Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
I hope that Cath and Griff’s studio is nearing completion, I find myself without a studio at the moment too. Making in materials has all but stopped. My workshop is being rebuilt and extended, which is very exciting and will be a great improvement, but it also means not having a space to work. So I am trying to be productive by reading, gathering visual inspiration and drawing experiments.
As I said in an earlier post, my interest in spaces, which are situated neither on the inside nor the outside, is continuing and my fascination with the ‘fabric of gaps’ is on-going. I have just returned from a trip to Northern Italy – Milan, Bologna, Padua and Venice, with so much wonderful inspiration. Below is a small selection; the most special is the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II in Milan.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
Our time in Erfurt was great; a harmonious and creative sharing of workshop space and time to reflect. I love Melissa’s sensitive ‘sound scapes’ posts on this Blog; it is one of my prevailing memories: the gentle sound of abrading, ‘squishing’ the screen, tapping, the sound of Ramon and Silvia sawing in the jewellery workshop. All the sounds of busy artists creating work, focusing on the materials. I am also very excited to see Silvia and Ramon’s pieces finished and how they developed after Erfurt in the studio in Barcelona.
Beautiful work, dear Silvia and Ramon!
My own work in Erfurt attempted to explore the ‘drawing breaking out of the frame’, which made the laser cut metal pieces fragile and the firing process precarious. I had some technical problems with tension in the metal and enamel and consequently warping, so overall a challenging experience. Thankfully there were some pieces, which made it through the many making stages almost as I intended.
Stairway to Heaven, laser cut steel, enamel, laser engraving, felt
Now I am in the process of researching my new direction and I will write about this as it grows. In July 2014 I was awarded an Arts Council of Wales grant to develop a new body of work for a solo exhibition in 2016 and of course, Heat Exchange 2, in 2015. This grant will start in January 2015, which gives me a little ‘breather’ to think and identify my direction.
There is a focus of course, which has been running through my work since I began making ceramics in the 1980s: an interest in the space in-between (all my work is always endlessly cut and pierced), rhythm, movement, chaos and activating space. I would now like to see this conceptual interest reflected in the making process by exploring rhythmical processes such as laser engraving (horizontal movement, embedding an image into the enamel), exploring the jacquard loom (again the horizontal weaving process) and 3D printing.
3D printing is also one such ‘rhythmical’ process, minutely building up layers, reminiscent of the weaving process. In April 2014 I carried out a 3D printing residency at the Product Development and Research Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University and I can see the potential of the pieces I created there. For me this is a step into the direction of ‘activating space’, taking the 2D piece off the wall, producing a smaller 3D companion. I am very curious to know what will happen and whether this ‘process’ will be right for me. At the moment I am trying to learn Rhino and finding it surprisingly hard.
electroplated
So, this is where I am now; very exciting. I would love to hear from you all, where you are in your work, what you are thinking?
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
I am excited to kick off our new Heat Exchange 2 project and look forward to the sharing of ideas, the dialogue and the feedback from you all. It is fantastic to create this dialogue amongst artists, who are located all over the globe, sharing a passion for this wonderful medium of enamel.
Elizabeth and I thought of beginning the conversation by introducing ourselves and some of the artists, who we visited or worked with in the last couple of months.
Beate and Elizabeth in Beate’s workshop on the GowerElizabeth working in her workshop in Bristol.Elizabeth Turrell and Beate Gegenwart planning Heat Exchange 2
Beate visiting Christine Graf in her workshop in Munich during Schmuck.
Christine Graf in her workshop.
Jessica Turrell and Christine Graf at Christine’s exhibition at Schmuck in Munich.
Beate visiting Catherine Fairgrieve in her workshop at Coleg Sir Gar.
Elizabeth and Kirsten Haydon in the workshop at RMIT in Melbourne.
Gudrun Wiesmann working in the Kuenstlerwerkstaetten in Erfurt.
I am looking forward very much to this new project. I have just completed a 3D Printing residency at Cardiff Metropolitan University, which was very exciting and might lead to new opportunities. I will talk about this in my next blog.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
Before thinking about a ‘Heat Exchange 2’, I thought I would like to add some close ups of what happened to the ‘Companions’ to the Blog.
One of the ‘Companions’, which at this stage is fired with the grip coat only. The stainless steel blackens in the kiln. The next layer is a ‘sieving layer’ of small motifs. This is followed by a layer of wet process white enamel.
This is the same piece after finishing.
