Walking the Gray Area

Dear Eduardo,
Yesterday crossing the Museumplein -the square behind the Rijksmuseum- I passed the ‘skating palace’ and I thought of your Zócalo pictures. I took some pictures and you see: also here young and old are enjoying the winter activities.

‘IJspret” it says on the billboards around the frozen pond covered with a tent, which means “Ice Fun”. It is around zero degrees at the moment, not cold enough for good ice, so they make the water freeze with a machine. The 17^th century paintings on the billboards show, no matter rich or poor, we have been enjoying winter activities like these for ages. I must admit though: I never quite mastered the technique of skating. Must be the more southern blood on my mother’s side

Thinking about skulls as a motif in art, design, jewellery I came up jewellery used in Tibetan Buddhism. There the mala, prayer necklace, can be made out of skull shaped beads carved from human bone. And in architecture: I remember visiting a Carmelite chapel in the south of Portugal, all walls and ceiling beautifully decorated with skulls and bones. And the more macabre Capuchin catacombs in Rome. The use of skulls as decoration isn’t exclusively Mexican on second thought. Also as a motif, as a pattern it is universal.

Started to make small skulls out of wax, I will make plaster moulds with. I need my Illustrator prints to get an idea about the sizes I have to make them in, in order to get the right curve in the necklace. Will make some photos of the wax models to send to you in the next posting. Take care, Peter

Back again,
We had some snow again last night, so I woke up in a black and white world. Because of our moderate maritime climate we don’t have snow that often. This is the view from our windows at the back. No forest here, but the centre of town. This is what the gardens look like enclosed by the blocks of houses.

Regarding my posting of yesterday and the photos of your work in mind:
Wherever I come I am immensely attracted to ceramics and basketry. Like a magnet I am drawn towards places that show or sell these products. (Almost?) any country seems to have a history in ceramics and in basketry, using their own clays and using their own fibres (palm leaf nerves, willow twigs, bamboo strips, reet stems). And the famous Dutch delftware is in fact a local imitation of Chinese porcelain. Because the Europeans didn’t know the techniques to make porcelain and because porcelain clay isn’t found in Holland they started to make earthenware look-alikes in blue and white in the 17^th century.

In particular I am enchanted by that South-East Asian way of weaving, which is called hexagonal weave. Here are two photos of it: a shopping bag I bought in Cambodia and a vase woven in the same technique (but in a denser way) out of paper strips made by an American artist who specializes in contemporary basketry and fiber art: Jackie Abrams. She also makes more organic forms. Since the first half of the 90’s I have been exploring paths of ceramics, but maybe I’ll do the same with basketry some day. Your weaving made me also think of weaving in the field of basketry.

There used to be a certain disdain from the art world towards the world of crafts in the 90’s. I remember the first reactions of art people when I told I was experimenting with ceramics in jewellery: the idea of glossy glazes and the prejudice it would look like folk craft or something of the sort. In the 21^st century that seems to have changed. Now there is a genuine interest in crafts and their techniques; and now arts and crafts are mentioned in one breath, also in titles of prestigious international exhibitions. I know from people working in the world of ceramic art and design that they really had to fight, and still are, to have their work regarded as art instead as just ‘(folk) craft’, ‘pottery’. In a similar way we are doing that with our jewellery. When in academy I heard some students of the painters department -the real artists of course- talk about the jewellery department as ‘the earring club’ !

Also your ‘textile’ technique of working made me think of a Swiss woman that also uses an in origin textile technique to make her works with. She doesn’t weave though, but she crochets with the silver wire and she includes all kinds of ordinary non-precious materials while crocheting to build impressive and beautiful collars and necklaces: pill strips, watch wheels, fire crackers. You probably know her work: Verena Sieber-Fuchs, she is well-known.
Will start preparing some food now. Till soon. Peter.

Hi Eduardo,
Thanks for sending me the Zócalo. It looks very different from the few times I walked there, under blue skies and the central square almost empty. And I am glad you had some snow with Christmas as well! It looks like the perfect combination: snow and no need to wear thick heavy clothes. That richly sculpted entrance of the Cathedral looked somewhat familiar, but thanks for telling me it is the Zócalo: otherwise I wouldn’t have known. It makes me aware of the fact that just like my tourist photos are only snapshots in time, also these photos are. Here is a photo I took from the plane just before landing in Mexico City International Airport, filled with anticipation. Look at all those patches of bright vivid colour in a field of blurry grey.

You step out of that plane and while your mind is still halfway the place you just came from, your body walks strange and new soil. I also can experience it when coming back in my home town, especially after been away for some months or even a few weeks: the city looks very familiar, but at the same time new again. All of a sudden you wonder if that shop on that corner has always been there or if it changed owner in your absence. The streets and the people look different. Jumps in time. Your mind still has to catch up with your body.

