Quarantine and Lockdown as source of inspiration

Museo di Kòrsou, October 21, 2021 – January 8, 2022

Suddenly life came to a complete standstill. Time became one big mess.
That quiet, still life. That rhythm less time.

I wanted to capture and document this completely new situation in order to get a better grip on time.
Thinking about how, I thought of still life in paintings, especially the still lifes of the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. Inspired by this, I started making vases, one every two days.

I had no idea where it would go, how long it would take me, or how many there will be. Having a goal, a task, gave me peace, gave me something to hold on to.
I would not deviate from it and work consistently, however long this period would last.
In that respect, clay is a medium that is ideally suited for this: it dictates time: wait too long and the material dries out.

That’s how the project started.
Slowly the line got longer and longer. Each vase was given its own character. The basic spherical shape is the same; upwards they are all different. Their movements trapped in stone.
In the end it became 27. And when you look at it, you see vases, however in essence you are looking at the imagination of time.
Each vase represents 48 hours, 1296 hours together, or 54 days.

I decided to have ceramic transfers made for this time document to label the vases, with a label that referred directly to this period. I chose “Covid 19” in Chinese characters, as a reference to Wuhan, where the virus first emerged.
In the meantime, a vaccine was being developed and when the transfers were ready, I applied them to the ‘upper arm’ of the vase as a reference to where we would be vaccinated.

Now the vases stand on their pedestal in a strict rhythm, depicting both time and stillness.
When I looked at them like this, the association with a cemetery suddenly came up, with 27 urns in a row; and thus this work also became a monument to those who have unfortunately lost the fight against the virus.