JENNIFER HOES: I married myself at the moment I was prepared to embrace my own life and agree on the responsibilities that come with that. I married myself at the age my father died, I decided not to stay in the shade of his death at thirty.

Jennifer Hoes at her self-wedding in Haarlem, The Netherlands, 2003.

KARL ZIPSER: Is it not a bit self-centered to marry yourself?

Jennifer Hoes in her studio in Haarlem speaking, about porcelain objects cast from her body, with her mother.

JENNIFER HOES: I believe if a person is loyal to him- or herself, he or she he has more to offer to others — to be active, straight and involved in relationships. Therefor, by no means, is marrying yourself a self-centered act. In my wedding I needed my family and friends there as my witnesses and it was also a celebration of my relationships and intentions with them.

Installation at a big plant and flower fair in Holland: Jennifer Hoes is “Eva” in a back-projected movie within the installation; her porcelain objects represent the animals in paradise.

KARL ZIPSER: Marriage is of course more than a ceremony. There is also a wedding night . . .

JENNIFER HOES: The wedding night I spent alone and slept like a baby! I feel my wedding-night was the most logical one after a hectic day!

KARL ZIPSER: There is also a honey moon . . .

JENNIFER HOES: Unfortunately I had no money for a honeymoon, that would have been nice and welcome after the hard work.

Jennifer Hoes’ porcelain vases based on cast of her thighs [photograph: Eric van Straaten]

KARL ZIPSER: Also there is the rest of your life “together.” How does self-marriage affect your life on a day to day basis? Do you find yourself a good life-partner so far?

JENNIFER HOES: My wedding ring says “I will return to my heart every time.” I read this every day. I think the values to an individual life are pretty much the same as in a marriage, it is about how you’ll behave, about taking responsibility, about being a loving person. The promises you make in the ceremony concern good intentions. The intention to do your best, be involved, be sincere, etc. and the ceremony is something you do for the moment later when you’re making a mistake in the relationship, to remind you of your promises and to make up for your mistake. To always try your best. Of course, I’m not always happy with myself and the things I do.

KARL ZIPSER: Does your self-marriage preclude you from a traditional marriage with another man or woman?

JENNIFER HOES: I can still marry a partner. But I do feel I had my moment in white, so I’m not eager to take the trip to the city-hall again.

A nipple montage by Jennifer Hoes

KARL ZIPSER: Would it be fair to say that your wedding was an “art event”?

JENNIFER HOES: I don’t claim my work (or wedding) is art. I do, and make, what I feel I have to do or to make. The “art” label is given by others. The media, because of the wedding, tried to own me, make me say or do things. I had to verbally fight with reporters and kept most of them out of my wedding ceremony. I did not invite them. The truth is I did not reject them altogether when they did come. I enjoyed the attention, but to an extent.

Jennifer Hoes beside a nipple montage

KARL ZIPSER: Jennifer, you indeed got a lot of media attention because of your self-marriage. You present your “wedding” as an important personal experience. Wasn’t it just a publicity stunt to promote your art?

JENNIFER HOES: Today people still ask me when the next big “stunt” will be. I am hurt when people degrade my very being to a stunt. The wedding cost me a lot of time, effort and money. Also, very important, I did not make any money out of it, would also not justify it being a stunt for the sole purpose of entertaining others.

Karl, I don’t make a distinction between my life and work. Therefore my wedding can be considered “work.” It also explains why I can so easily use my own body as a tool. I believe life is a matter of design — for the biggest part we are the designers of our own lives. I believe we have more influence on our own lives then we sometimes realize. It is about taking responsibility and accountability. I use this concept in my work. At the physical level the work is based, sometimes literally, on the from of my own body. But the work is also is a projection of my heart and mind. The wedding, as something of heart and mind, is just as relevant to my work as a cast of my nipples.

Jennifer Hoes in her “Summer dress made of silk and silver.”

KARL ZIPSER: Will you take questions from readers here on Art & Perception?

JENNIFER HOES: Yes.

This ceramic vase is based on an ancient Greek form, known today as a Stamnos.

This vase is made from four separate pieces: the body and foot; the mouth; the two handles.

