REEMA ABU HASSAN & VALÉRIE CEULEMANS
RITUALS AND REVOLUTION
Clay Encounters, founded by Reema Any Hassan,
is a ceramics design studio based in Doha, Qatar.
Hassan aims to create pieces that preserve traditional craft
through modern design and capture the imagination
of as many people as possible with the magic of clay.
In the Clay Encounters shop there is a diverse collection
of the work of different makers and designers in the region.
Many of them, including Hassan, combine digital design tools
with analogue making methods.
Remembering Home
“This collection is a result of a research project that looks
at how displaced Palestinians have historically sought to preserve
their Palestinian memories and identities in order to remain connected
to their lost homeland.”
Hassan looks at how a history of exile has meant there are no monuments to preserve collective memory. She attempts in the delicate ceramic pieces to capture four rituals.
Sharing Scent
“Drawing from my own background in architecture, digital fabrication, theory,
design and ceramics, I have developed a hybridity to my work that promotes
the power of interdisciplinary,” she explains.
“My current research is focused on the celebration of cultural rituals.”
The collection included in Cluster Craft’s online exhibition and shop
is entitled Monumentalising Rituals of the Palestinian Diaspora.
Although Hassan began the research into the project in 2019,
most of the fabrication happened in the lockdowns of 2020.
Remembering Home
Hybridizing Scents of Home
Cinderella would like to dance
Also working with human narratives and the idea
of the female body as a vessel of stories is Belgian ceramicist Valérie Ceulemans.
In 2013, after a career in nutritional sciences in a Belgian hospital, she decided to follow a lifelong yearning
to pursue ceramics and started her own studio
from her back garden.
“I don’t use a single technique, preferring to mix methods,” she says. “My artwork is gorgeous, sensual, poetic, sometimes aggressive and above all – alive.”
“The four rituals are making maamoul, applying orange
and mashmoom perfume oil to hair, pouring Palestinian olive oil
and dispersing sage tea leaves within a family. The key attributes captured,
conveyed and explored within these rituals are the role of the matriarch
and the sensory olfactory system that elicits memories and narratives of Palestine.”
His dinner 3
Ceulemans’ pieces are part sculpture, part functional design. Each has a distinct personality, with a curious charm – beguiling, but also a little bit crude.
Made largely from porcelain, a material she finds easiest to express ideas through, Ceulemans’ most recent work
is a series of jugs that comment on the status of women
in the 21st century.
“In my artwork I express my feelings about the dualities of human beings. I break rules to create atypical sculptures and tableware. I mix the reality
and the imaginary to tell stories.”
Cinderalla would like to dance
The pieces have pertinent names that poke at traditional roles of women, including Useless and graceful, His dinner, The dream life of the Nymphs, and Cinderella would like to dance. The names also play on myths and stories to draw attention to archetypal women in the collective imagination.
The bodies of these jug are left in the porcelain
white to represent purity, whereas the accessories
they wear are coloured. This attention to the contrast between the reality and the fantasy of modern women.
His dinner 2
In the sculpture Make an effort, Ceulemans attempts to capture
the idea of a woman constantly trying to loose weight,
and so adds a tailor’s tape measure.
“My artwork is based on an observation of human beings all around
the world,” she explains. “I like very much to hear ‘Your artwork is magic on the first view but after analysis it makes me uncomfortable…’.”
Candle holder
Work by both ceramic artists is available through the Cluster Crafts online store.
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.