Gunilla Maria Åkesson: Vessels, 2013-2021

The whole project develops through trial and error, and my vision of that feeling I have that I want to transform into my work. The building of the forms and the glazing continues to develop as I try new ways of using the glaze and its mistakes and find out how to build them more delicately.

I always find a new way to develop the building of my vessel each time I start a new series of works. It can be a small detail, but make a huge difference in the work. I often glaze the vessels in a way that we all have learned not to do because it won’t work, but when I do so, I always find new interesting things in how the glaze works, and I have learned how to use and see the “mistakes” to be interesting. With the vessels, I can try out ways in the glazing that I can’t do with other work that needs more predictability. And because I know how to use the glaze, I can express and transform that feeling in my vision. The feeling is coming through as my intuition; I just know when I am on the right track in my work.

The process:

2013: It started in 2013 with very simple handbuilt forms and effortless ways of using clay and glaze. I wanted to use the terra cotta on the surface of the outside, with a transparent blank glaze inside. For the porcelain, I used a white glaze for the whole shape to show the difference and make a contrast in a series of works.

By this time, I had worked a lot with serial works, and I just continued to do so with my vessels; they changed for each theme that turned up as a feeling. The title of the series hints at what feeling it was in each series of works.

2014: The series developed in the way that I used the white glaze with small differences between white and light-blue color. And in the way I put the vessels together, it made a very silent expression. In porcelain, I used the green/white/ turquoise color; I continued to work with porcelain until 2015.

2015: “Shelter” After 2015, I only used the red stoneware as I left the porcelain behind. As it didn’t result from what I wanted, it wasn’t very important to use. The works started to become a bit more expressive in how I glazed them, still with the white and light blue glaze and white slip in the bottom.

2016: “Container” I continued with the red stoneware, and in 2016 I started to use different glazes with several layers, and I used the carbohydrate effect with spots in the clay as the paper in the clay burned out. That made a new expression of my vessels. But I still worked in a series with minor changes between each vessel. Each serie was still glazed similarly but with very different results. The photo of the “Container” is the work that was nominated for the LOEWE Craft Prize 2018.

2018: My interest turns more and more into the doing of making the Vessels and how to develop them. The feelings that I transform into the shape are there but not the main point anymore. I start to do many glaze tests to see what happens if I glaze different glazes on top of each other. There is a lot of trial and error in this, and it produces lots of mistakes, sometimes good ones.

The Vessels of 2018 result from this, and I start to use the title Vessel with a serial number. My main interest is how to make them and develop how I glaze them. And I never know what comes out of the kiln. But I know when something comes out right, even though I wouldn’t imagine it beforehand. And even if they all have the same shape except for their number, they become more and more individual.

2020-21: I continued working this way until 2021 by building my Vessels by hand using both red and black stoneware. Using slips and glazes in layers to get the volcanic effect. I refire the Vessels maybe 2 or 3 times. In a way, I feel I have lost more and more control of what I am doing. Several more works crack, and I often end up with nothing when I open the kilns.

That’s why in 2021-22, I don’t feel I have anything more to give in this theme; I have lost my intention and vision of my Vessels. It has ended up more like a production than a creation.

I started all over again from the beginning, where I was in 2013, and I almost worked through all my themes through all the years on another level, with new ways and new experiences. Now in 2023, I am in the year of 2020 Vessels again, but in a different way. And I find it much more satisfying to develop my work again by still building my Vessels by hand and doing lots of glaze tests. And I realize as I wrote in 2018, that my main interest is not in the making of my Vessels. The feeling I transform is also there, but it’s not the main thing that inspires me. It’s the making itself that inspires me, the results that I never could have thought of.

Captions

Red-White-Black, 2013, Handbuilt red/black stoneware and porcelain, H 30 – 50 cm x W 23 cm, Photo: Gert Germeraad
Open, 2014, Handbuilt porcelaine, H 4 x W 30 x 21 x 13 cm Photo: Peter Carlsson
Still Life, 2014, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with glaze and slip, W 31 x H 18 cm, W 27 x H 19 cm, W 22 x H 14 cm H 26 x W 30 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Container, 2016, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 26 x W 30 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Shelter, 2015, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with glaze and slip, H 25 x W 30 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 53, 2019, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 25 x W 24 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 34, 2019, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze, H 25 x W 28 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 51, 2019, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 25 x W 24 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 5, 2018, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze, H 26 x W 27 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 57, 2020, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 24 x W 26 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 56, 2020, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson,
Vessel no. 54, 2020, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 24 x W 26 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 71, 2020, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 63, 2020, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 76, 2020, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 74, 2021, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 72, 2021, Handbuilt red stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson
Vessel no. 74, portrait, 2021, Handbuilt black stoneware, glazed with several layers of glaze and slip, H 23 x W 23 cm, Photo: Peter Carlsson