Kunsthaus Graz English

Kneaded Knowledge The Language of Ceramics 25.09.2016 – 19.02.2017 Space01

Kunsthaus Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz T +43–(0)316/8017–9200, Tue–Sun 10am–5pm [email protected], www.kunsthausgraz.at This text is published on the occasion of the exhibition Some of the earliest artefacts to be

Kneaded Knowledge made were ceramics, prized since time The Language of Ceramics immemorial both for their usefulness Kunsthaus Graz Universalmuseum Joanneum and their aesthetic appeal. Today, while September 25, 2016 until February 19, 2017 pots are still produced from this ancient material, the way in which it is handled is constantly being changed and reinter- preted. Ai Weiwei and Edmund de Waal both have a long and deep preoccupa- tion with this material—and yet their artistic approaches are very different. At the Kunsthaus Graz, the two artists act as curators and artistic partners in the exhibition. Through a highly personal view, they reveal the broad diversity of ceramics. Meissen Early Asian Ceramics Ai Weiwei symbolic of this. The work Stones was commissioned in 2011 by the The white tea service at the The display of early Asian ceram- Artist and actionist Ai Weiwei is Universalmuseum Joanneum, and beginning of the exhibition ics was chosen by Chinese artist one of China’s most renowned and shows casts of stone age archaeo- appears a little wonky and less Ai Weiwei. He himself collects respected contemporary artists. A logical finds. These have been than perfect, yet it still has some- these ancient witnesses to a dis- continuous exploration of Chinese discovered since 1947 in the Rep- thing wonderful about it. It is a tant era in his country’s history. ceramics runs throughout his olust Cave north of Graz and iden- very early example of European For him, they are not only the oeuvre. His provocative early work tified as having been made by porcelain production. Around symbol of a very old culture that of 1995, Dropping a Han Dynasty humans. Ai Weiwei had the arte- 1700, porcelain was still known had a profound knowledge of Urn, has already been shown facts (around 930 of them) repro- as ‘white gold’—mainly imported technique and craft, but also his twice at the Kunsthaus Graz. With duced in porcelain in China. Due to from China and Japan, it was des- continuous preoccupation with it. his barbarous destruction of a the firing process, they came out tined to be used as a statement A link to the long history and historical urn, Ai highlights the roughly a third smaller than the of prestige and status in aristo- tradition of his own culture, at destruction of historical objects— originals. This installation raised cratic circles. The items dating the same time they become through to entire city districts— awareness of working conditions from the first half of the 18th cen- emblematic of a collective cul- happening regularly in China. The in China during his imprisonment tury illustrate more than just an tural identity whose loss Ai Wei- artist does not view his painting in 2011. A continuation of this upper-class commodity in this wei demonstrates in various ways over a neolithic vase with the approach can be found in his 2015 exhibition, however. They also in the form of ceramics too. These Coca Cola logo, or dipping other work Remains. Here, casts were reveal that knowledge and the examples come from the Museum equally antique vases in colour made of human bone fragments spirit of inquiry have always man- of East Asian Art in Cologne. This glazes (Colored Vases, 2006), as found at a work camp set up aged to overcome cultural bound- collection of early Chinese ceram- the destruction of these historical under Mao Zedong. Currently, one aries, finding their tangible ics (dating from around 3000 objects. Rather, he considers his would often associate the ‘Made expression in material. Many of BCE) includes earthenware, proto- reworkings as transferring them in China’ label on porcelain with the early examples produced from porcelain, stoneware and grave into the present day, a process of cheap goods mass-produced in 1710 on in Meissen near Dresden, pottery with lead and ash glazes covering during which something Jingdezhen. One would rarely and soon afterwards in Vienna, and also actual porcelain from the new emerges. For Ai Weiwei, crea- think of the fine craftwork demon- were direct copies of Chinese late Tang dynasty (9th century CE), tion and destruction are closely strated in these items, or in the originals—this is why porcelain representing the early phase of related—destruction often brings thousands of Sunflower Seeds became known as ‘china’. Chinese art that Ai Weiwei has about the creation of something that caused a sensation at Tate often reworked to integrate into new, while the creation of some- Modern in London in 2010. Ai his own works. thing new can lead to the destruc- Weiwei also has his ceramic works tion of what already exists. In the made in Jingdezhen—a centre of display here, the collected teapot production with over 1000 years’ spouts in Spouts can be seen as tradition of porcelain casting. Edmund de Waal to the cases protecting them. The Associated with the fine arts Kasimir Malevich—along with hermetically sealed black cabinets since the beginning of the 20th Paul Gauguin and the German Edmund de Waal is a potter, artist used in his installation Irrkunst—a century, ceramic objects have Expressionists—also made an and writer. He learned his craft homage to the philosopher Walter been liberated from the limita- important contribution to the among other places in Japan dur- Benjamin—are the opposite of the tions of being seen as a craft and emancipation of ceramics at the th ing a residency, then went on to transparent display case that in the stigma of being purely deco- beginning of the 20 century. His study English literature in his other instances protects the sen- rative. At least since the Art Nou- teapot is a good example of how home country of England. His sitive, fragile objects. The solid veau era, ceramics were absorbed he aimed to extend the Suprema- work is shaped by his profound cabinet looks heavy yet allows into a concept of Gesamtkunst- tist art movement into the con- love and appreciation of a mate- through-views, inviting a werk (total artwork) that emerged crete, real-life world. In its rial that is rarely the centre of restrained discovery of the exqui- most clearly in the ‘Wiener Werk- abstract language of form, the attention