Interview with Danish Artist, Ane Christensen.

‘21 Objects’ at Flow Gallery 26 November 2020 - 14th January 2021 Yvonna Demczynska

Well, it’s lovely to have you here, Ane and, we’ve been planning this exhibition ’21 Objects’ for two years. It’s lovely that we have actually got it here at the gallery. Can you tell me if your planning and making during the lock-down has affected the way you work and this exhibition?

Ane Christensen

It definitely has affected me and, I’m the maker. But I found it incredibly useful. I have been thinking about this in retrospect. At one point I thought it would be cancelled but, that was beside the point - it was still a deadline towards the end of the year and I had to just keep making. I think for a lot of makers there was nothing to focus on. Everything was closed, cancelled and the workshops were shut. I was in my garden workshop just, creating work for flow. It gave me an incredible sense of calm and purpose all through the summer. So thank you.

Y

So, that’s one of the very few positives during the pandemic. You started your studies in jewellery first of all.

I was wondering if you made any jewellery at all before your 3d objects? Or if you have made any functional jewellery at all?

Because to me, these are pure sculpture.

A

I trained as a jeweller and, for a long time, that was what I was going to be. But, everyone told me my jewellery was enormous. I thought that was nonsense as these were perfectly normal sizes for jewellery but, I think that was because I am physically quite big. Then after I finished my studies, I got an apprenticeship with two Silversmiths - proper Silversmiths. I remember the first day when they gave me a Silversmiths file to hold in my hand and everything is scaled up in Silversmithing.

In conversation with Ane Christensen

Y

I guess that was quite heavy as well - heavier than jewellery tools

A

Definitely, but I’m really interested in proportions generally. I like to work in small and then go bigger - wall piece then small bowl and I like to change proportions. But something absolutely clicked into place when I started working with bigger tools because it just felt right. I had never really engaged with Silversmithing before. I think I suddenly realised that being from Scandinavia, I had that whole heritage which I had just completely blanked out. I applied for the Royal College of Art two years later and when you applied you had to commit to jewellery or larger scaled objects. I thought I have to go for what feels more unknown but more exciting Y

That’s when I first met you and when we first showed your work. You gave yourself a very tight brief. Maybe you can explain that and how your work evolved?

A

It’s 21 years, we know that - since you opened the gallery and I graduated from the Royal College. The Masters at the RCA is self-taught so you have to manage your own work and your instruction during the day. I find I work a lot better if I have quite a tight space to work in. So no one was giving me those restrictions, I had to make that up myself. In the first weeks of studying there, I discovered I really like cutting into a sheet, like origami, cutting and folding sheet metal. Not adding any material or removing any material.

So an incredibly tight brief - I could only work with what I had one piece of metal at a time.

I carried on with that set of rules for eight years. I don’t know how I managed but it felt really constructive at the time. And really helpful after college because I knew where I was going. Within those restrictions, I could still push against my own boundaries. So I can show you these pieces. This is an example (Dented Bowls) of where I start with one bowl form and its cut into. I haven’t added anything on or cut away anything so it’s all still there. You can sort with your eye and your mind see it folded back and to its starting point.

Y

The very early pieces opened up like a rib cage I remember.

A

Or a Viking ship, which people called it - all made from one sheet.

Y

But now the work is about balance. Can you explain some of the pieces here? They have very interesting titles; ‘Ghost Bowls’, ‘Rambling Bowl’.

A

I realised it was getting ridiculous and I needed to do something else now so I still wasn’t adding anything away but I cutaway. So this is the next body of work (Ghost Bowls) where I was peeling away my material. As an archaeological find, I found this, inside the sheet metal. I began to become really interested in shadows and the optical illusion of this as a small piece with a cube pierced out. It’s a two-dimensional representation of a cube but it’s on a curve. So it feels three dimensional but it is flat and the shadow is a distortion of that line drawing in metal. Playing with proportions and dimensions. I worked very much with shadows and what happens when you cut away. If you start with a simple geometric bowl form if I cut away an area it affects the balance of the piece but you can’t quite tell until you’ve done it where the balance will sit.

Y So really the process almost dictates the shape of the piece as to how you know where they will balance? You have to continue making - this has to sit on the table in a balanced way.

A Yes, it’s terrifying. Balance is something I’m really excited about generally because there is an element I can’t control. The metal has a wonderful weight to it and I guess it just gravity I’m up against.

Y

You like a challenge I think don’t you?

A

Yes, if you control every single element of the making process then you never discover new things. I think sometimes I have tried to make things sit in a certain way. But then purely because of gravity it just does something else slightly odd. And I think that brilliant I would have never found that. Of course, sometimes it’s a disaster and you have to start again - you just cannot get it to sit.

Y

But that’s the exciting part of the process - you never know where it is going to take you.

A

I know in ceramics the glazes can change and its that element of the process that you do not have complete control of. There is something that can always go wrong, which is why you keep making. But that particular piece (Rambling Bowl) - like you say I’m not interested in the perfect balance. These pieces are sort of portraits of people these pieces because I think no-one is in perfect balance. You know these pieces are a different way of shifting the balance, drilling into a solid form and then shifting the balance that way. They remind me of people. How I feel we are very quick to judge one another and people are complex. You can be very shy and very charismatic and fun - you can be all sort of things.

Y

I mean they are real personalities, I wondered if you have certain people in mind when making them?

A

No, it’s not like I’m making a portrait of a friend it’s just they always end up having a slight human quality. Some are spiky and some have a heaviness to them. So it’s more about the complexity of human nature. My most recent work what I’m really excited about is the meeting of separate elements within one piece. So, for instance, this is a very simple calm solid bowl form but I cut into it and disrupted it. I have forced onto this quite dynamic and very delicate wire structure.

Y

And subverted the bowl shape that’s what brings interest and excitement to the piece I think.

A

Yes for me what’s interesting is the inner dialogue that the piece has. The contrasting elements and how they sit together. The tricky bit is how do they meet - how does the delicate open structure meet this heavy dark form. Because that has to be resolved. If they don’t meet well then the piece isn’t successful.

This piece for example (The Rambling Bowl) the rambling element meets this very static, solid bowl form and they only meet at one point.

Y That’s the latest piece, isn’t it?

A

Yes, that’s one of the latest pieces.