During the project period, Mari-Alice Bahra realised the leap from ceramic practice to sculpture, from the turned vessel to the built body, from commercial art to free sculpture.
Alice Bahra is a ceramist. For many years she worked with clay, a natural material for making vessels. Each clay object is made as a unique piece. The pieces are repeated depending on the edition or demand. In the course of her artisan work, Alice Bahra eventually began to cut up, nest, pile and build her vessels. The jugs, vases, cups and mugs became more physical, their substance became a sculptural material, they took up space, asserted themselves in space. The bodies began to move on the surface. The pieces of crockery on a tray now looked like figures on a playing field or like architecture on a floor plan. Alice Bahra's decision to switch from coloured clay to white porcelain, which was no longer modelled but cast, opened up production with the means of reproduction. The model became a module. Free sculptural work took its place alongside her usual practice.
Another work, inspired by the "Marionette" poem by Heike Willingham, also corresponds formally with the column sculptures by Anna Werkmeister. These are two-part figures hanging from the ceiling, made of narrow, roughly cut porcelain slabs, connected by a joint. The lower half tapers towards the bottom, where standing space would be expected/desired. In the neighbourhood, a rope ladder directs the view upwards to an open skylight. However, the ladder is not load-bearing; it hangs as bulky as it is fragile. Its rungs are made of the same material, long porcelain strips, as the marionettes. A stage without a plot, which nevertheless evokes ideas of a performance.
Angelika Stephens
