Moulding the Confusion and the Chaos Residing Inside Us
It was purely by chance that I came across the forgotten and neglected porcelain figurine, and it was important for my further work that I saw the potential for artistic exploration in a genre that had lost its contemporary resonance. The porcelain figurine was perceived to be trivial and banal with no artistic merit. It had suffered a veiled existence on dusty window sills behind tulle curtains and the romanticised tableaus depicted were without bite or relevance.
To me this genre – the white porcelain narrative – represented a vast volume of stories waiting to be told, now upended, twisted and groomed for modern life with new clothes of perversion, new settings of unrest and shaped by fear.
The new porcelain figurine stood in contrast to the idealised version of human existence – it revealed perhaps the inadequacy that may emerge in the wake of expectations and a striving for perfection.
In my work with the porcelain figurine I found myself eager and curious to lay bare the confusion and the chaos that lives inside most of us.
When I applied for admission to Kolding School of Arts and Crafts (now Design School Kolding) it was not really a long thought-through decision on my part. I was actually on my way towards the natural sciences, but I decided that I had to give the creative side of me a chance.
I envisioned a future version of myself regretting not having given the artistic path a fair shot. The challenge of passing the admission examination to the school spurred me on and strengthened my resolve to be accepted to the school.
What attracted me to the school in particular was the importance of craftsmanship – the training, skill and knowledge that goes into the making of things.
In a sense the ‘how’ of making things was in the hand. The ‘why’ was in the mind. During my time at the school I learned that the two go together. The mind needs to show the hand the way, and the hand needs to be able the follow the ideas of the mind.
The solid grounding in craftsmanship that I took with me from Design School Kolding continues to be an important part of what carries my work today.
Without the understanding of methods and materials I acquired during my five years in Kolding I would not have been able to develop the works I am creating today.
