A Final Look at Guldagergaard

I kept procrastinating on writing up an overall summary of my time a Guldagergaard. I wrote a draft during my last week there, only to decide that it was totally inadequate at capturing even part of my experience. Since then, I’ve spent a week sight seeing in Denmark, returned home, and tackled nearly everything I could think of that wasn’t working on the blog. At this point, I’ve run out of other errands to do and have decided, that regardless of how awkward or incomplete it might feel, it’s worth trying to really sum up everything and think about my time at Guldagergaard.
GG is going well. Each day is a mix of working, talking with the other artists, exploring skaelskor, and more work.

The reason I started looking for a residency in the first place was I felt I needed a push. I wasn’t in a rut, but I felt like I could see the start of one. I enjoy my critters, but I wanted to understand them more, to figure out how to make them better, and how to push myself further as an artist. In short, I’d reached a point where felt my work was in need of some growth. I figured the best way to go about this was to apply for a residency. I want to put myself in different surroundings, in a different culture as a method of shaking myself out of my habits. After some research, I decided to apply to Guldagergaard in Denmark, a place I’d first heard about a few years back. I spent a while thinking about a how to structure my residency, and looking for a project to focus. While artist growth was my overall goal, I work best with hard deadlines. I decided to finally tackle an idea that had been kicking around in my head for a while. I wanted to tie my present small monsters back in with earlier college work in installation, creating a giant swarm of beasts. I proposed making as many tiny flying beasts as I could in my time there, turning the pieces from individuals into one giant mass, an exploration of movement, numbers, and space.
In the end, Guldagergaard decided to accept my application and project proposal. I packed my bags and headed off into the land of tasty pastries, wind power, and unpronounceable words.

walk by the beach

Guldagergaard has wonderful facilities. It has an excellent collection of kilns and work areas, not to mention it’s permanent collection of sculptures or it’s library of ceramic literature. Its location in a sculpture park is idyllic, perfect for wandering and musing. I would walk to the top a large earthworks piece with a thermos of tea and a sketchbook almost every sunny day. However, none of those are what makes Guldagergaard work – Guldagergaard works because of the people. We averaged about 7 guest artist and artists in residence during my time there, in addition to some wonderful administrative and technical staff.  This means you’re constantly working with new people with wonderfully new ideas. Almost every week, someone would head back home and someone else would arrive. With them, they’d bring a different approach to ceramics. It was amazing to see so many different approaches and philosophizes about clay, and to work with so many different artists. Every night we’d sit down a communal dinner, cooked by a different artist, and talk about about everything from art to knock knock jokes.

Karen Lisa

In the end, while I definitely found my artistic growth and new sources of inspirations, also I feel like my original installation proposal worked out even better than I could have hoped. It was my first time making such a large piece with so many parts. I typically just make one beast at a time, and move on to the next. This was a very different experience, to say the least. I was very sick of making fliers at points, to say the least. I ended up making about ninety fliers, each one hand made and unique. (The idea of casting them just didn’t feel right, though it would have been faster). I made them all in about two and a half weeks, using a week and a half the fire and install them. Mette, one of the administrators, talked to a local elementary school and arranged for me to temporarily install my piece in an unused classroom. This was a brainstorm for which I’m incredibly grateful. I’d never worked with kids, and never done anything even resembling public art before. Even entering the school was strange for me. I don’t think I’d been in an elementary school since 6th grade, and I kept expecting someone to call me out on being in the hall between classes. It was even stranger once I went and hung out in the teachers lounge, and realized that some were no older than me. Weird deja vu aside, it was fascinating to see the piece come together, as I hung each beast from the framework. I had expected the increase in numbers to turn the fliers intimidating. Surely, when confronted with a person-sized mass of tiny beasts with teeth, a viewer must feel some level of threat.  However, the opposite effect occurred. Instead of amplifying their slight menace, the increase in numbers amplified their joy. Each one demonstrated pure joy in movement and flight, while being frozen mid flap in a massive and likewise frozen mob. It was fascinating. I can’t wait to try and make an even larger one.
Likewise, creating an installation in a public space was also new and very exciting for me. After the work was finished, I got to talk with several of the older classes of English students and let them check out the piece. The only real interaction my work has had with the public before this has been the occasional art opening. Sure, that’s the public, but it’s the art viewing public. These were a bunch of Danish 12 to 14 year olds just trying to go through their school day – and it made them smile. I’ve always appreciated it when my work could make other people smile. This was new, and more powerful version of that. It’s made me think more about public art, installation and all sorts of crazy things for the future. And I think that in all, that’s one of the most exciting things about my time in Denmark.

Guldagergaard week 3 – Soda Time

It’s been a very busy week, but then again, I suppose nearly all of my weeks here have been and will be very busy. With only five week here, time seems to go by so quickly.

Anyway, the first half of this week was consumed by finishing every possible sculpture I could, so they could be soda fired. The plan was to load the big bisque kiln on Monday, giving it plenty of time to cool before we loaded the soda on Thursday.It’s been a bit rough doing my main firing only 3 weeks into my time here, but fellow artist Jody was about to return to Canada, meaning if we wanted to fire together we had to fire this week.  It’s worked out for me though, since I managed to finish 90 flying beasts, which wasn’t far from my goal of 100.

