YVON SMEETS & JEANNINE VRINS
ODDITIES AND DANCING VASES.
Designer Yvon Smeets is trying to encourage an emotional relationship between an owner and a thing. She works with porcelain and glass that she combines with textured elements that make her pieces seem more alive to try trigger a sense of attachment. Her collection Oddities encourages us to question our relationship with the objects that surround us.
ODDITIES PURPLE VASE
Smeets believes that the emotional value of contemporary objects is decreasing because of mass production and the perception that everyday objects are so easily replaceable. The depth of love and care we have for our stuff, she fears, is lessening.
Smeets found a quote on the internet about how the neglected cups at the back of our cupboards might be suffering from a form of depression because they are forgotten and unused. She felt a sense of sadness and guilt that prompted her to design a range of products that demand a certain affection, taking on almost the same loveable qualities as a pet.
ODDITIES PURPLE VASE
Her driving question when she was making these products was what would a world look like if we had inanimate things that needed love and care?
She used this question to create a series of unusual interior objects, with the needs of the object itself as a primary concern rather than the needs of the user. Taking the archetype of the teapot and vase, Smeets took familiar and industrialised items and gave them each a quirky personality.
ODDITIES LILAC TEAPOT
“Out of anonymous mass products I make individual pieces that speak to our imagination and feelings,” says Smeets.
She uses fur, clothing and additional limbs to help them trigger emotion in the owner, in a process that anthropomorphises them.
The tea pots have flowing coloured hair; the vases wear grass-like skirts. These elements, Smeets believes, encourage the tendency in us to want to take care of the object.
ODDITIES BLACK TEAPOT
“I usually feel a deeper connection with most objects than just the function for which they are intended. I feel there is a story to be told about a thing, but we seldom look at this,” she explains.
Her work, which is available to explore and to purchase through the Cluster Crafts online exhibition and store, certainly has a narrative to share. What do you feel when you look at them?
KOPIE VAN LITTLE DRAGON DANCE
YOU CAN BUY YVON SMEETS’ PIECES THROUGH OUR ONLINE SHOP
Jeannine Vrins of Atelier Oker also makes ceramic objects that have a certain sense of playfulness and life to them that tap into the emotions of the viewer. She makes thrown pitchers that appear to almost dance. Some are bird-like in their posture, as if you could imagine them puffing chest feathers, craning their beaked heads, or preening wings.
Born in the Netherlands, Vrins now lives in Belgium and works from a home studio. Her work explores the balance between the story you can tell with an object and the function it must serve.
“My earlier work is more about shape and design,” she explains, “mostly in white tones. In these unique pieces I experiment more with colours and textures than I ever did before.”
Her philosophy as an artist is to include poetry in everyday objects, by creating pieces that have life in them and that begs to be touched.
THE BELLWETHER
THE BELLWETHER
“I like to touch my material, shape it and leave my touch in it. The user can feel my touch in the shapes I make.”
Her set of jugs, named Little Dragon Dance, twist towards an upright postition, and the pair of Bellwether jugs stand small and proud. Both of these mini-series can be purchased through the Cluster online store.
Other series by Vrins can be viewed in our online exhibition, including a series of teacups with indents that appear like little belly buttons.
Thank you for reading,
Katie De Klee & Cluster Team.