in the wider art world. site pieces hidden deep inside. stätte’. Here there was a con- pot is more reminiscent of a Like Ai Weiwei, he is interested in Edmund de Waal’s works are very certed effort to counter the ano- building than of a practical uten- historical examples, although less minimalist in their form, concen- nymity of craftspeople and to sil. Around the middle of the cen- in terms of his own cultural his- trating the gaze puristically on create ceramics for presentation tury, the leading figures in art tory. His focus lies instead on the the earth taking shape. As art- in (private or museum) show- working with clay were above all material and the handling of it in works, they are withdrawn from cases. Born in 1902 in Vienna, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Lucio itself, the transformation during daily use; as functional objects, Lucie Rie defined her art in these Fontana and Isamu Noguchi. As its forming, the three-dimensional on the other hand, they play with surroundings, finding support and early on as the beginning of the th expression of different pots. How representative, aesthetic, practi- success until she was forced to 20 century, Japanese-American do form, function, design and use cal and ultimately economic val- flee from the Nazis. In London she artist Isamu Noguchi’s austere, relate to one another? What roles ues. Within this scope, de Waal set up a studio, and during the minimalist works greatly helped are played by installation, space, also takes a look at the history of 1950s was joined there by Ger- to broaden the concept of sculp- presentation or representation? ceramics, investigating what is man émigré Hans Coper, with ture and challenge the limits of Edmund de Waal’s ceramics con- possible with clay as a material in whom she jointly produced and use for ceramics. For him, being a centrate on the material and its terms of form and meaning. He experimented with materials over potter meant exhausting one’s formation. While his works cargo does so without focusing on his- many years. While Lucie Rie’s pots hands in the earth. Joan Miró and #1, 1997, three tall lidded jars, torical lines of development, are characterised by the extraor- Pablo Picasso, two of the most 2006 and water, salt, 2007 focus instead tracing a certain continu- dinary surface structure produced influential Spanish painters of on the vessel, in his latest works ity in the quality of craft across by their glazing prior to being classical modernism, also found a such as I speak nothing else, 2015 the ages. The examples chosen by fired, Coper’s works are striking connection to their home region or A Berlin chronicle or Irrkunst him for the exhibition, dating from due to his interest in archaic of Catalonia in their ceramics. th (both 2016) he develops architec- the turn of the 20 century ceramics. Miró saw pottery as a magical tonic installations that place the through to the present day, offer process of transformation, while delicate ceramic forms in relation an insight into this spectrum. Pablo Picasso was fascinated by the material: over his lifetime he beaten and scraped into shape, cal connection. Her sculptures made around 3000 ceramic often handled very roughly and have something inherently paint- works. left as they were or painted with erly about them, an impression Produced around 1950, the works bright colours. heightened by the choice of col- of Lucio Fontana and Asger Jorn Some of Peter Voulkos’ works are ours and their application. English communicate a very gestural relatively big. He ran his own artist Alison Britton considers expression in the material. As the ceramics studio in Los Angeles, the function of a pot crucial, but writer of the Manifesto Blanco, where he was able to fire on a at the same time just one ingredi- Fontana demanded that the con- remarkable scale for this material. ent in the shape-giving process of tinuation of the Italian Futurists Influenced by the Abstract potting. The form taking shape should aim for the merging of Expressionists, his work soon motivates her to push boundaries artistic forms of expression such leaned in the same direction—the and to challenge it right through as painting, sculpture, music and pots he created on the wheel to its painterly surface. Norwe- poetry and should also embrace were highly successful. Even his gian ceramic artist Marit Tingleff the use of materials not often plates and vases composed of takes ordinary, everyday func- seen in art, so promoting a different pieces of clay do not tional objects as the basis for her dynamic approach. His newly avoid their original functional work, altering their shape and devised spatial concept, ‘concetto intention, although their sheer colour to transform them into spaziale’, also defined his ceramic size pushes the limits of what is expressive, individual ceramic works, which extend like land- possible. works. scapes. Fontana did not see him- Lyndia Benglis, Marit Tingleff and self as a potter but instead as a Alison Britton are practitioners of sculptor, and so considered his modern ceramics whose diversity works to be sculptures rather illustrates the wide range of pos- than ceramics. Danish artist sibilities for giving form to fired Asger Jorn was a founding mem- earth. American artist Lyndia ber of the group COBRA in 1949. Benglis sees her work as an They regarded their experiments expression of the space produced with clay as a kind of liberation by her own movement around the from the restrictions of estab- material, but also captured by her lished art. Jorn encouraged a very freely modelled sculptures direct approach to the material, themselves, sometimes reminis- creating flat reliefs and figures cent of formless, flowing fabrics. that are marked by the traces of The gestures in the kneaded kneading hands. They were material arise from a direct physi- Accompanying programme

Themed tours The Language of Ceramics with Christof Elpons Fri, 21.10.2016 Sun, 30.10.2016 Fri, 4.11.2016 Sun, 20.11.2016 Fri, 2.12.2016 Sun, 4.12.2016 Fri, 10.02.2017 Sun, 19.02.2017 3.30pm (in German language)

3Family Day Entrance free for 3customers and their families! Sun, 09.10.2016, 10am–5pm

UNI KUM! Students Day 2016 Wed, 19.10.2016, 2pm–8pm www.studierendentag.at

UNIQA-Family Day Entrance free! Sun, 30.10.2016, 10am–5pm Curator Peter Pakesch

Text Monika Holzer-Kernbichler

Translation Kate Howlett-Jones

Graphic Concept Lichtwitz Leinfellner visuelle Kultur KG

Layout Karin Buol-Wischenau