Library | Joining Clays from Around the World for Ceramic Lineage Storytelling

Much gratitude to Vallois America for granting us permission to publish this incredible King Houndekpinkou exhibition catalog in cfile.campus. If you are already a member, view the catalog, or begin your 30-day free trial.

Featured Photo: Sak(re) Voodoo Sculpture, Black stoneware from Lanzarote (Canary Islands), multiple glaze overlays, 2017

King Houndekpinkou: Time on Earth
New York: Vallois America, 2017
15 Pages

Houndekpinkou celebrates his own particular cultural mixture by joining a variety of different clays from around the world France (his place of birth), Benin (his ancestral homeland), and even clay from the Canary Islands. Clay bodies are layered to make a round, womb-like, hollowed, organic form. Several colored glazes are dripped over the vase making for a vine-y, thick, Jackson Pollock vibe. While they shine as separate objects, the mixture of chemical makeups and clays from around the world come full circle, carrying a narrative within these artworks

“On a technical level, King’s process implements an intimate and direct relationship with the material that he scratches, tears, and repairs, thus creating simultaneously graceful and raw artworks. It was on the occasion of a first trip to Japan in 2012, that he discovers ceramics. He then became aware of the universality of clay, which encouraged him to return to his roots and his ancestors of Benin from works made from the most elemental materials through works made from the most elemental materials in the earth.”

If you are already a member, view the catalog, or begin your 30-day free trial.

Do you love or loathe these works from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.