Gabriele Koch
Standing Forms, H.62cm, 50cm, H,48cm.
What was growing up in the Black Forest like?
My father was a scientist and there was a lot of interest in the arts, music and literature at home. We often visited the Kunstmuseum and art galleries in neighbouring Basel in Switzerland, and I remember a notable trip to the iconic Ronchamp Chapel by Le Corbusier in the Vosges mountains in Eastern France, not far away. The strong volume and shape of this building, the experience of the inner and outer space of this sculptural architecture left a lasting impression on me. There were also trips to Berlin to have a look at international contemporary architecture which had emerged there after 1945.
Ice Moon, H. 32cm, Diam. 37cm.
I went to Heidelberg University and took a degree in English, History and Political Science, although I had already developed a wish to become an artist. I was then thinking more in terms of painting. However, I felt I was too young and had nothing to say, which I felt was necessary for an artist. Also, I did have a strong interest in the subjects I studied, interests I still pursue although I am now a ceramicist.
What’s your work about and what kinds of techniques do you use?
I concentrate on simple strong vessel forms, the oldest form in the cultural history of mankind, universal to the human experience. I see the vessel as a sculptural form in which I’m trying to integrate balance and tension, stillness and movement. I am a handbuilder, I do not use a potter’s wheel, so my work is very labour intensive, but also very organic, and allows me to build relatively large pieces.
Tell us about Germany and what brought you here to London?
As we know Germany has a very sophisticated and cultured society which is technologically highly developed and polished. This is interesting with regards to my development as a ceramic artist. At home we had Meissen porcelain and Rosenthal, very pretty and lovely dinner services, but however pretty these things were they did not inspire me to want to work with clay.
It is when I came to live in the interior of Spain for a while to study Spanish that I developed my desire to work with clay: an open desert- like landscape with simple horizon lines and strong earth colours from black to ochre to red had left a deep impression. I also discovered the beauty of unglazed pottery, the surfaces enlivened by fire marks, and the strong sculptural forms of unglazed jugs, hints of Africa and early cultures. All this was very different from Meissen and Rosenthal, a very different culture altogether, visceral and raw. I also discovered the work of Antoni Tapies and Eduardo Chillida.
Bell Form, H.38cm.
All this was happening while I was still a student at Heidelberg University. As part of my degree was English, Heidelberg University arranged a teaching job for me in London after I graduated. I thought it would be nice to take a year out before I was to start the serious business of a teaching career in Germany… Coming to London was of course a liberating experience, the multicultural atmosphere and being surrounded by top cultural experiences and street culture at the same time was very energizing and hugely interesting. Also, coming into a different country allows you to reinvent yourself. As the UK is one of the leading countries in ceramics in Europe there was also a lot of contemporary ceramics to see, and so I enrolled very quickly in evening classes to give it a go. I had found my medium and as I realized that this was developing into a serious interest I enrolled at Goldsmiths College to do a postgraduate Diploma in Ceramics. I was now settled in the UK and started my full time career in ceramics a few years later.
What influences you and how has your practice evolved?
My current work is influenced by looking at geological landscapes and how different layers of sediment combine in rock formations. This led me to the idea of combining quite opposite materials like stoneware clay and porcelain, two materials with quite different shrinkage rates, so there is a challenge. In my earlier work I was referring more to desert landscapes and the elemental qualities of the ceramic process, making the interaction of fire and clay visible on the surface.
Pod Form H.38cm
What’s your proudest achievement so far?
I am always proud when I manage to solve technical problems, and in ceramics there are many. So if I can reduce a failure rate from 70% to near zero I feel I have achieved a great deal. My motivation has never been about career achievements, but about my passion for the work, to develop a voice and achieve a certain quality and strength. It makes me very happy if I feel that my collectors relate to my work and that it can hopefully enrich their lives. And of course it is wonderful to have the work represented in so many public collections internationally for many more people to see and to study, among them the V&A in London, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Britain’s oldest museum. I feel extremely fortunate that I’ve had a book published with an introduction by Sir David Attenborough, who I respect enormously for his tireless work to help save our planet.
We’re living in interesting times. Does this theme play a part in your work at all?
I often think about the possibility of art making a commentary, or even having the power of subversion. I think I want to achieve something else. I want to create an object of contemplation that stops you in your business, that attracts your attention away from your daily routine, and gives calm, gives joy, perhaps activates some associations and memories.
Standing Form – Dancing Lines, H.48cm.
Central to my work is the concept of the vessel, creating associations with sharing, ritual and celebration, reminders of our humanity, our history and connection with nature. It is universal to our history, it is timeless and deals with what it means to be human. It is an object with a positive and uniting energy, reminding us of our history and that we are communal beings, part of nature.
Why Ceramics?
Ceramics is earth. I want to get back to basics in my work. It is my material, it is everybody’s material. We all relate to earth, we’re standing on it and are surrounded by it in nature and in the form of so many objects, including our buildings, our bodies will return to it, it is our home. It is a natural material which can take any form you want to give it and it transforms its quality and turns into a different material by changing its temperature in the firing. It is nature, molten lava flows from the volcano and turns into stone, and when you work with it you are using natural processes, you work like nature, -activities which are now so rare in our digital world which is so far removed from nature that we don’t even notice how we are destroying it. So I am hoping to enable a re-connect of some kind by creating a simple, recognizable, tactile object made of the most basic of materials. My current work combines two opposite materials, rough stoneware clay and fine porcelain. It is about this contrast and how you can unite the two opposing materials. It is visually exciting and also an intriguing concept.
Which artists do you admire and why?
There are many, starting with all the unknown craftsmen and -women who have produced the most wonderful objects originating in their cultures and expressing the knowledge and experience of generations. I mentioned the Spanish painter Antoni Tapies earlier, with his evocative matter paintings incorporating sand and other materials in his work, the strong and simple forms of Chillida, the sculptural architecture of Le Corbusier, equally I love the elegance of Renzo Piano’s buildings and the organic lines of Zaha Hadid’s architecture. I am excited by the strong forms and rusty surfaces of Richard Serra’s sculptures and of course the simple and elegant forms of Brancusi.
Gabriele is showing her work with the Porthminster Gallery, St. Ives from 12 March -9 April, 2021 and 10 September - 9 October, 2021.
Sentinels, H.43cm – 45cm.
