SNAP STICK and other dance steps
Malene Müllertz (DK)
26 September – 2 November 2024
Preview opening 26 September from 16.00 to 19.00
Opening address by former director of Designmuseum Danmark Bodil Busk Laursen at 17.00
‘Snap stick’ is a word Malene remembers her grandfather using about the branches that sometimes snap back and hit you in the face when you walk through a dense wood. ‘Snap stick’ is Malene’s (and her grandfather’s) own word, and we can only guess at the association: a stick that is supple enough to bend, as tension builds up before it is released in a sudden flash of motion.
Malene Müllertz associates her ceramic objects with dance steps or a stage play. During the best hours of the day, she is able to enter into a meditative flow that allows her to rely on intuition, let go and have her emotions guide the process. A state that, in Malene’s case, must be attributed to the years she spent acquiring sublime mastery of her craft – driven by equal parts artistic vigour, immersive focus and infinite patience as well as a unique sensibility to form, colour, proportions, techniques and materials.
In the free space that Peach Corner offers, Malene tests new types of forms: free spatial compositions, detached but still referencing the categories of vessels and designs. Her design training is evident in the precise sculptural objects. She has often pursued a systematic approach in her use of CLAY STRANDS to create impressive vessels and ‘fish traps’, but this time, she has allowed chance to shape the outcome, scaled up and used extruded CLAY TUBES in her experimental process.
Open and closed constructions complement each other. Furniture and other functional designs undoubtedly provided a recollected background. Something has to bear the load, and by necessity, the random order of a HEAP OF BRANCHES that you might see in the wood has thus been coupled with design constructions. Harmoni or chaos – is there a symbolic value that rewards your eye and mind?
Malene Müllertz is a nationally and internationally acclaimed ceramic artist. Malene turned 75 on 9 May this year, and Peach Corner is proud to present her latest experiments.
