Beatrijs van Rheeden's monumental porcelain / by Gertjan van der Stelt In: Ceramics : art and perception Issue no. 42 (december 2000), p. 17-19 When I look at recent work by Beatrijs van Rheeden, the first thing that strikes me is her choice of the material porcelain. Since the start of her studies she has worked with clay fired at stoneware temperatures coloured with engobes or glazes. Directly after finishing her studies she worked with the technique of slab-building, making series of identical pieces that could be composed into different sculptures. These elements could be identical or different, and were coloured with salt-glazes which gave the work a subdued appearance. This work was monumental in character, and architecture was clearly an influence. Many of these works were produced in Hungary after van Rheeden finished her studies there at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest in 1991. Around 1994 she started working with objects that were a combination of towers and stairways. The first works from this period had a severe appearance because of their symmetry and angles. They also have a monumental character because of the large volumes, long lines and symmetrical proportion of the forms. These works were inspired by a trip van Rheeden made some years earlier to Indonesia, where part of her roots lie. While on Java she was especially impressed by the ancient temples called 'candi' and she named her objects accordingly. Letting her work evolve, she gave colour a more important role and her pieces became less severe as she let lines and planes curve. From this series of works she moved on to objects called 'signs'. Around 1997 she started to pinch-build her pieces because she had more than 50 per cent rejects from cracks in her slab-built pieces. With this change, her work became more playful and the opportunity arose to experiment more with engobes and textures. She developed her surfaces by brushing on different engobes and washing them off again in layers. Her pieces resemble parts of architectural ornaments, continuing her exploration of the architectural form. Van Rheeden tackled porcelain for the first time during a symposium in Hungary in 1997. Some of the participants were working with porcelain and the studio itself has expertise with high-fire ceramics. Van Rheeden started exploring the new medium by creating pinch-built pieces. Following this symposium she continued work on her monumental pieces entitled Kunkor(hungarian for 'curl'). These pieces were a logical continuation from the series called Signs developing ideas with writing first on a surface, later moving freely in space. These objects resemble pillars and architectural ornaments, spiraling snakes that turn around themselves, sometimes cut into planes that are accentuated with colour. In 1999 she started to work with porcelain in earnest and the character of her work changed dramatically. In her former work, despite a growing playfulness in colour and line, the clay itself was robust and closed in appearance. This change becomes more apparent when you place the old work alongside the new. The porcelain is pinch-built thinly, looking open and fragile when compared with the glazed temple forms. This is further emphasised by the almost transparent whiteness of the porcelain. Reflections of transverse sections of the nautilus-shell or structures in architecture like the Colosseum in Rome can be seen in these forms. The porcelain objects are built from thin strips that wave and curl in circles and are connected by partitions, pinch-built on a flat or curved surface. In comparison with her earlier work, these pieces are less geometrically severe and more sensitive in character. The larger amount of control in earlier work has been exchanged for a more delicate and organic approach of form allowing the material a more important role. What I find interesting is the fact that van Rheeden seems to be referring back to a technique she used while studying in Groningen, the Netherlands, when she was making large vases pinch-built extremely thinly. After her architectural pieces and her more playful objects she is back at this beginning and showing what her travels have yielded. She seems to be seeking the core of her overall theme throughout the years, that of monumentality. The character of her recent objects seems to be another expression of the underlying structure of her former works. An aspect of porcelain is that its whiteness and translucency makes it seem insubstantial, suggesting the intangible and spiritual. The total contrast with the robustness of van Rheeden's previous work leads to great curiosity about her future work. Beatrijs van Rheeden was born in 1965 in Groningen where she later studied at the Art Academy 'Minerva'. Here she finished her teacher training course. As the ceramics department was being closed she completed her final year of ceramics at the Art Academy 'Constantijn Huygens' in Kampen. In the ceramics department she completed her studies making large scale handbuilt geometrical forms. After this she studied for her Master Degree in ceramics at the Academy of Applied Arts in Budapest. She has returned to Hungary many times over the years to participate in ceramic symposia at the ceramics studios in Kecskemét and Siklós. In september 2000 Beatrijs van Rheeden presented a solo exhibition which was also the opening exhibition for the new location of Gallery Maas at the Kortekade 14-16 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Back