« In my work, I explore the direct and indirect connections of the self with the world. I examine how current events, experiences from childhood and adolescence, as well as events such as pregnancy and birth, influence us. I investigate how these manifest in the body and how they can be represented. I am also interested in understanding how both the conscious and unconscious processes shape our actions and experiences.

I aim to represent the physical and abstract aspects of these experiences, without depicting them figuratively. While the body remains a central element, I seek to reveal what happens beneath the skin those invisible yet palpable aspects.
I refer to this approach as ‘putting the inside outwards.' »

My inspiration comes from nature, like the material I am working with: porcelain from Limoges and Seto.
Systematically I am experimenting with slip-cast forms by cutting out parts, perforating and partially carving the wall to the thinnest possible layer, thus provoking transformation even enhanced by the use of glaze, stains and a prolonged firing taking the risk of complete destruction.
Even after years of extensive exploration porcelain remains a steady challenge. The fire creates the work’s final shape and appearance: lightness, motion and translucency – a subtle interplay of light and shade at the limit of what is practicable and perceptible.

In her work, Petra Lindenbauer proves to be a ceramic artist rooted in the classic modern ceramic tradition of Austrian masters like Michael Powolny and Lucie Gomperz-Rie. It is characteristic of this tradition that no distinction is made between free ceramic artistic work, a road that leads to the work of master potter Kurt Ohnsorg and the self-restriction to ceramics of use in clay and porcelain, a lifelong passion, which led Lucie Rie to world fame in her pieces. Petra Lindenbauers work as a ceramic artist has brought this quality of applied ceramic art into our times.

Lindenbauers artistic career has led her to a complex understanding of being a maker of ceramics: from working in architectonic contexts to free artistic forms and the commitment of developing perfect forms for table sets and services used in the high-end gastronomy. Ardent studies of the different approaches to working with clay, from Japan to China, the Middle East and Europe and the ongoing participation in symposia, workshops and exhibitions worldwide have led her practical work to the level of artistic quality we feel in every little bowl that comes from her wheel and out of her kiln.
The perfect mastery of clay and porcelain working unites with an ability to develop new levels of expression e.g. in the exchange with master chefs of the best restaurants in Austria. Thus, the ceramics of Petra Lindenbauer are applied art in the best sense of the word, being supportive and autonomous at the same time.
Petra Lindenbauer has established a unique approach to ceramic artistry in Austria, picking up the big tradition, making it easy for me to see pieces from her hand as valuable additions to our worldclass ceramics collection at the MAK, Vienna.

Dr. Rainald Franz
Curator Glass and Ceramics Collection
MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst |
Museum of Applied Arts
Vienna Austria

In surveying Summer’s work over the years the constants and changes become apparent. Prevalent in his work is a deeply meditative character which does not involve only the outer forms but also the processes which develop out of his working methods. Above all, Roland Summer’s vessels manifest a special austerity which has to some extent in more recent times begun to dissolve. In spite of all the rigour and precision, the work does not appear cold, lifeless or dull. Through hardly visible irregularities, small shifts and movements, slightly diagonal instead of straight lines, underpinned by the irregularities and contingent smoke traces, the vessels always exude a liveliness and tension.

(Josef Strasser, excerpt from the article in CERAMICS ART & PERCEPTION Issue 69)

THOUGHTS

The two subjects of « ceramics » and « symposium » appear to me as two infants, who are now given the breast, now laid aside and rejected. This fact is closely connected to the perceived value given to « clay arts » in the various regions of our world.

In Europe, the significance of ceramics within fine art has begun to slide ever further into the sidelines since the end of the 20th century – after a few high points such as historicism, art nouveau and the arts and crafts movement, art deco, and the era of change following the collapse of 1945. This phenomenon is also reaching virulence in other regions of western cultural influence, but with a slight delay. In the asian hemisphere, its esteem is being destroyed through fundamental political upheavals, only Japan can be seen as an exception, because of its clinging to traditions. This exception however takes place within the realm of fixed rules for traditional pottery. The area of younger ceramics, oriented more towards the west, is only slowly gaining ground.

It is a delight to find so many of the participants among members of the IAC – the International Academy of Ceramics, a world-wide organisation related to UNESCO, representing ceramicists with a sound foundation, and also Museum workers, editors of specialist literature, representatives of educational institutions, and important collectors.
New contacts can be made, and existing ones refreshed. There will be an interesting flow of information about the situation of ceramic art, will bring clarity on the one hand, but also new confusions on the other, and thereby generate new thought processes.

Even though I could grow pessimistic about the messages I receive from the world of ceramics, particularly where the views of educational institutions in many countries are concerned, the positive view for the future is far more important – I have repeatedly seen that the « earthen arts » can be compared to a phoenix, which rises from the ashes time and time again.