art installations


art in space


With her favorite material porcelain, which harbors this tremendous aesthetic potential, with the tension between opacity and transparency, Christiane Toewe visualizes socially relevant topics.



BR Culture: by Annerose Zuber - BR24 Editors


The heart of a Bamberg artist beats in porcelain

Plates, cups, vases: porcelain is the material of everyday objects. But the "white gold" can do much more. An artist from Bamberg, who once studied in the motherland of porcelain, wants to prove that. In the old town hall of Schwarzenbach an der Saale, an oversized heart made of porcelain is currently dangling from the ceiling. A real heart is projected onto it with the help of a projector, the coronary arteries are clearly visible on the white porcelain heart. The installation is part of an exhibition by the Bamberg artist Christiane Toewe. Lamps and lithophane: porcelain is versatile. Toewe manufactures luminous objects and room installations from porcelain and wants to reach almost all senses with her art, which can be seen in Schwarzenbach an der Saale until September 4th, 22. Toewe has been working on her heart in her studio in Bamberg for about a year and has also immersed herself in medical textbooks. The artist wants to prove that porcelain is not just an everyday object. Whether as a pendant lamp above the dining table or as a museum object - the trained master ceramist and multimedia designer produces luminous objects in different shapes and sizes and uses very different techniques: lithophane, for example, a relief representation that only unfolds its effect in backlight. Or sgraffito, painting, perforation and deep reliefs, as in some of the exhibits in Schwarzenbach an der Saale. Artist Toewe travels internationally The artist is a sought-after lecturer – especially in China. In the beginning she traveled to the motherland of porcelain for her own study purposes and today she flies there again and again. Toewe has now made a name for herself as an artist worldwide. This is evidenced by awards from Egypt, India, for example, or the invitation to the current Porcelain Biennale in Meissen. At the UN Biodiversity Conference in China, Toewe was recognized for two works on climate change.

rain

It's all about balance. "BALANCE"

Too little isn't good, too much doesn't feel right either. This is the case in personal and local relationships and more importantly in the global context. It is necessary to constantly recalibrate our senses in order to be able to recognize when things are getting out of control. Striving for more, higher, faster and further can be an engine for development, but it can also be destructive. It is a goal to act and react, to find a center without being boring.


In order to visualize the theme of water in porcelain, Christiane Toewe made porcelain drops. The title is: "rain". Water is necessary for all life. Rain serves the tension between lack, excess and waste.

We've got to keep an eye on it... and below is the sand...


2019,

50 porcelain drops, fishing line, sand 300 x 150 x 300 cm

traffic

Mobility is an achievement, the downside of which is the unmistakable and unmistakable road traffic, the omnipresent background noise of our everyday life. It penetrates through the walls and behind walls - into our consciousness. Christiane Toewe focuses on the permanent perception of traffic and filters out its own aesthetic quality.


2018

video with sound on porcelain,

ca 200 x 60 x 120 cm

Our sea

Porcelain diary pages "swim" on the sea. Fragments of Persian writing indicate the origin of the scribe. The text tells how a young man wants to reach Europe via "our sea". His look back at home, thoughts of the future. But then there is unrest in the boat. It is night, the engine sputters, children are crying, water is getting in, the last pages of the diary are blank..


2015

Floor installation, porcelain, modeled light, sound, wood, Plexiglas,

200 x 150 x 60 cm

memories

1000 relics in porcelain Everything was better in the old days? Memory fades some colors. Even fractures don't seem so bad in the memory anymore. The past is unwound, like these high-fired porcelain toilet paper rolls. They have walked through fire and are now showing us their minor injuries. The unglamorous throw-away item has been reborn as "white gold" and is enjoying new honours.


2019

Work in progress, up to 1000 porcelain bodies,

about 10 cm high, up to 1000 cm long, 30 cm wide

whispering bottles

This interactive spatial concept is a reflection of communication within society.

Up to 150 porcelain bodies react to the ambient noise of the visitors with light. Driven by these impulses, they adopt different behaviors. Different light reactions arise, the bottles show their own character and begin to "whisper" with each other.

But not all... some remain mute... and that's just like in real life.

 

2015

up to 24 sqm,

Wood, foam, programmed LED technology, porcelain, microphones

take care

Rocking bowls, densely packed on a thin table top, they are exposed to the museum visitors. It is Christiane Toewe's personal company gathered here. Each bowl is personalized. "Take care" is the motto. This applies to the visitors as well as to the personal company of the shells. The fragility of relationships is the focus of the viewer.


seit 2010

work in progress: approx. 300 personalized rocking bowls

ca. 3x3 m

amoeba

Amoebas, in nature very small animals with a cell nucleus, "walk" along the wall. The light runs with it. Amoebas existed long before humans. Obviously, the changed environment affects their existence little. Will they be the last life form on our planet? The crown of creation? You make yourself noticed here.


2019

Wall installation, 2019 porcelain, wood, infrared, LED technology

16 m x 3 m x 1 m

cells

Human body cells move in water. Life, pure life... Like the chimes of a bell, the ring, ring, clong reminds us when the cells collide. We follow the hustle and bustle of the round sound bodies meditatively.


2020Porcelain bowl, celadon glaze, turned ø approx. 100cmEgg shell porcelain, oxblood glaze, 1340 °C, water

self

Christiane Toewe visualizes the SELF through a heart. A vital, beating heart. This heart, fragile, made of porcelain, works tirelessly and shows how the conceptual self can falter or even shatter when external circumstances demand it. The outer human shell is irrelevant. The humane heart makes a human being human, in his acting in his being. Every "selfie" is only an illusion.


2020

Porcelain heart, sound installation and projection surface for a beating, living heart.

40 cm x 22 cm x 12 cm, reduction fired at 1340 °C

intermezzo

Flashing breasts in pairs not only attract attention. Although the request "Don't touch me. Not yet" is in the room, they tempt you to touch and feel their caressing warmth. The staging of the female breast as a fetish object poses the question of the boundary between daydream and nightmare. In the sign of #MeToo, the installation from 1998 appears in perpetual topicality.


1998

Colored porcelain, wall text, wood and random number generators

600 x 250 x 120 cm

Art in motion

Christiane Toewe translates questions of community interaction such as consideration, communication, noise pollution or the consideration of what makes a SELF as a person into porcelain.

Supported by technical know-how, photography, video and/or sound.

Everything together gives the room installations beauty, depth and liveliness.


Share by: