"Beach party" decorated enameled porcelain vase, serie of 2

About the Item

“Meta(st)ases is a series of works conceptualized around the profound essence of the vase. I have been obsessed with this shape for a long time, but it became clear that I had to work on it in 2016. That year, I began a research residency on the ‘original’ porcelains of Jingdezhen (China), followed by another one focused on the French manufacturing tool near Limoges (France). This journey initially delved into the origins of kaolin, the key ingredient in porcelain. The first works I made were called the Trophies. They were an accumulation of ‘speed-datings’ between plaster molds salvaged from an abandoned Jingdezhen factory. These sculptures questioned the generative productivity of matrices (from the Latin matrix, ‘mother stock’). The objective was to disrupt conventional modes of reproduction through genuine craftsmanship, integrating these forms into an industrial resistance against normative calibrations. Upon returning to France, I crafted additional pieces using molds I personally constructed. Concurrently, I engaged in explorations with stained molds employed in glasswork at the CIAV Meisenthal, an extraordinary research center in Eastern France. I developed two series of glass vases made of ‘speed- datings’ of shapes and colors, the Karyotypes Freaks. The idea of the Freak came from the mythological vocabulary and around the hybrid creatures composed of different animal parts. By taking different meanings, they symbolize the dual nature of humans: bestial and divine. I wanted to go further with this research and discovered a manufacture near Limoges, in a small town called Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche. In this factory, I found a real library of molds, thousands of shapes almost abandoned. So I began a new series of works called Hylomorphoses. Derived from the Greek húlê (‘matter’) and mórphôsis (‘shaping’), the Hylomorphoses series is part of a material exploration of the links between shape, its manufacture, and its uses. Guided by these myths, I cultivated an aesthetic narrative that engages in a dialogue with the contemporary, projecting an imaginative trajectory into the future. This ornamental series plays metaphorically with a doubling of forms, false twins, and real decorative follies. The crystalline glaze and recurring motifs seamlessly intertwine, reestablishing a unity among forgotten molds. The decorations become signs drawn from different contexts, from street vernacular to antique ceramic decors. These oxide tags tell stories of resistance to heritage. The molds, acting as production modules, morph into both form and embellishment, serving as prospective agents in a yet-to-be-defined archaeology of shape. These novel designs, positioned between vases and sculptures, surpassed their predecessors in my estimation, embodying a superior state – a form of ‘meta-stasis.’ Like a deformation of a cell caused b an external factor, an outside will of embedding, these works are meta(st)ases, a contraction of meta, stase, and vases.

Dimensions:

Height: 13.39 in (34 cm)Width: 7.49 in (19 cm)Depth: 6.7 in (17 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Porcelain,Enameled

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

2010-

Date of Manufacture:

2021

Production Type:

New & Custom(Limited Edition)