One and the Other

"Images are complicated, they need to be explained, to be fictionalized and they are thus the privileged domain of theory. Objects are much less complicated, but much more complex. And this complexity resists language and resists theory" (Paul Matthieu)

Presented ceramic forms are a part of my constant exploration of the ceramic container, the relationship between interior and exterior and the actual space in which it exists. My work demonstrates how the colour, material and form, with regard to the volume and space as primary concept of ceramics function, can serve as the vehicle for the surface that through the use of colour transforms viewer’s sense of the object.
Containers have conceptual and cultural meaning that goes beyond their familiarity and commonality, they are archetypal and fundamental; they draw the viewer to question what is contained, what is hidden, to discover the space within the actual presence. I disassemble the traditional vessel to show the conceptual relationships between containment and abstraction where the form also serves as the messenger for the surface.
By referencing the container as the holder of the space, while freeing the form from any explicit function, I am taking on the idea of the form that develops gradually, driven by its surface, not forced or contrived and seen as the combination of object and image.

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“An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture”.
Jean Cocteau

Mostly self-taught as a painter, I discovered ceramics later, when I realized how important is the aspect of touch (working in the round) and intimacy between me and artwork.

At first, painting became story-telling; illustrations of my private mythologies. Those figurative works are emotional self-portraits and results of me using my art making as a coping mechanism with sadness and grief.

My abstract paintings address the materiality of colour as a non – linguistic aspect of art, where the image is not a sign, but barely a reminder of the gesture enclosed in the medium itself.
In my view colour has the material substance of meaning; colour is not a tool, but rather a necessity for comprehending life as such. Colour represents so many things, but primarily, for me, colour is an instrument of constant transformation, a crucial tool for negotiating the whole work–by overlapping, constructing and deconstructing the palette.

In my sculptures I transform monoprinted clay paintings into ceramic forms.
As a painter working in the ceramic medium, I am respecting that medium’s history and the implications connected with this particular material. My practice is driven by the idea of removing obstacles between concept, maker and viewer to allow the viewer to experience more than conventions associated with painting or ceramics. My work gives ceramic shape to painting and as such it addresses sensory experiences that involve the object and the painting on the same level, where representation invites no representation, where the material lends itself towards questioning the conventions of both mediums.

For me, the creative process is as important as the outcome. The unique place where cognitive reality takes on the physical form is in the finished work.

The rest is to the viewer.