Embodied Vessels

Even prehistoric artefacts show figurative elements on vessel forms and everyday objects. Figurative representations in connection with functional objects of everyday and sacred use are visible signs of culture in many societies. In the puzzle of artistic transformation, bodies become vessels and vessels simmer towards their embodiment. This leads to unusual juxtapositions and references.

Andreas Amrhein plays with the clichés of different cultures, he is interested in the pose. In his paintings, he combines oversized painted porcelain and bric-a-brac figures from the Baroque and Rococo periods with contemporary references such as gangster rap, or he overlays porcelain figures from the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution with Western cityscapes and landscapes. In this juxtaposition, he creates works that bear witness to the omnipresent uncertainty in relation to world events and yet point to a confident view of the future.

Wilhelm Frederking seeks out the hidden, the enigmatic and the mystical. He is fascinated by archaeological and ethnological artefacts and develops his impressive paintings on brocade fabrics from flea market finds of pre-Columbian stamps and printing rolls from Latin America, some of which are only the size of a thumb. His collages use other source material. Here he reassembles countless snippets of biblical scenes that were previously reproduced as etchings in historical folios. The figures, now completely enveloped, mutate into beings without characteristics, into empty vessels that have been robbed of their individual features.

In her porcelain sculptures, Diane Haefner creates a fascinating cosmos of combined body realities. She uses her own body moulds and medical and technical illustrative models as the starting material for her casting moulds and then fuses the individual pieces of porcelain into hybrid forms. The elements proliferate in the conglomerate of the combination and give rise to ambiguous shapes. The examination of the human body and the question of haptic sensations in the age of digitalisation is one of her central concerns.

Daniel Kruger is an exceptional jewellery and ceramic artist who develops his creations from an inexhaustible pool of materials. He allows sponges, mushrooms and bones to proliferate from the walls of fine porcelain vases or decorates the surface with the likenesses of hooded figures and glorified sports heroes in charming poses. His works reveal the permanent battle between the trivial and the sublime, trash meets glamour. He transcribes the profane and plays with appearance and reality.

Roland Stratmann combines fragments of history with current events. He questions the clash of different worlds of things and images. In the ‘Faience’ series, he superimposes nudes from postcard books from the 1920s to 1980s with postcards from the former GDR Schauhalle - VEB Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meißen. A single dissecting cut with a scalpel removes the postcard images from their original representative purpose and transforms them into hybrid body vessels. In the unusual entanglement and newly acquired pose, at least two characters of one person are now revealed in a Janus-like manner.