Ceramic Creatures of Katharina Kaminski
Visit the artist's show at Sainte Anne Gallery in Paris, up through December 20th
As I walked up the stairs to Katharina Kaminski’s studio space I felt as though I was slipping into an adjacent dimension. The hustle of the busy Parisian street faded as I climbed worn wooden steps, light filtering in through old glass windows, falling on to ceramic tile featuring charming hand painted sunflowers. Katharina’s studio, which doubles as her living space, was immaculate, air heavy with incense, water boiling for the sencha she had prepared for us. We sat on the floor together, surrounded by her creatures.
Her creatures are maybe technically sculptures, but to me they felt more alive than that. They were gentle, brash, childlike, curious, utterly alien, maybe even primordial. It feels wrong to reduce them to sculpture. Charmed, I greeted them, then sat down with Katharina for a conversation about her show at Sainte Anne Gallery in Paris, up through December 20th.
I love that this show is about wombs. Such a complex subject with so much emotional baggage. What comes up for you personally, when thinking about wombs?
I was born without a womb and now I finally have a ‘Womb’ for my first exhibition!
I was born outside the binary, intersex, genetically XY like a male but due to androgen insensitivity I developed as a woman. I identify as she/her but anatomically speaking, I don't have a womb or ovaries. So for a long time I’ve been identifying with this absence…I am allowing myself now the ‘Womb’ that I wasn’t born with.
What are alternate imaginings of what a womb could be?
I am more interested in the ‘Womb’ as this energetic center where life and creativity is born rather than its physicality. It's kind of ironic, because as a sculptor you normally want to make your subject material, give it a form. In this case, I think because I ve been going through the process of disconnecting from the feeling of lacking my physical Womb, and connecting with my fertility beyond the matter of an actual organ, I wanted to explore deeper understandings of the embodiment of a ‘Womb’.
The exhibition at Sainte Anne Gallery has two floors: on the first floor I am presenting for the first time my sculptures in new mediums: marble and bronze. It’s a more brutalist side of my work and the biggest scale I have ever worked. On the second floor, after you walk up the stairs, you enter the ‘Womb’: a Light and Darkness installation with ten Light Sculpture Beings in different types of clay. It feels like coming inside a sanctuary, or in the ‘Womb’ of your mother.
What inspires your use of different materials? I’m struck by the variety. What energy do you think marble brings to a piece as opposed to metal, or ceramic?
I feel metals and stones dramatize the aura of the sculptures, they become very confident, elegant and lustful. When I brought black marble and golden bronze "Telescopio Invertido" to the gallery, it was so big that we blocked traffic for 30 minutes. To my surprise, nobody complained; instead everyone walking by stopped to stare at the piece and started taking photos. It was very special for me to see total strangers on the street connecting with my creation. Even the truck driver delivering the piece came to show me his goosebumps. I hope one day to share these works in marble and bronze at a monumental scale in a public place; they have a unique effect on people.
Clay speaks a much softer language. It’s more delicate and organic - it captures the intimate connection with my hands. Many friends tell me how tempted they feel to put their own hand in the sculptures and feel them. They are sensual!
It’s true, your sculptures feel so alive, like they’re little creatures with such distinct personalities. How do they come to you? Do you sketch them out beforehand, or is it a more intuitive process?
I am interested in Andre Breton’s “surrealist automatism” and the concept of creation where the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process to allow the unconscious to be shown. For me it all starts with the material; I listen to the material. I always like to experiment with different types of clays - when I start working the clay in my hands, I flow, and at some point it turns into a presence and I know all I have to do is follow it. They become alive in their own alternate corporealities.
They are quite humorous in the way that they present themselves. I never planned on channeling such a strong presence. It’s something that I realized that I was naturally doing though it was never the goal. Sometimes I wonder, “where do you come from?” and I sit at my studio and I stare at them for long periods of time trying to decipher what it is that they are trying to tell me. The enigma is endless…
I wonder what the voices of your creatures would be like, if they could talk.
You are not the first to ask! They are very expressive! I like the idea of exploring this with sound for a future show. At the same time, I feel they already have a nonverbal way of speaking which allows the audience’s interpretations to be free and personal. As Marcel Duchamp said, I like to leave room for the viewer's thoughts and feelings to finish the work.
It would actually be really fun to listen to each viewer's voice interpretations for them!
How do you incorporate other elements and senses into your work? I’ve noticed you’ve worked with candles as well.
It all started very organically because my boyfriend Rodrigo Garcia makes candles. We collaborated on a series of Light Sculptures for his brand Amen. In our home we don’t use electric light! We use candles. I see candles as containers for the element of fire. Fire has been the center of human interconnection since the beginning of time. Candles allow the light and the heat of fire to be contained.
This allows we human beings of modern life to be reconnected with its powers; fire is an archetype of passion, transformation, and divinity.
For the ‘Womb’ installation of Light and Darkness, I wanted to create an immersive experience with Light Sculptures by using the elements of Earth in clay and Fire as medium. I was very inspired by Miró's constellations, and I wanted to create my own constellations, integrating the dualities of Light and Darkness into an immersive experience.
Like a sanctuary, like a ‘Womb’.
The fire shapes dance inside the ‘Womb’ along a John’s Cage soundscape that I borrowed from a rarely seen short film of Calder works by Herbert Matter that was premiered in 1951 at the MoMa, where Calder’s mobiles are placed in nature and engage in a dance with the wind and the water.
With fire moving inside my sculptures, the installation also becomes a dancing performance with the force of the flames.
What are the feelings you hope to inspire in those who experience your work?
Mystery. Curiosity.
nice article. Her work is beautiful, soothing.