PROCESS
‘So you think that what I do is decoration?’ was Marianne Nielsen’s opening line when we first met six months ago.
I had asked if I could visit her studio to do a feature article for the present bookazine.
She serves coffee and croissants at her worktable, which offers a view of the city’s patchwork architecture.
March 2022
Marianne Nielsen, 50 years
Born and raised in Vejle
Lives and works in Copenhagen
Trained ceramicist from Kunsthåndværkerskolen i Kolding (School of Arts and Crafts in Kolding; now Design School Kolding)
Has designed products for Kähler
Is represented by Galerie PI in Copenhagen
Has presented unique ceramic pieces in numerous exhibitions in Denmark and abroad
‘So you think that what I do is decoration?’ was Marianne Nielsen’s opening line when we first met six months ago. I had asked if I could visit her studio to do a feature article for the present bookazine.
She serves coffee and croissants at her worktable, which offers a view of the city’s patchwork architecture.
Marianne has a regular workspace in a former industrial building in Copenhagen’s North-West district in a joint studio with five other ceramicists. The group celebrates its 13th birthday this year.
I explain that I see her ceramics as objects of art, open to interpretation, like all art, but that her imitations of nature – feathers, vegetables, flowers – also contain a decorative element with references to a decorative tradition, and that I would like to touch on the topic of decoration versus art in our talk.
‘I began to make flowers in 2012; I have since sought to move away from the naturalist expression, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,’ says Marianne.
Why would you want to do that? ‘For vanity!’ she replies honestly. ‘In the art scene, flowers are considered almost too pretty. I actually see myself as a minimalist, and I always worry slightly about being old-fashioned and banal with my choice of topics. In a way, I like to challenge conventions. When the trend calls for ugly, it’s tempting to make something beautiful; on the other hand, it’s almost too easy to make something that’s pretty. Aesthetic pieces risk seeming “cheap”. Many people are suddenly taking an interest in my work because I do flowers, and flowers are, by definition, beautiful.’
Is friction a driving force in your work? I wonder. ‘You might have a point there; I have probably always enjoyed a bit of friction, but in subtle ways,’ says Marianne. ‘Provocation is not my primary motivation for making flowers. In fact, the plants as such never really interested me; I grew up with the forest as my neighbour and took nature for granted. Perhaps you could say that nature came to mean more to me once I moved to Copenhagen. In my work, I explore the relationship between culture and nature, and plants in ceramics are culture.
Beauty is a cultural construct. In Copenhagen, withered, dried flowers are trendy right now, so they are perceived as beautiful. In large segments of the population, however, that is not the image of beauty but of decay.’
Marianne has worked full-time as a ceramicist since 2012, when she received the Danish Arts Foundation’s three-year working grant. Now, she can spend all her working hours in the studio. One exhibition has led to the next, and in 2020 she received the biggest ceramics award, DKK 100,000, from the private foundation Annie og Otto Johs. Detlefs’ Fonde.
On her desk lie realistic but oversized redcurrants pinched in clay.
‘My next exhibition draws on the collection of Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl porcelain at CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark. Malene Hartmann Rasmussen, Manuel Canu and I have been invited to present pieces inspired by an artist of our own choice from the museum’s Treasury collection.’
The three artists all chose the work of Effie Frederikke Nicoline Octavia Hegermann-Lindencrone. The exhibition is titled ‘Natur – spor & spejlinger’ (Nature – Traces & Reflections).
‘I’m a great admirer of Lindencrone, and I suppose I also feel a certain kinship with her. For several months I have been trying to get a grip on the task, and I have to admit it has been difficult to find out how to use her work as a source of inspiration.’
‘I think I may present the outcome as “the result of an examination”. In that way I can allow myself to be more open to what happens in the process, rather than focusing on the outcome.’
‘Because I have chosen to work in a new type of clay, I have made new glaze samples.
I used to prefer the most neutral clay, a type of white stoneware clay that merely served as background for the glaze. Now I have chosen a more textured and powerful type that shines through. It is liberating to change to a new expression, and it has been a time-consuming process.’
Marianne continues to embellish her redcurrants and explains that she increasingly perfects her imitations, and that her choice to enlarge, diminish, stylize or distort something is very deliberate and based on precise knowledge about what the flower, berry or leaf looks like in its natural state.
read the full article and see more pictures in HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no.5
You can buy the bookazine here
“Så du mener, at det er dekoration, jeg beskæftiger mig med?” var Marianne Nielsens åbningsreplik, da vi mødtes første gang for et halvt år siden. Jeg havde bedt om lov til at besøge hendes værksted for at lave et portræt til nærværende bookazine.
