Maike Dahl, silver
Ewa Doerenkamp, metal
Pia Pasalk, porcelain
Friedemann Bühler, wood
Heri Gahbler, urushi lacquer art
Piet Stockmans, porcelain
Vessels that envelope empty space along with the things they hold
From November 13 to December 31, 2010, the exhibition Minimalism II will take place at Werft 11 Gallery. Minimalism II features contemporary vessel design by six internationally known artists: Maike Dahl, Ewa Doerenkamp, Pia Pasalk, Friedemann Bühler, Heri Gahbler, and Piet Stockmans. Simple forms made of wood, porcelain, metal, and urushi lacquer reveal innovative ideas and individual philosophies.
Maike Dahl’s work is characterized by effortless poise, a balance between traditional and contemporary metal design.
The bowls, mugs, and cans trigger associations with refined packaging, origami and take-away boxes. Made of silver, her creations playfully reintroduce a traditional material into the everyday world. Her matte-structured vessels reference cultural history, deeply buried in centuries of craftsmanship—dining culture reloaded!
Maike Dahl lives and works in Hanover.
Ewa Doerenkamp calls her wire-bowl series "Translucent Transition." Made from silver or iron filament, the objects look like 3D animations.
A fascinating moment occurs in the shimmering transition from line to space delineated by the bowls. Doerenkamp’s wire constructions are a play between interior and exterior, movement and stasis, light and dark.
Ewa Doerenkamp lives and works in Frankfurt a. M.
Pia Pasalk creates objects that transform the everyday into an element of style and makes supposed flaws the focus of design. Cups, vases and bowls are unglazed, showing dents and defects, with fragments of blue flower décor.
Her porcelain collection is inspired by the Wabi-Sabi philosophy of Japan. It is a homage to the beauty of the imperfect and the incomplete. Look and feel have equal status and permit tactile experience on multiple levels. Like no other, porcelain unites the everyday with the particular.
Pia Pasalk lives and works in Cologne.
Friedemann Bühler’s thin-walled bowls and vases are of wood collected from forests near his house. He carefully selects the best pieces and shapes them into rough forms on the spot.
Relying at times on traditional tools, he makes objects that, after drying, assume either a soft asymmetrical form or small cracks and breaks. He then uses a variety of other techniques to create their unique final appearance: texturizing, bleaching, staining, lacking, and oiling. Through brushing and sandblasting, the textile of the wood serves to delineate the structures.
The long process results in unique pieces and small series of simple elegance and timelessness—light and powerful at once.
Friedemann Bühler lives and works in Langenburg.
Heri Gahbler is the first non-Japanese to have graduated from the Institute for Urushi Lacquer Arts in Wajima.
Using tools tested over centuries, Gahbler carefully applies layer upon layer of lacquer with a human-hair brush from Japan. Each of these unique and brilliant objects requires 30 separate steps.
The objects bring together calm, concentration, and constancy, properties that compel the beholder to pause and submit to the sensuality of the object.
Gahbler experiments with lacquers and techniques to develop his own language of form. By giving the surface a raw and structured look, he tries to decrease the distance to the beholder.
In his most recent work, Gahbler unites his European cultural understanding with insights from the ancient Urushi technique.
Heri Gahbler lives and works in Cologne.
Piet Stockmans’s porcelain vessels are about delicacy and fragility. The unglazed vessel is simple, coloured almost entirely in white and blue.
His design seeks to bring out and emphasize the fundamental properties of the material, combining industrial method and craftsmanship with individual artistic concepts.
The physical experience, the simple intervention vis-à-vis matter, proves the existence of beauty and aesthetics in a piece."
Piet Stockmans. Piet Stockmans lives and works in Genk, Belgium.
Opening
Saturday, 13. November 2010 from 16:00 to 19:00
Press kit
press.minimalismus2.zip
Ewa Doerenkamp
Friedemann Bühler
Heri Gahbler
Maike Dahl
Pia Pasalk
Piet Stockmans