ENTROPIC TOPOLOGY - Karen Harsbo DK
Exhibition 1 – 31 August 2013
From the Gaolin mountain via the silk route to Europe and return to the East..
- About the materials and travels of the mind.
Karen Harsbo is intrigued by ceramic history, routes, roads, mapping, floor plan, buildings, construction, reflection, fractals, signal flags, mirage, intricate map of 'the mind', unorthodox mix of material and much more ..
This exhibition shows a very personal and special mapping of the material history.
Karen Harsbo works as an associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Art's ceramics Laboratory with the 'artists of the future'.
Karen graduated from the Danish School of Arts and Crafts (now the Art Academy's design school); but for several years she has had her main interest in the contemporary art world, specialized in ceramic materials, artistic and practical advice to the graduate students.
She has her own artistic practice, exhibitions and commission projects, as well as working as a curator in the middle of a very active and productive life.
In 2011, she curated (with A. Tovborg) an international exhibition: THE MAGIC OF CLAY – Ceramics in Contemporary Art, Holtegaard Museum, Denmark.
Entropy = a measure of total disorder or randomness in a system.Topology (Greek topos - place, logos - study) = study of shape and space. - Quotes/ Wikipedia.
KAREN HARSBO "A work stay in England at the Spode Factory, a traditional recently closed porcelain factory, has reopened my curiosity on the history of porcelain.
- How it was invented in China when processing kaolin from the Gaolin-Mountain.
- How it was laboriously transported via the Silk Route to Europe as a most precious treasure.
- How alchemists experimented to develop the formula, and it since has become a major industry in Europe, with exports to all over the world.
- And how the production once again returns to the East.
It is a story that generates multiple routes and maps; - and places are connected via camel routes through the desert or container routes over the Oceans.
They are the paths of human curiosity, and the knowledge of culture and traditions ever changing."
"I am interested in the people who have been part of those places - workers in the East and the West. Those who have made a mark on the great map and relayed their knowledge throughout history. - And those who no longer have their jobs at the closed Spode Factory.
This has inspired a series of pieces with printed images on porcelain.
Some works are about porcelain as materiality – to construct with a soft liquid material that becomes strong and hard - and then to maintain a floating character.
Somewhere between dissolution and building - between order and randomness.
Others are about questioning the materials that I 'usually' use.
- Must a colour on ceramics always be an oxide or a glaze?
- Perhaps it could be something else..?
I have coloured/upholstered ceramics with fabrics to investigate what will happen.."
Studio photos of pieces in porcelain, stoneware and textile by Karen Harsbo
LABORATORY FOR CERAMICS - THE ROYAL DANISH ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
Associate Professor Karen Harsbo is head of the Laboratory, that teaches and researches in the use of ceramics in contemporary art. Here are taught both traditional and new techniques such as modelling, plaster moulds, casting, paper-clay, sand casting, firings and glazing. Furthermore, works are carried out in cast and slumped glass. Classes are held as courses for the respective schools, projects involving other institutions or companies, and by individual work-flow based on each student's project.
Karen Harsbo has a broad experience with the ceramic material, works with and teaches many different paths in ceramics. In teaching context, she has been given to convey an artistic approach to ceramics, historical and technical, for example conducted workshops with the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain 'The White Gold' and Tommerup brick factory including the commission project 'Østerhøj' to Ballerup Municipality; and have researched the use of photo transfer to ceramic surfaces.
MAGIC OF CLAY - Ceramics in International Contemporary Art, Holtegaard DK 2011
Karen Harsbo and visual artist A.Tovborg were curators of the exhibition.
The exhibition showed works by major international artists: Ai Weiwei, Kaspar Bonnén, David Cushway, Thea Djordjadze, Alexandra Engelfriet, Clare Twomey, John Kørner, Jonathan Meese, Hylton Nel, Grayson Perry, Linda Sormin, Klara Kristalova, Alexander Tovborg.
