Puls Ceramics (Brussels, September 12 — October 10, 2015) is showcasing the work of two artists side-by-side. One uses ceramics to explore the boundary between order and chaos and the other gleefully co-opts mass-produced decorations in his satirical works.
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A ceramist from Copenhagen, Gitte Jungersen has a narrative approach to her art. She states:
Over the last few years, I have worked at making narratives where the creation of the work plays an important part. The works appear as scenes, where the physical drama of the ceramics is played out on the edge between genesis and decomposition. The viewer is witness to something that is happening right now; a snapshot, a moment frozen in time.
For me, the ceramic medium is closely connected to the body and the physical experience of being present in the world. The soft, plastic clay can be modeled so that it moves against the gravitational force and forms the work’s “bone structure”, a supporting shell or construction. I see the glaze as an independent element with contrasting energy: as a melted, fluid mass, which moves organically down the form in accordance with gravity.
Works by Gitte Jungersen. Courtesy of the gallery.
The gallery describes Jungersen’s work as “pure alchemy which springs from her unrelenting curiosity and the search for a balance between control and chaos.”
It is not sculpture. It is not painting. And it is not necessarily related to earth and the natural. Freed from their traditional ‘container’ the objects displayed at Puls are the dripping and colorful results of a search for what is possible when you reach the end of control and let gravity and firing take over.
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Puls describes Flemish artist Yves Malfliet as “a provocateur.”
…a prankster and a tragic poet who uses ceramics to express these qualities. His work consists of reconstituted decorative items, often mass produced ceramic kitsch and religious artifacts which are reassembled by adding traditional clay and glaze. This results in satirical ceramic sculptures al la Maurizio Cattelan that resonate with the theatrical power of Guy Joosten’s operas.
However, for all the drama suggested in the content, Malfliet works with subtlety, there is a quiet grace to his painterly constructs and the palette is mostly muted and subtle. As a poet he does not cry out but murmurs with gentle resonance.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
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Works by Yves Malfliet. Photographs courtesy of the gallery.
great