Incredible how far we go in trying to change our natural surroundings and change it the way we want it to be. Here when winter is getting near, the restaurants and cafés warm their terraces with these gas fuelled ‘parasols’ that radiate warmth over the people sitting under them. At those chilly temperatures you used to find yourself a table inside. A friend of ours in Barcelona keeps his terrace cool in the burning sun of summer by using machines that not only fan but also keep spraying a fine mist of water over the customers. Wonderful we can enjoy that all now, but sometimes it also looks like an incredible waste of energy to me. But sure yeah: I also make use of these innovations often enough. Now I can enjoy sugar peas and tomatoes whenever I want, swim in mid winter and learn to ice skate from October to March! And fly wherever I want to!

I like the way you make silver look like pliable fabric. Especially the bracelet looks like finely woven pliable textile, beautiful, and also a handsome photo by the way. The necklace seems to be made with thicker ‘threads’ and looks more rigid, also because of the smaller triangular areas. Funny you can also wear it as a crown. You don’t use fabric in your jewellery, but interestingly, you use a textile technique to treat the silver with. In the weaving you can make it look like textile, but using another material than a woollen or cotton thread, you’re able to mould and shape at the same time. Widening the structure, narrowing it, by adding or lessening ‘strands’. Or gradually changing the mesh. Your textile works won’t loose their form when dropped. I can imagine this will lead to many more things to discover: you are using the best of two worlds, sort of speak. You can build complete 3D organic structures like this. To me, these areas where two (or more) fields in design/art/craft overlap are the most promising and interesting. These are the areas where real exploration can be done, experiments with surprising outcomes. Yes, I know exactly what you mean: the unexpected paths that appear! That obsession, that struggle and then the magical blissful moments of solution, that make it all fit together. And consequently all those doors to new territory that open. That’s what we are doing this for, right?

I intend to make a ceremonial necklace that may have been dug up somewhere in Mexico at first impression, or made by a present Mexican potter/jeweller. Now I all of a sudden have to think of that powerful project Otto Künzli (Switzerland) did a long time ago (early 90’s?) in which he commented –if I am correct- on the United States culture that seemed to lack real history. Part of that project, he made all kinds of pendants that were a series of artefacts (with pre-Hispanic names) from different periods in time and different excavations in the American continent and therefore different in style: forerunners of the present Micky Mouse symbol. What a masterly and smashing project I still find that. Like many of his ideas. I found a small image of it on the internet:

But to continue with necklace to be: I used my computer in making the first sketches of a necklace out of Mexican symbol numero uno: skulls-skulls-skulls. Well to the world outside Mexico that is. The strange thing is, that when you see heaps of real skulls the association with Mexico is not there. Then they are considered nation-less, something universal. But applied in arts and crafts as a motif all of a sudden the skulls seem to be Mexican. So no: of course my skulls won’t be Mexican (alone the fact I made them here), but as a motif they will look like they are. Here is a screenshot of my Illustrator files.

Enjoy the weekend Eduardo. Will stop now, but we’ll talk soon again. Looking forward.

Debió de haber sido agradable el evento en el Stedelijk Museo  en Schiedam el domingo Peter.

Es muy atractiva la imagen que  enviaste, es  placentero imaginar ese eco en relación con el horno, la cerámica como un material que primero es modelado, más plástico y la transformación durante  el saborear el tiempo , esperanzado  hasta que  abres la puerta y vez. Los bien hechos objetos, o cargar con la cruel realidad de no pasar a través del fuego y empezar una nueva vuelta.

Lo que también veo en  esta clase de procesos son las grandes posibilidades hacia el futuro. Hay lugares que  no están  del todo  definidos debido al juego de diferentes materias involucradas en ellos. Esto da muchas nuevas experiencias moviéndose a través de la experimentación, mucho placer de controlar nuevas cosas.

También hay una valoración moviéndose hacia el futuro y creo que más indefinida, Hoy  todo dura tan poco tiempo porque se desgasta inmediatamente, hoy todas las cosas pueden ser lo mismo y eso es doloroso porque en este caso implica un gran esfuerzo para encontrar algo y darle un sentido personal a lo que es creado.

En estos últimos años el material que más frecuentemente he utilizado en mis trabajos es la plata. Aquí te envió imágenes de otros trabajos mas recientes con otro sentido. Me gustan porque implican el alcanzar nuevos resultados, llegar mas lejos en la versatilidad del material también extender las posibilidades expresivas. En el principio fue muy lento el aterrizarla manera de concretar la construcción del proceso, pero aparecieron caminos inesperados para llegar a la solución.

Me gusta mucho cuando se trata de encontrar una solución para algo tal vez no es posible y en cada paso que se da la  mente esta obsesionada con ello

También cuando encuentras la solución es como tener la magia que hace posible incluir objetos que no era compatibles antes, entonces tu extiendes las posibilidades para incluirlos , y también tomas más atención por ellos.