Using a yellowish clay, I threw the body/foot on a potter’s wheel, then set this aside to become leather hard. Next I threw the mouth, a short cylinder. When it was leather hard, I attached it to the body with clay slip. I put the vase back on the wheel and refined the form using a wire loop tool. I then burnished the vase with a smooth stone as it rotated on the wheel. The handles were pulled from a lump of clay. When these were leather hard, I attached them to the body with clay slip, then burnished these also.

I drew figures on both sides of the vase with pencil, then redrew the design with a fine clay slip called terra sigillata, which here is brown. After painting the remainder of the vase with this material, I polished with a cloth to give it a metallic shine (click images to enlarge).

I learned how to make vases by reading the book Athenian Vase Construction by Toby Schreiber.

I learned about painting them from the book The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery by Joseph Veach Noble.

I learned critical information about terra sigillata from Vince Pitelka’s website.

Accidents Happen

Hanneke van den Bergh‘s husband dropped this ceramic sculpture and it shattered on the sidewalk. Her 50 cm high wood-fired piece was a central work for the exhibition to be installed that day . . .

A year later Hanneke was still wondering what to do with the broken sculpture. She had reassembled and glued it together, but did not contemplate selling it. In the meantime, she had been experimenting with bronze casting on a small scale. Using this knowledge of casting, Hanneke decided to try to give new life to the damaged clay sculpture.

The lost wax method

Transforming the clay form to bronze requires an intermediate step, creating a wax replica of the sculpture. Hanneke made this wax form by making a rubber cast of the ceramic sculpture, embedded in a plaster cast. Into the empty cast she poured melted wax to make a hollow wax impression of the clay form.

When the wax version of the sculpture was ready, it gave Hanneke the opportunity to make new creative input. She modified the wax form, adding more interesting hair to the figures in wax, for example. The sculpture now combined the properties of both clay and wax forms.

To cast the bronze, the wax is embedded in a plaster and gravel column. The hollow interior is also filled with the plaster and gravel; Conduits for the bronze to flow in, and the air to flow out, are made. Then the plaster-gravel-wax mass is heated in a kiln, causing the wax to flow out and sublimate, leaving an empty shell of air where the bronze is to come. This is why this is called the “lost wax” method — the wax model is destroyed in the process.

Liquid metal

Bronze is heated to 1200 centigrade in a crucible. The molten bronze, with a consistency like cream, is poured into the mold. The pouring of the glowing, liquid metal is a spectacular sight. The sound is also surprising, the sound of a tall glass being filled with water from a pitcher.

When cool, the bronze sculpture is freed from the plaster and gravel, cleaned of excess metal, and given a patina, in this case green. The result is a new version of the original sculpture with an entirely different aesthetic effect (click images to enlarge.)

Unbreakable

The bronze version of the above sculpture can be dropped on the sidewalk without breaking. In fact, its structure does not even test the limits of what bronze can do. With metal as her production medium, Hanneke began to sculpt in clay in a different way, making figures such as this woman (which would yield a fragile form as a fired ceramic piece.) In bronze, this figure, based on a clay original, is stable even in this highly unbalanced mounting. Thus, the experience of working with bronze can influence the way Hanneke works in clay. Her work takes advantages of the best aspects of each medium — the plastic sensuality of the clay, the rigid firmness of the bronze.
For me a big lesson of my visit with Hanneke van den Bergh was that one should beware of talking with a bronze sculptor — one may find an irresistible urge to try this medium one’s self.

Do you have questions for Hanneke van den Bergh? Ask them here on Art & Perception.

What do you think of the bronze version of the ceramic sculpture? Is it stronger, in the aesthetic sense? Or just different? Should Hanneke van den Bergh stick with clay, or combine the media as she does?

Contemporary artist Hanneke van den Bergh recognizes and makes use of this interplay of the imaginary and the physical in her clay sculpture. She explains “I like to make the heads by moving a little lump of clay until I can just see the face. I like this quality of the imaginary form beginning to emerge from the raw material.” Van den Bergh does not attempt to disguise the properties of her materials. In the example shown here, Danae III, she leaves visible the coils with which she constructs the main form. The contrast of the repeating pattern of coils with the rhythm of the body contributes to the expressive effect of the work. “By avoiding too much detail,” she says, “I maintain the contrast between material — the physical — and the imaginary.”

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