Interview - Karen Harsbo, Alexander Tovborg & Mads Damsbo, Liberty Paterson: http://www.lindasormin.com/docs/leretsmagi_skitser_110406_resten.pdf
HAPPENSTANCE - Ann Linnemann Gallery 2010
Karen Harsbo and Neil Brownsword UK showed unorthodox experiments with ceramic material, and brought to mind the ceramics roles of our time.. socially, artistically and historically.
Ceramics in multi-layers.. the materials and the time we live in.
They investigated known ceramic methods and materials that were treated differently to what tradition subscribes. When the known suddenly becomes different! What happens when 'things' are done to known materials in new ways? The exhibition project developed partly in their private practice and partly in collaboration at 'Experimental Workshops'.
Karen Harsbo's pieces appeared from experiments with mixing and melting known ceramic materials such as glaze, plaster, porcelain. “What happen might be an accident or even a fault, but it opens up to a world of possibilities and creative potential, which could not be pre-perceived. - I was struck by something I heard, which I felt applied well to what I have been working on: 'How knowledge travels from one material to another'. Here my idea of knowledge is: knowledge and abilities embedded in the material, - knowledge of how to handle and work the material, - knowledge of history and culture of the material.
See more about... HAPPENTANCE
Grateful thanks to the Danish National Bank Anniversary Foundation of 1968 for the generous support of Ann Linnemann studio gallery exhibition program of 2013!
CURRICULUM VITAE
Karen Kitani Harsbo - born October 28th 1963 in Japan
EDUCATION
1982-87 School of Arts & Crafts (now: Art Academy Design School)
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2013 British Ceramic Biennial - Stoke-on-Trent UK
2012 SAK, Svendborg – Room Mates
Ann Linnemann Gallery, Copenhagen - Behold (group/theme)
2011 International Ceramic Research Center – Guldagergaard - Fire Friends
2010 Ann Linnemann Gallery, Copenhagen - Happenstance (w. Neil Brownsword)
2009 Ann Linnemann Gallery, Copenhagen – Summer Exhibition (Extended Primitivs)
The Japanese Embassy - Japan Journey
2008 Bispegården, Kalundborg (w. Linda Lilholdt & Malene Schjøll)
Sculpture Biennale – King's Garden Copenhagen
Inner Mongolia Art Museum, Hohot, China
2007 Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China
International Ceramic Research Center DK - Collaborative Relations
2006 Galleri Mortensen & Markmann (w. painter Lotte Holten)
2005 Marienlyst Slot, Helsingor - Der var engang...
Rundetårn, Copenhagen - Spejlinger
2004 Grønbechsgaard, Hassle, Bornholm - Porcelæn
2003 Vejen Art Museum - Bageværk
Royal Copenhagen – Porcelain
Marienlyst Castle, Helsingør – The White Gold & Momenta Space
Denmark's Museum of Ceramics, Grimmerhus - Network
2000 Trapholt Art Museum – Ceramic Triennial
1999 Charlottenborg – Spring exhibition Copenhagen
1998 Charlottenborg - Spring exhibition Copenhagen
Den Frie - Artists Fall Spring Copenhagen
VK-exhibition (Vestsjælland art exhibition)
1997 Den Frie - Artists Fall Spring Copenhagen
VK-exhibition (Vestsjælland art exhibition), price winner
CURATOR
2011 THE MAGIC OF CLAY - Gl. Holtegaard (with A.Tovborg)
2005 DER VAR ENGANG... Marienlyst Slot, Helsingor
2004 PORCELÆN Grønbechsgård, Hassle, Bornholm
2003 THE WHITE GOLD - Royal Copenhagen
BAGEVÆRK Vejen Art Museum
SELECTED COMMISION PROJECTS
2009 Urban-planen, Amager CrossOver -
2006 Ballerup Stenhavestien – Østerhøj -
2005 Eggerslevmagle Skole, Skælskør, Invisable School Group K+
