the danish testament
PROJECT
vessels & SCROLLS
Sometimes we inherit things that are not intended for us. How do we honor them? How do we transform them?
For over three decades I’ve been collecting vintage and antique Danish linen table cloths that used to be part of a dowry chest. Precious things. I transform the ones that are worn out. I turn them into calligraphy scrolls that I then juxtapose with ceramic vessels I make myself.
Decorated solely with my personal stamp, my vessels are an expression of what I’m pursuing: the key to the essential. My interlaced initials on both my scrolls and my vessels, the mark ‘ce’ accompanied by tulips, is an emblem of precisely this: clavis et essentia, revealing the red thread that I follow in search of the key to the impenetrable obvious.
The Danish Testament project is about this: drawing down into my own creations the motivation, and sometimes obsessions, of the artists that came before me.
dowry & a red thread
A bridal chest holds the finest tablecloth, porcelain, and cutlery. Yet, it belongs to the past; nowadays, such chests often end up at recycling centers. I buy the linen tablecloth and try to follow its thread. At one time, the cloth was highly prized. What kind of lives did those who inherited it lead? Their legacy has nothing to do with me, but now that I possess this treasure, I reflect on my role as an heir – inheriting under a will never intended for me.
I embrace the beautiful sentiment behind the Danish bridal chest and seek to leave my own mark upon it.
The worn linen cloth transforms into a scroll upon which I paint. My calligraphy follows the thread further: black, red, green ink applied to a white porcelain slip of my own mixing.
The written characters lead me to clay. What form will I give it? I think of how bowls behold a space. Perhaps I can place what I make on a table beside the new scroll.
I engage in a dialogue with the Danish will, transforming its original wording and content in order to create my own legacy. I don’t think in terms of needing one, a legacy, that is. Rather, I think in terms of chance. When I’m done here, how will others think of my contribution to beauty in the world? Understanding what we all try to do is a gift. I hope mine creations will move the heart of others towards this understanding. It’s where clarity to the essential resides.
Below, my first attempt at doing anything ceramics. Although my focus is mainly porcelain now, I also like to use other types of clay that are porcellanous, as they have a resonance all their own. The first images here represent a few examples of my hand at work in the same week when I gave shape to clay without the help of wheels, moulds, or other forms: a conic bowl, my first, then perfume bottles, a tumbler, and a pitcher that gives spectacular control over pouring. Then porcelain and an attempt at making raku. Porcelain wins.
