Udstillingen åbnes af professor Anne Currier, Chair
of Division of Ceramic Art, School of Art and Design,
Alfred University, New York State
Vandskåle af Claydies
Karen Kjældgård-Larsen
Tine Broksø
Ole Jensen
På "The Opening" tages værkerne i brug
Spiritusflasker af Ole Jensen
Isbowle af Ole Jensen
Opera!
Vinglas af Claydies
Ølkrus og sjusglas af Claydies
Anne Currier og Claydies
THE
OPENING
One
of my guilty pleasures is reading crime novels - detective stories. What are
the clues? When and where are they discovered? How are they considered? How
does the detective solve the crime?
There
is a paragraph that I want to share with you from Points and Lines, a crime novel written in 1957 by one of Japan's
foremost mystery writers, Seicho Matsumoto:
In
his statement for the TableSpace catalog,
which accompanied the 2011 exhibition with the same title, Ole Jensen offered the following observation:
For
me, the overlapping threads that draw these observations together also untangle
how the mind works: the "real story" is the process of forming
associations - finding clues and paying attention to details. This is how the
good detective / designer / artist is able to discover and create tangential
and parallel lines, with seemingly disconnected points.
To
offer a brief chronological background that connects the “points and lines” between
ceramics at Alfred with Ole Jensen and the Claydies: I've
already mentioned TableSpace. This
was an exhibition curated in 2011 by Linda Sikora and Albion Stafford for the
Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Alfred University. Linda is a colleague and professor
in the Division of Ceramic Art at the School of Art and Design. She is also a
studio potter. Linda invited Ole to exhibit his work as one of fourteen ceramic
potters from six countries: Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan and United States.
Andrea
Gill, another colleague and professor in the Division of Ceramic Art, organized
a studio workshop, lecture and gallery talk that occurred simultaneously with
the TableSpace exhibition. For this event, Andrea invited Ole and he agreed to
participate. This was Ole's first visit to Alfred.
Last
spring 2013, the faculty of the Division of Ceramic Art once again invited Ole
to Alfred for an eight-week residency in September and October - this time as a
Randall International Chair. As the current division head for the Ceramics
Division, this is when I became directly involved. It was in the course of our
correspondence that Ole mentioned his collaboration with the Claydies. Would
Alfred - the Ceramics Division - be interested in inviting Karen and Tine to
Alfred for a few days as visiting artists? So I did a quick Google search, checked
the budget and conferred with my colleagues. The answer: a resounding, absolutely,
yes. So for three days in October we enjoyed a workshop, lecture and visit with
the Claydies.
During
the eight weeks at Alfred, Ole made his ceramic pieces that are now in the
gallery. I think it was quite a big risk for him to leave the comforts of his
studio to make his work in the unfamiliar studio environment at Alfred. And a
risk for the Claydies as well. The convenience of personal and immediate
exchange was not an option. It is a bit tempting to speculate if the outcome
would have been different - like an ending to a mystery novel - had all
collaborators stayed home.
Today
- The
Opening - brings the long-distance conversation between Ole
Jensen and the Claydies to its performative moments - the occasion for
interaction with you who are here tonight. The Opening celebrates our desires
to socialize and share the pleasures of one another's company, to eat and
drink, to touch ceramic objects, and to be engaged with our sense of wonder and
play. After this evening, the gallery and the objects installed will, to some
degree, constitute the scene of the crime. Everyone will have collaborated.
Thank
you for coming - and I personally want to extend special thanks to Ole Jensen,
the Claydies and Copenhagen Ceramics for inviting me to participate.
Anne
Currier
November
21, 2013
