimate the natural life in Australia makes one think, “what is mankind’s purpose on this planet?”
Having grown up at the foot of a mountain, I have had a profound respect for nature; in the woods, I hear the whispers and groans of shape, color, sound, smell, sensation in the damp earth, giving life to green; the cold summer mountain streams water; the wind in the trees; the scent of new budding leaves. I even hear the voices of things being dug up from the fields.

I have made my art from “YAKIMONO,” possibly led by the “subconscious voice” of earth and flame. I make forms from the earth beneath my feet. Flames stimulate minerals to react, altering their density and color so that when cooled, they take a new eternal hue and form. It is being there in that moment that makes my heart race.


The serenity at the end of nature’s tumult is like the dreams we see to escape reality. As pink reflects the transience of the cherry blossom, the eroticism of erotica, the daintiness of Nadeshiko flowers, or the grotesqueness of raw meat, colours can reveal the heart and endow objects with warmth (strength). My mind receives divine blessings and dons a sweet, dream-like world.
As flames sublimate everything inside them, I make a small call in the sincere hope for peace on this Earth.

MAYU UEDA (b. Kobe, Japan) Osaka University of Arts, Ceramics, BFA 1998, MFA 2000. SOLO EXHIBITIONS Gallery Shimada, Kobe, Japan 2019,11. Momoto Saru, Gallery Keifu, Kyoto, Japan 2018,15,13. Gallery, The Institute of Ceramic Studies, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan. CAP STUDIO Y3, Kobe, Japan 2015. Guldagergaard Apple House Gallery, Denmark 2014. AMI & KANOKO, Osaka, Japan 2012. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION 2019 - Two person exhibition, Gion Konishi, Kyoto. Galleri VOICE Tajimi, Gifu, Japan. KOBE STUDIO Y3, Kobe, Japan 2019,18. 2018 - The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, USA. CERAMIC ART AVENUE (Jingdezhen, China 2018,17. 2017 - Sundaymorning @ EKWC, Oisterwijk, Nederlande. ORIE ART GALLERY , Tokyo 2020, 16. A.I.R. Vallauris, Vallauris, France. GICB2017 Thematic exhibition, Yeoju World Livingware Gallery, Yeoju, Korea. www.mayuueda.com


MORTEN PLESNER - DENMARK
My current pieces are based on scientific experiments or observations, conceptual and aesthetic pocket researches, where they are often a result of multiple natural processes, that will shape, finish or refine the object over a short or long period of time. I aspire to give my creations an authenticity and a psychedelic simplicity.
During the past few years I have worked with ritual and primitive artefacts, aberrations in symmetry, permanent gesticulations and traces after processes.

I am currently working on building sculptures of branches, which I dip in porcelain slip, after which they are dried and fired so that the wood burns out. What is left is a porcelain shell of the branches, which can then be glazed with the ashes from the same type of wood.
Another direction is experiments with beeswax and bees. When objects of beeswax are put down in a hive, the bees will, depending on when it is in season, build on the object. The bees use the new wax resource for other projects, so first they drill holes and subsequently expand them with cells and boards. They do it all very methodically and rather randomly, which makes the working dialogue with the bees unpredictable.

I seek and explore the materials of nature; clay, ash, smoke, wax, stone and water. The materials are fired, melted and crushed, in order to re-emerge in new formations and compositions.
Most techniques are based on a kind of controlled loss of control, where I let the case and a kind of natural logic prevail. The idiom allowed to draw on a kind of anarchic instinct, primitive logic and be total without function.
The Power-drill Pottery series are stoneware objects, turned up with a drill tent peg, spoon or similar.
Photos of previous works

I am interested in understanding the nature of ceramics, types of firing and glazes. For example. I have developed glazes consisting of ash and crushed stone. Depending on the type of wood, plant and stone, different colours and textures occur.
Fire and burning are included as a resource or function that transforms or adds an aesthetic quality to the sculptures. I am preoccupied with the migration where minerals like potassium and sodium are absorbed into the tree, through the roots. In connection with ordinary fire-burning (800 °) the minerals remain in the ash, but if subjected to temperatures over 1200 ° melts minerals together as a glaze or glass.

MORTEN PLESNER (b. 1979) Educated as a scenic painter at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen 2000-2004. Collaborated with Christian Elovara in the art duo”Ultra Grøn” 2008-2012 (UG in CV). Member of BKF, Danish Visual Artists.
EXHIBITIONS 2020, Atoll, Bricks Gallery, København. 2017, "KE17 Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling", Den Frie. "Hvad Gør Kunst På Hospitaler?", KØS Museum For Kunst i Det Offentlige Rum. 2012, "Røg" Hvidovre Biblotek, Solo/UG. Copenhagen Art Festival, Ambassador Projekt, UG. "Visit Tingbjerg", UG, Tingbjerg. "Værker Sat Sammen Af" Ringsted Gallery. 2011, "Efter Stormen" MOHS Gallery. "Viking 0992-16DK" Gallery Christoffer Egelund, Solo/UG. "Walk This Way" KØS, UG. 2010, "Udenfor-Eksperimenter" Den Frie, Solo/UG. "Bicycles And The Art" Happy Dog Gallery, Chicago, USA. "Vi Cykler" Bredgade Kunsthandel og "Ultra Silva" WAS -Wonderland Art Space, UG, København. "On Paper" Stalke Out Of Space, Kirke Sonnerup. "Hængende Telte I Bunker" X-Bunker, Solo, Sønderborg. 2008, DCK# Censurerede Kunstudstilling, Odense. 2007, “Forårsudstillingen" Charlottenborg.
www.mortenplesner.dk - Instagram.com/mortenplesner


Grateful thanks to The Danish Art Foundation for project funding in 2020.