Float

In Irene Vonck’s hands, ceramics enter into the no man’s land between sculpture and design, between autonomy and functionality. Take, for example, this bevelled chunk of clay, almost a dish, in which the clay has been torn away from the sides with dramatic gestures. The finger marks and bulges left by this action remain obvious even after firing. Vonck studied under the direction of ceramicist Jan van der Vaart at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. While Van der Vaart erased the hand of the maker as far as possible and created multiples with an industrial appearance, Vonck cherishes the personal, unique piece and the quirky qualities of the material. Vonck admired this free, physical approach to the medium of clay in the work of a number of American ceramicists in California. In the 1960s and 70s, these artists turned the world of pottery upside down with the frequently figurative, expressive West Coast Ceramics. The dynamic form of Float radiates the same sense of vitality.