Ambos están realizados cocn red de metal (Plata 925) , estructura que es  fácil  de doblar

Los nombres de las piezas son:

• Brazalete “Curación de ademán”, plata 925  ,10 cm.10  cm. x 10 cm.   .
• Collar o corona ,”tetraedros”, Plata 925 ,50 cm. x 4 cm x 4 cm

Hasta ahora no estoy seguro aun como será la idea principal de mi trabajo, por el momento he seguido entrando a tu página, preguntándome y reflexionando algunas ideas que te enviare pronto.

También aquí te envió unas imágenes de cómo se veía el Zócalo de la Ciudad de México en las vacaciones de Navidad y Año Nuevo.

Saludo, escribo pronto.

Must be nice the Sunday event at the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam Peter.

Is very attractive that image you send, pleasant to imagine that eco in relation with the kiln, the ceramic as a material that is first modeling, more plastic, and the transformation during the taste of the time hopping until you open the door and see. The well made objects, or carries the cruel reality of no past through the fire and start again the new round.

What I also see in this kind of processes are the big possibilities toward the future. There are places that are not yet defined because of the game of different subjects involved on them. This gives a lot new experiences going through the experimentation, a lot of pleasure to control new things.

Besides there is an appreciation going through the future, I think more indefinite. Today every thing survive so little time because is wear away immediately. Today everything can be the same and that is painful because in this cases imply a big effort to find something and give a personal sense to what is created.

In the last years the must frequent material used in my works is silver, here I send you images of another more recent works with a different sense.   I enjoy them because they imply to search, new results, get farther in the versatility of the material, also to extend the expressive possibilities. In the beginning was very slow to land the way of how to concrete the construction process, but unexpected path appear to get the solution.

I like a lot when you  try to find a solution of something that maybe is not possible and on every step is given, the mind is obsess with it, also when you find the solution  is like to have the magic that make posible to include objetct that where no compatible before ,then you extend the posibilities to include them  and beside you take more attention to them

The  names of this objects are:

Both are done as metallic network of metal (925 silver) structure easy to turned.

• Bracelet “Manner cure”, 925 silver, 30 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm

Necklace or crown, “tetraedros”, 925 silver, 50 cm x 4 cm x 4 cm

Until now I’m not sure how it will be the principal idea of my work. For the moment I continue opening your page reflecting and asking me some ideas, That I’ll send you soon.

Also I send you image of how it was the look of the Zócalo of Mexico City in this Christmas and New Year vacations.

Greetings, write soon.

Hi Eduardo,
How are you doing? Are you getting along with your work for WGA?

Last week I did find my slide projector and I scanned some of the slides, because I also wanted to show them with a lecture Valeria, Andrea, Jorge and I gave about the WGA project last Sunday. Jorge and I were showing both our work and also talked about our participation in this project.

I told you my first encounter with Mexico was ten years ago. I had made sure to be there during the Dia de los Muertos festivities. My slides therefore not only show many churches, saints and landscapes, but also stacks of skeletons, skulls, bones, graveyards and marigolds. Here are some:

Images familiar to you no doubt, but very new and impressive to me they were. I started the lecture with a slide of the Central Library building at the UNAM campus in your city. The building was in a book I had as a kid with the one hundred world wonders in it. So I absolutely had to see that wonder, which became Unesco World Heritage two years ago. I liked it and still like it very much. It looked so beautiful and the concept is also great. The building houses one of the largest collections in Mexico, over 400,000 books, and the murals that cover the library are made of tiles that come from all over the country, for the many colours needed.

We talked several times about the histories of both our countries, in the case of Mexico also a history that happened to be depicted in the murals of the Central Library. At the beginning of the blog you told you have a background as a painter. To my surprise you contributed to the mural paintings in the Copilco Metro station. This station I used together with many students when I was on my way to the Central Library building ten years ago. The station must have been work grounds for you for a certain period of time.

I agree with you that the achievements of modern science and technology enable miracles in themselves. To me it still can feel magical that I have been able to visit a place I wanted to see at the other side of the world. I’ve been brought there in a flying tube out of metal that’s climate and pressure controlled. An underground system rushed me to the building I wanted to see, that has modern achievements on one of it four walls.

Through you I meet with Mexico for a second time. This time it is not the religious and folkloristic Mexico I wanted to visit ten years ago, but the Mexico of an artist living in one of the largest cities in the world. We contact eachother through another wonder of technology: the internet. Something that wouldn’t be possible ten years ago. Here you tell me about your ideas, show me books and your work. I want to do something with the contrast between my first Mexican encounter and the second one with you. On the one hand the folkoristic, religious, historical Mexico and on the other the scientific, urban, educated Mexico. I want to capture them in one piece of jewellery. They are to be one.

Eduardo, all best and hope to hear from you. Peter