Danske Kunsthåndværkere & Designere
Officinet, Bredgade 66, 1260 Copenhagen K
An exhibition to mark twenty years of CLAYDIES …. the working partnership of the potters Tine Broksø and Karen Kjældgård-Larsen.
A brilliant show with all the humour and the self parody you would expect from CLAYDIES …. where else would you be encouraged to have your photograph taken behind a ceramic string vest or with your head stuck through a large ceramic ring like a horse collar?
But underneath is a very real understanding of ceramic techniques and very real skill - some of these pots are really large and must have been a headache to fire - and there is a clever and broad range of glazes exploited for different strong colours and different effects through textures. You can’t take a gentle dig at your craft unless you have mastered it completely.
This is also, of course, a brilliant dig at the selfie obsession. It’s that old fairground or end-of-the-pier seaside attraction of having your photo taken by a street photographer but with your face stuck through a hole in a picture of a very very large lady wearing a striped bathing costume next to a scrawny little husband so your face replaces hers. Here there is a patterned jumper - in clay - to stand behind or a pottery bobble hat.
With the big bold ceramics set against strong colours, this is where pop art meets pots.