Preface : Vinni Hedegaard Frederiksen

Preface

Thank you for a special image of a moment. An image that bears witness of hours of concentration and insistence.

I met you and your projects a month before your graduation at the Glass and Ceramic department at the Royal Danish Academy on Bornholm. You were deeply engrossed in the process.

You were at the point when you are most vulnerable. When your hands are ahead of your brain. When an experimental and examining approach to the material, the craftsmanship, and the process may lead you astray. When the difficult choices have to be made and the image of the moment must be captured. When ceramicist Niels Lauersen was teaching he often said: “If you do not make a choice, you will end up with nothing”. A simple and wise sentence that I hereby pass on to you.

You belong to a generation of craft-makers and designers with the courage of will. You want to embrace the whole world with your art. You possess humility combined with a non- authoritarian approach to the historic context of our time. You are in a constant dialogue with the traditions of craftsmanship of which you are rounded.

You have been working and practicing so hard with a specific material, that you have achieved the professional ability to make deliberate and conscious decisions during the working process and to produce sensuous and aesthetic expressions.

You have been isolated physically on an island as well as isolated as a generation. You have been expected to be responsible, patient and to put your lives on pause. This may be the reason why this year you deliver great physical works, and works with strong social messages and beautiful philosophical considerations. It is a finale with something on its mind. All the works are relevant and shout out loud. Some contain a direct wildness, an in your face insisting attitude. All works stand out by shouting very loudly or quietly –each with their own powerful voice. Works that contain presence, poetry and a sensuousness originating from the material and a language of form that flirts with the sublime.

Thank you for a finale that points in many directions and unfolds the potential and the maker’s right of existence. You are thinking aloud with your hands and you have the courage to challenge prevailing aesthetics and the spectator.

An exhibition that leaves room for reflection and wonder.

It is impressive that a generation can live on an island in the midst of nowhere and be able to offer global vibrations that point to the future!

Vinni Hedegaard Frederiksen Ceramicist