Artwork of the month - video (53 sec)

Magic Mirrors - Ceramic Shrine

Year	2021
Size	43 cm x 27.5 cm x 15 cm
Materials	white clay, engobes, ceramic glazes, wood
Options	/
Edition	1/1
For Sale	Yes, contact our gallery Fred&Ferry (Antwerp, BE)
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This ceramic shrine is part of the solo exhibition 'Magic Mirrors' by Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert at Fred&Ferry Gallery, Antwerp.

Excerpt from the exhibition text by Eline Verstegen:

And all is connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

For their first solo exhibition at Fred & Ferry, artist duo Robbert & Frank Frank & Robbert (F&R R&F) take over the gallery space with mostly recent work, building on their artistic practice of the last fifteen years.

In this exhibition, smaller works of art are displayed on long shelves. There are, for example, the ceramic tiles, on which the artists record personal scenes, document previous performances or encourage new ones. These clay tablets with fine line drawings refer to the historical carriers of writing and images, but are nevertheless made by a combination of contemporary laser technology, traditional ceramic techniques and meticulous manual painting. In addition, there are also the shrines, which grew as autonomous works out of the hand luggage-sized suitcases that R&F F&R made and carried with them for their performances in public space. Traditionally, miniature shrines often serve as household sacred places where (nature) spirits are worshipped with prayers, food, flowers or precious objects. The works of F&R R&F are sometimes used as such places of worship, but they have also been decorated by children's drawings and used as a book exchange cabinet. The implementing, or activating, of the shrines happens in complete freedom.

This continuous rethinking and reforming is inherent in their associations and media: cave drawings evolve into clay tablets, characters into animals, rituals into objects. A wooden case becomes a painted shrine becomes a live performance becomes a ceramic tile becomes a charcoal wall drawing. A work of art is never finished and might only reach its full potential by being enlivened again and again in different contexts. Their process-oriented way of working is characterized by frequent repetition, retranslation; it is a relentless alchemy of elements. It is no coincidence that the snake is central to the communication image of this exhibition: a symbol of transformation, as a molting creature and as 'ouroboros' - the snake that bites its own tail, thus forming the eternal circle that represents cyclical nature and the unity of everything...

Read the full text here

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