Morten Løbner Espersen
Ceramics for me begins with a deep fascination for the materials plasticity, urging me to take control over this amorphous material, and immediately I want to form beauty from nothing. Beauty that is about a strict and precise form, and a surface that only can be achieved with ceramic materials, clays, glazes and multiple firerings. There are endless possibilities in terms of both form and colour, a variety connected to each different type of clay and firerings, but the process and technique are not really important to the finished work, and yet is its crucial, because the mastering and the dedication to detail is what makes a powerful body of work.
The Ceramic art history plays a great importance to the way I start, define and understand my own making. There are a large number of vessels of great significance to me. Their shape, their tactility, and how my eye interprets the shivering qualities of a surface, how I read form, and how it responds to my gaze. The abstract vessel, void of function, honouring technical extravaganza, leaving all kinds of interpretations open to me as a maker, and probably to others whom takes a good look.
I have always build vessels, honouring this ceramic archetype, most often as cylinders, which can be varied endlessly – all representing stability, inner peace and decisiveness. My aim is to create vivid beauty, challenging aesthetic conventions using both classic and absurd glazes, allowing all surfaces that can be achieved by fire, re-fire at different temperatures. The rich tactile surface complexity juxtaposes the pureness of the shapes with their vivid or subtle stoneware tones. Each individual jar is like the chaos and the infinite possibilities each human being holds.