Alongside his critically acclaimed artistic practice, Bouke de Vries is also one of the world’s leading ceramic conservators. In this capacity, he has been faced with issues around perfection and worth on a daily basis, where even an almost invisible hairline crack, a tiny rim chip or a broken finger render a once-valuable object practically worthless; literally not worth the cost of restoring.
There is something incongruous about the fact that such an object, although still imbued with all the skills it took to make it – be it first-period Worcester, Kang-xi or Sevres – can so easily be consigned to the dustbin of history. ‘The Venus de Milo is venerated despite losing her arms. Why not a Meissen muse?’, says de Vries.
Moreover, even when an object is ‘worth’ restoring, some owners prefer to hide the damage as much as possible – to deny the evidence of what was probably the most dramatic episode in the life of the piece – especially since modern methods mean other options are available.
In his new series of ‘exploded’ artworks, the spaces in between the fragments of a once unified object become an essential part of the structures and the pieces sometimes take on a cubist quality. With some works, the viewer may be confused as to where the original makers of the piece stop and where the artist begins, making the work biographical and giving it new currency. The figurative pieces address life today, just as they addressed life at the time they were made. Subversion is never far away. Using his skills as a restorer, his ‘exploded’ artworks reclaim broken ceramics after their accidental trauma. He has called it ‘the beauty of destruction’. Instead of reconstructing, he deconstructs them. Instead of hiding the evidence of this most dramatic episode in the life of an object, he emphasises their new status, instilling new virtues, new values, and moving their stories forward.
The Talking Back sculptures take fragments of Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD) ceramic horses, which are suspended in a framework constructed from other found and discarded materials – rusted steel bolts and offcuts of marble. The intimate relationship between horse and rider are emphasised by de Vries’ orientation of the horse’s head, turning their interaction into a direct conversation. They are images of resurrection and endurance, which possess an immense beauty that speaks across the ages.
De Vries has had solo exhibitions in institutions around the world, including the Sir John Soane Museum, London; the Frick Collection, Pittsburgh; the Legion of Honour Museum, San Francisco; the Lightner Museum, Florida; and Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. His work can be found in international collections such as the National museum of Scotland, the National Museum of Norway, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. De Vries lives and works in London.