Unloading the bisque

So after about a full week of last minute frantic studio work, Jody and I loaded up the Guldagergaard wood-soda kiln on Thursday. The kiln is a small little beast, with a capacity of 300 liters/ 10.5 cubic feet. It’s also a very different type of kiln for me, since I’ve only really fired an anagama and a train kiln.  This guy is a cross draft kiln, with a firebox located underneath the ware chamber. It’s weird.  It wasn’t like stoking a firebox, it was like stoking a conveyor belt. It wasn’t so much much a rhythm of “stoke, see how the temperature responds, adjust”, as it was a constant process of stoking, gradually pushing the wood further in the the kiln, and constantly adjusting.  It was like switching from a Sousa march to one of the Bach cello suites. Looking around online, it visually looks a bit similar to the “phoenix kiln” in a book by Jack Troy, which was mentioned on Carl Gray’s website. The main differences are the fact that the firebox has a flat, not arched roof, and the chimney is on the side, not the front.

Anyway, due to some last minute kiln maintenance work, we didn’t get the kiln started until about 9pm on Thursday night. The plan was to fire for about 20 hours, waiting to put the soda into the kiln until cone nine on the bottom of the kiln had fallen. Sounds good, as far as plans go.  However, life is seldom that simple. By hour 22 or so we had cone 9 down on the top, but had barely moved cone 8 on the bottom. It took easily another 4 hours of struggle before finally dropped the lower cone nine, by which point we’d also dropped cone 11 on the top of the kiln.  In all, the firing took us 28 hours, which was pretty exhausting for just two people, especially since we were also constantly splitting  more wood.

Richard prepping the soda bombs

Richard, the tech, had to leave for the night before we were ready to put the soda in the kiln, but here’s a shot of him explaining the soda balls to us. We were using a method developed by Gail Nichols, generally referred to as soda balls/bombs/burritos.  In previous soda firings that I’ve done, people have used the more traditional method of spraying in a mixture of water, soda ash, and sodium bicarbonate into the kiln. However, it seems like Nichols’s soda bomb method is taking off, which is understandable if you’ve seen how amazing her work looks. Basically, you mix soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, and whiting together, and add just enough water to form it in to balls. These balls then solidify to rocks, which you then dump into the firebox.  The soda then vaporizes in the firebox, distributing itself around the kiln.  I haven’t done much soda firing, but I would love to play around with it some more if the results from this firing are promising.

dawn over the wood pile

Anyway, at this point, we’re stuck waiting for the kiln to cool, and catching up on sleep. I’ll let everyone know what the results look like once we unload it!

Guldagergaard week 1

I’ve been at Guldagergaard for a week now. Strange to think I’m already 1/5 of the way done with my time here. It’s been a pretty cool experience so far, and is clearly a great community.
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GG is set up so that various artist come in from all different countries, staying in an old manor house, and working together in the studios, which at one time were the horse stables. We presently have 7 artists and assistants from Finland, Denmark, Canada, and the US, with a number of other folks wondering in for a day or two. The assistants spend part of the day firing kilns and what not, but work on their own projects too. We’re all working on our own work, but since we’re in a communal space, it’s a great set up for exchanging ideas and theory. The work of the other artists range from functional ware, to figurative sculpture, to wonderfully abstract glass pieces. The glass artist is here in order to figure out how to incorporate ceramic material into her pieces.
While everyone put forward proposals about what they’d be working on while they’re here, the set up is so inspiring and filled with new ideas that they may end up working in the entirely opposite direction. My proposal was to build a giant swarm of flying creatures as an installation. While I have quite a few additional ideas I think I’m going to explore, I’m going to keep going on the flying beasts as well at the same time.
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Guldagergaard itself is very cool, as well. In addition to wonderful assortment of kilns and supplies, it also has extensive library of ceramic related reading material. And that’s not even mentioning its actually collection of ceramics, both in its gallery and in the house! I’ve been making sure to use a different mug every day, but I still need to go spend some time staring at the amazing work in the gallery. It’s tough to avoid feeling intimidated by the sheer amount of incredible work around.

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It’s also located in the middle of a public sculpture park, with random members of the public wondering by on their bikes, and occasionally sticking their heads into the studio. My favorite part of the sculpture park is a giant earthwork spiral mound. By walking around it, you eventually reach the flattened top with a view of windmills, housing developments, and fields. When I walked to the top today, I walked right by a hare, hunkered flat, trying incredibly hard to convince me of its own invisibility.

GGhill2

My average day seems to be chunks of two to three hours in the studio, interspersed with exploring, eating, and talking with the other artists. I have access to a bike, and often take off in a random direction with a thermos of tea and my sketch book. The movement and the sight seeing helps me think. I’m generally in the studio until after 11 at night, which is actually a fun change for me – reminds me of my college days.
So that about sums up my observations on the place so far. It’s just a really great place to be and to be making art. I’ve uploaded some of the pictures I’ve taken so far to flickr!