In the workshop / dans l'atelier
July 2008,
Every morning the tree I see from the house is set alight. First the glow of red embers appear in the dark shadows of the tree. The leaves move slowly in the cool air. Then some sparks light up. A burning disc appears and gains in intensity while it climbs through the foliage. When tree and disc seperate, day is on it's way, night is but a fading memory..
Back from the Paris St.Sulpice exhibit I started working on my new kiln. Once finished it will open up new possibilities: I am exploring further the dynamics expressed in the "mouvement cyclique" series, and with this kiln I will be able to fire large pieces on a more regular basis.
Studies are under way for series of works, probably a larger scale installation recalling the founding figure of a lost monastry. Land claimed and cultivated at one moment in history was abandoned some centuries later under pressure of changeing environmental conditions: a moving coastline, and resulting from this, empoverished soil. It's the story of the frontier between a natural, a spiritual, and a man-made world. On a more personal level, it's also the story of having to abandon a place, the uprooting of a community. It's about very general questions: Why are we here? What ties us to where we came from? What if this place no longer exists? Is a place the premise for meaning?
