On vulnerability, curvature, resilience
I work with materials that are flammable. My porcelain pieces are white with colourful layers of slip or finished with shiny gold for ceramics. I usually fire my works in a single firing process. My signature and the year of creation are engraved on the underside.
The look of my pieces depends on how deeply I layer and compact the different materials into the porcelain. I push the materials to their limits until extrusions, cracks and roughnesses ooze out from within to the surface or form voids. Similar to solidified lava flows or dried-up crusts of earth, my works reflect the vulnerability of nature as it is exploited and distorted by us humans, while at the same time reminding me of its resilient powers.
My works are created from geometric shapes. I've named one series “ellipsoids / eggs of life”. While eggs symbolise new life, rebirth and fertility in cultures, myths and religions, I make the vulnerability of us humans clear in the “clutch” of breaking ellipsoids. Here, birth and death are as close together as my failure, my creativity and my resilience. Perhaps the geometric series lead an unconscious life of their own with my haptic memories, or present themselves as completely void of any meaning, like the “deformed circles on elliptoids”. Only at second glance do I spot handbags that I can take with me when I’m out and about.
Viewers can experience the seemingly imperfect surfaces of my works visually and by touching the open structures. I invite you to choose a free interpretation. Perhaps my works are symbolic anchorages?
Ceramic art has been a part of my life since the late 1970s. After training as a ceramist, I founded my studio keramik_art in Vienna in 1992.
I have received several international awards, been a finalist at numerous international ceramics biennials, and participated in international exhibitions, ceramics symposia and projects. Founder and president of the ICCA-International Contemporary Ceramic Art association from 2004 to 2012, vice-president of the Künstlerhaus, Austrian Artists´ Association in Vienna from 2014 to 2022.
Member of the International Academy of Ceramics (AIC-IAC) in Geneva and honorary member of the Künstlerhaus, Austrian Artists' Association in Vienna.
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