The blackened stainless steel is polished back to a silver surface. The enamel areas are gently abraded to reveal the motifs and sgraffito marks. The laser engraving is the final layer to complete the ‘story’.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
I am so excited too! I am nearly ready to start sampling, which I absolutely love as well. I work in so many ‘layers’ though that it takes a while to get to the kiln. However, I also do enjoy the process of laser and water jet cutting; the experimentation with the medium, embracing the serendipity of the unexpected between technology and the material. All the small multiples are cut and yesterday we finished the silver parts of my ‘companion’ series. The ‘companions’ will have a silver section with small areas of enamel and a white enamel piece with intricate laser engraving. The series of works will be called ‘Streets that run through Houses’ and still revolves around my research into Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project.
Working on one of the lasers in the faculty.
The paper ‘companion’ tests.
I love laser engraving the enamel and find the so very fine line very beautiful. For me the laser is another medium for drawing, another layer of meaning I can add with the finest detail.
The water jet cutting the multiples
Another exciting event was a short trip to Barcelona last week and I saw some wonderful work. Just walking through the city is inspirational and I wish I had had these images before designing the ‘companions’.
And finally here are a couple of images for Amy: beautiful natural lines in front of a great building.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
Just like you, Melissa, I have been fascinated by the black ‘halo’ surrounding liquid enamel on steel and many pieces have been built around it, polishing the surrounding steel back to a silver surface. It is so very frustrating though that sometimes the ‘halo’ is beautiful and jet black, at other times thin and frayed. My theory is that it depends on the particular batch of steel, the iron content, how it is rolled etc. (And of course, how I feel when I work and apply the enamel)
The below is an example of a piece from ‘Playing with Fire’, perfect edge.
I have never been able to achieve the same, although I am trying to embrace the serendipity of the kiln and the material. The results for Drawing, Permanence and Place were rather different.
And a close-up:
Any advice would be great.
I have begun drawing, drawing, drawing. First on paper, then in Illustrator. I have been looking through my photographs from the arcades in Paris, still loving the strange netting on the roofs and curved ceiling lights.
I am ‘circling’ around many ideas; at the moment I am thinking of an installation of many multiples. I will write more about the concepts underlying the work in a future blog, for now I would like to give a brief visual flavour of what i am thinking.
Here are my first experiments, in paper:
and water jet cut in pre-enamelled steel. They will change quality once they are ‘properly’ enamelled.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
The pieces above were created for two exhibitions in August 2011: ‘Momentum’ in Craft in the Bay, Cardiff, which brought together a very interesting group of artists who all use digital technologies at some point in the creation of their work. All also shared a passion for the ‘hand-made’ and the beauty of the artefact. For this exhibition I focused on the laser, aiming to create works of ever increasing intricacy. The other exhibition ‘Drawing, Permanence and Place’ was exhibited at the Kunstverein Coburg in Germany. The main focus was on drawing adding permanence with the richness of vitreous enamel. It was a wonderful exhibition with an exciting breadth of works by very varied artists. I am sure there will be more from Elizabeth Turrell and Jessica Turrell who also took part. Two catalogues accompanied the exhibitions with major essays and statements by the artists. Should anybody like to see all the images and texts, please e-mail me and I can send you a PDF. Here I concentrated on drawing in relation to the water jet cutter.
Questions relating to place, location and by extension dislocation and movement, are a continuous focus in my work. I am interested in the space ‘in-between’, speaking of distance, borderland and a positioning of identity. Language occupies an important part in this inquiry, the idea of the ‘translator’ and the use of the ‘mother tongue’ as orientation, home and dwelling rather than physical location.
It is the fragmentary nature of a nomadic existence that underlies much of my work, the fragile theoretical armature by which all kinds of personal narratives and pictorial elements are joined together from many sources, written and visual as well as from direct observations.
Both recent exhibitions took as their starting point Walter Benjamin’s writing and, in particular, the ‘Arcades Project’. For Benjamin the Paris arcades represented one of the fundamental early examples of the continuous interpenetration of inner and outer space. It is this simultaneity of outside and inside, past and present, found elements and texts that inspired my wish to research his writing. I spent some time in Paris walking, observing, photographing, sketching and generally gathering visual imagery.
There is still much to do and to discover. I am thinking of naming my project for Phoenix ‘Heat Mapping’, further exploring Walter Benjamin, but also working more with the laser and engraving the enamel after firing and stoning, taking further my experiments such as in the image below.
Finally, an image of me sitting in front of my ‘pin wall’. I cut everything in paper first before committing to the laser or water jet.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
Beate Gegenwart is an enamelist and educator originally from Germany who lives and works in Wales, UK. Her studio is located on the beautiful Gower peninsular and she is a Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea School of Art (University of Wales Trinity Saint David). Her large enamel works exhibit an expressive interplay between polished stainless steel and fields of delicately applied and inscribed enamel.
She is currently supported by a major production grant from the Arts Council of Wales.
