Practicalities

As she guides me through her work process, I come to understand that Marjo Postma is an artist who puts trust in her materials. She truly tries to understand the media that she works with, and this understanding is exactly what guides her in her work process. During my visit, Postma shows me different samples and experiments. We talk about clay and the patience that is needed to let the work dry. We talk about the glaze, the colors, the sizes – all practicalities that shape a sensible conversation about new works in which exploration, play, and inquisitiveness have a major role.

Postma tells me she never works with a plan because her approach towards her work is very intuitive. This fits very well when working on paper, but working with ceramics is a different story. Working with ceramics requires planning because the result only comes to life after an intensive process of drying, firing, and glazing.

Looking for a similarly intuitive approach towards this new medium, Postma started on a small scale. By using her hands to roll long strings of clay the artist found a way to handle the material so it resembles a line. This process became easier once she started to use a clay extruder. The strings, long and flexible, look like grey clay worms. The strings allow themselves to be attached in various ways. By slowly building the lines of clay up into a vertical shape, tower-like objects were the result. The work became in Symbiosis and that is exactly what Postma was looking for: a way to incorporate her drawing-like spontaneous approach into ceramics.

Imperfect glazing

Over time, her towers grew bigger, which made the drying time longer, and the glazing processes more complex. A glazed tower that left the oven was called “perfect” according to one of EKWC’s technical assistants. But this was not satisfying enough for Postma, as she prefers her glazes to appear alive (“I like it to look a bit dirty”). The colors of her ceramics after glazing look like they are pulled straight from the sea bed. The glazed surfaces have a mottled appearance, with deep dark tones in varying hues and combinations of grey, green and blue. This gives her sculptural works a fascinating appearance, with each tower having its characteristics.

A moment frozen in time

The strings of clay were at first pliable and adaptable, allowing Postma to create coiled lines. By softly draping these lines like a tangled rope, gravity drew the clay downwards. However, the moment the clay is hardened by firing, the work becomes fixed, creating a gesture of a captured movement and a trapped spirit. The towers resemble living creatures that are frozen in time, they are static and jet at the same time organic. It is this contrast that makes Marjo Postma’s work speak and breathe freely from underneath the surface.