Hun serverer kaffe og croissanter ved arbejdsbordet med udsigt til byens patchwork-arkitektur.
Marianne har sin faste plads i en industriejendom i Københavns Nordvestkvarter i et værkstedsfællesskab med fem andre keramikere. Fællesskabet fejrer 13 års fødselsdag i år.
Jeg svarer, at jeg betragter hendes keramiske værker som værende kunst, med hvad det indebærer af fortolkningsmuligheder, men at hendes imitation af naturen, fjer, grøntsager og blomster også har et dekorativt element og refererer til en dekorativ tradition, og at jeg gerne vil runde emnet dekoration versus kunst i vores samtale.
“Jeg begyndte at lave blomster i 2012, og jeg har siden håbet på at kunne bevæge mig væk fra det naturalistiske, men jeg tror ikke, det kommer til at ske”, siger Marianne.
Hvorfor skulle du? “På grund af min forfængelighed”, svarer hun ærligt, “på kunstscenen er blomster næsten for pæne. Jeg opfatter egentlig mig selv som minimalist og bekymrer mig altid lidt for at være gammeldags og banal med mit motivunivers. På sin vis vil jeg gerne udfordre konventionerne. Når kravet er grimt, så er det fristende at lave noget smukt, på den anden side er det på en måde for nemt at lave noget, som er skønt, det æstetiske kan let virke billigt, der er mange, som pludselig interesserer sig for det, jeg laver, fordi det er blomster, og fordi blomster pr. definition er smukke.”
Skaber du på en form for friktion? fortolker jeg. “Det kan jeg ikke helt afvise, jeg har nok altid kunnet lide lidt friktion, omend den er subtil”, mener Marianne, “jeg laver ikke først og fremmest blomster for at provokere. Planterne i sig selv har egentlig aldrig interesseret mig, jeg er vokset op med skoven som nabo og har taget naturen for givet. Måske kan man sige, at naturen fik større betydning for mig, da jeg flyttede til København. Jeg fabulerer i mit arbejde over forholdet mellem kultur og natur, planter i keramik er kultur.
Skønhed er en kulturel konstruktion, i København er faldne og indtørrede blomster lige nu moderne og opfattes derfor som skønne; i store dele af befolkningen er de ikke billedet på skønhed, men på forfald.”
Marianne har siden 2012, hvor hun modtog Statens Kunstfonds treårige arbejdslegat, arbejdet fuld tid som keramiker. Det vil sige uden indtægtsgivende bijobs, men med alle hverdagene til rådighed på værkstedet. Den ene udstilling har efterfulgt den anden, og i 2020 modtog hun den største pris for keramikere på 100.000 kroner fra Annie og Otto Johs. Detlefs’ Fonde.
På skrivebordet ligger modellerede naturtro ribs i overstørrelse.
“Min næste udstilling tager afsæt i Royal Copenhagens og Bing & Grøndahls samling på CLAY Keramikmuseum Danmark. Jeg, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen og Manuel Canu er blevet inviteret til at udstille værker inspireret af en selvvalgt kunstner fra samlingen.”
Alle har valgt at tage afsæt i Effie Frederikke Nicoline Octavia Hegermann-Lindencrones kunstnerskab. Udstillingen er døbt ‘Natur – spor & spejlinger’.
“Jeg er en stor beundrer af Lindencrone og føler vel også en form for slægtskab. Jeg har i flere måneder forsøgt at få greb om opgaven og har måttet konstatere, at det har været svært at finde ud af, hvordan den kan inspirere mig.”
“Jeg tænker, at jeg kan udstille det, jeg kommer frem til, som ‘resultatet af en undersøgelse’. På den måde kan jeg tillade mig at være åben over for det, som sker i processen, frem for at være fokuseret på produktet.”
“I forlængelse af at jeg har valgt at arbejde med en ny type ler, har jeg lavet nye glasurprøver.
Tidligere foretrak jeg ler, som var så neutralt som muligt – et hvidt stentøjsler, som blot fungerede som baggrund for glasuren. Nu har jeg valgt et mere stofligt og kraftfuldt ler, som skinner igennem. Det er befriende at skifte udtryk, og det er der gået lang tid med.”
Marianne arbejder videre med at ornamentere sine ribs og fortæller, at hun i stigende grad perfektionerer imitationen, og at de valg, hun træffer om at forstørre, formindske, stilisere eller forvrænge, er meget bevidste på baggrund af at vide præcis, hvordan blomsten, bærret eller bladet ser ud i sin naturlige oprindelse.
Du kan læse den fulde artikel i HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 5
Bookazinet kan du købe her eller i din boghandel, kiosk og i mange design-og museumsbutikker, herunder på CLAY Keramikmuseum Danmark
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