I’ve just got back from a very successful 2 day trip to Copenhagen and Holbæk to catch up with 3 of the artists who will be exhibiting in the Fantastic Tales exhibition at The Ceramic House.
I left my new adopted home Guldagergård with a tinge of regret because my studio work is going very well. That said, I spent the whole of yesterday morning on the computer ticking some of my administrative tasks off the list.
I have come up with a way of overcoming that feeling of being overwhelmed with simply having too much to do: bite-sized chunks. Every day I write down a few things on my list and I apply myself to them one at a time in between studio sessions. It works! And it’s so satisfying each time one is achieved!
Anyway, the trip.
First up was visiting Mette Maya Gregersen’s current exhibition at Birkelund in Alberstlund (on the outskirts of Copenhagen). To start with, I nearly couldn’t find it. The sat nav certainly couldn’t! Luckily a kindly woman led me, in convoy, a good couple of miles to find it. Thank goodness for neighbourliness. Unfortunately I found it to be closed. Silly me had not read the invite and I discovered it was only open at weekends. I blagged my way in, persuading the caretaker, in my iffy Danish, to let me have a private look. Fantastic! Mette Maya’s new work is gorgeous. I know Mette originally from Origin (erstwhile Craft Fair run by the Crafts Council) and she has also visited The Ceramic House. She is one of the reasons for the Danish theme this year, because she was meant to exhibit in 2013, but had to cancel, so she was the only artist already on the list for 2014 when I came to Guldagergård last summer and discovered the incredible ceramic talent in Denmark.
Next up was Lone Borgen’s opening at Ann Linnemann’s Studio Gallery. Beautiful work that she has collaborated with her partner Stephen Parry on – he throwing, she decorating. I was delighted to discover that Asger Kristensen was exhibiting with her. I met Asger at Guldagergård last summer, when he came to fire the gas kiln in preparation for Hatfield House Pottery Fair. Then, what I saw of his work were huge bowls with a luscious reduced red glaze, so I was surprised to see that his usual work is completely different and very sculptural. Impressive work. Wish he was in my show now! We had a lovely evening post-private view in an Italian restaurant with Ann Linnemann and the others.
Then this morning I went to Holbæk and found that Christin Johansson lives and works at Holbæk Unschooled, an incredible, historical, vast set of buildings (formerly a farm), where she lives in a cute terraced cottage and lives the life, as far as I can see. Even more so at the moment, because the development grant she is currently in receipt of from the Danish Arts Council has allowed her to take a year off from teaching.
So, she presented her new performance piece in development; the first piece of the new work she is making for the 3 year period of the grant. So I am truly honoured that this piece will premiere at The Ceramic House. I was really drawn in. She is devising a one-on-one piece that will happen in the basement. I don’t want to give too much of it away, so suffice to say she has charged me to find a dove…
