Stoneware for a Dwelling

zvfh_2019AEGWebansichten copyright LudovicBeillard

Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam is pleased to present Stoneware for a Dwelling, a group exhibition of sculptural work by Rossella Biscotti, Petter Dahlström Persson, Daniel Dewar & Gregory Gicquel, Andrea Éva Győri, Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia, and Michael Portnoy.

What makes a building into a dwelling? To dwell is to inhabit, to make a habit of being contained by architecture. In this sense, a dwelling is an existential foothold, a meaningful place to be. But what if that structure and its contents wilfully defy their usual purposes? A giant key to no home, a shoe that won’t house a foot: the objects in Stoneware for a Dwelling reveal problems where building meets body. These absurdist and exceptional homewares—some functional, all folkloric—invite us to dwell on the symbolic value that clay has in our domestic lives.

Petter Dahlström Persson’s giant stoneware keys, rather than granting entry, appear to be on their way elsewhere, visitors in their own right, while the ceramic vessels of Daniel Dewar & Gregory Gicquel, borrow the human form—the human-footed leg-jug—to offer fluid services to the body.

Andrea Éva Győri’s work candidly investigates the relation between the body and other complex, interrelated departments of selfhood. Her ceramic work Traumatized Lemons, part of a series that draw from the artist’s experience of cancer, illuminates the boundaries of our at-home-ness within our own physical borders.

Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia works as both meticulous craftsman and tenacious alchemist, acting as a go-between who shapes matter and channels energy. His mixed-media sculptures echo vernacular forms, deploying undistinguished materials in new configurations.

Rossella Biscotti’s A shirt, blue pants, blue jeans, a towel is one of a series of cast concrete forms that hold items of clothing donated by the parishioners of Sankt Peter in Cologne. Biscotti’s forms preserve that material memory of intimate items, but keep them partly hidden away from sight and touch.

Tactical Trainers, ceramic footwear from Michael Portnoy’s URGENT range, act as tools for addressing today’s pressing social issues—they cannot, however, be worn.

The opening will take place on Saturday, May 15th from 12 – 6pm. Book a timeslot here.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 10th July. The gallery is open Thursday to Saturday 2–6pm and by appointment.