Ex-voto

Anne-Marie Dehon

A few months ago, I suddenly understood that my craft was a votive practice: a wishfull practice for a world without technology. An ex-voto is an object that we offer to the divinity to thank the god for a gift or to prevent something from happening in the future. In a way, my entire ceramic work is an ex-voto that carry the wish of a world with much less technology. By defining it as an ex-voto I am questioning my practice: to make a wish does not mean that it will happen, neither that it has any impact on the reality. Is that not when the situation is desperate that we refer to a divinity? Is making ceramics a desperate whisper to protect an idealized nature? What is the meaning today to idealize nature while we destroy it by our way of life? This reflects on my own practice of craft regarding to the destruction of nature by technology. The ceramic objects are the votive object, the wish carried by the craft. The picture represents the nature as it is (cf. Trolhättan project) or as we desire it to be (cf. Fragonard project). The project as a whole question the idealization of nature, the idealization of craft and his meaning today in a context of global warming.

DETAILS

The ex-votos are folded around a post-card depicting nature.

The colors of the postcards relate to the colors of Fragonard. In both, the idealised nature has sour colors.

Postcards, in general, represent a perfect souvenir of nature: the one we want to keep with us when we are away.

Those ex-votos aim to protect the ideal of nature. But those sour unnatural colors remind us that there is a tension. They are saying "look at the nature you want to protect: the colors of its memory are already fading away".

Comment on gold:

In the 17th and 18th century, the gold is often used in ceramic on tablewares depicting nature. I used gold in this project inspired by this ceramic tradition.

Tip

Tip