Panel, resting/standing II

Marit Tingleff: 

My name is Marit Tingleff and I’m a ceramicist. As a child, I wasn’t particularly fond of going to school, as is the case with very many artists, and no doubt a lot of other people. 

But one day when I was at the Folk Museum as a child, we came to the pottery. And I saw a woman sitting at a wheel throwing pots, and I just had this feeling that it must be an incredible thing to do. So, I think I was pretty determined. I started an apprenticeship with a ceramicist when I was seventeen, and I’ve just kept going ever since. 

The large slab that’s titled Panel, resting/standing II is really about exploring the force of gravity. Of course, one thing you can do with ceramics is to make tiles. So, this is basically a gigantic tile that should be able to stand upright, in a resting position like when you lean your back against the wall with a slight bend at your hips, so that your feet are on the floor about thirty centimetres out from the wall. Then you can relax your back and feel all your weight going from your head down to the floor. 

You need to be strong to be a ceramicist, but you also need to be pretty smart. I’m not particularly strong, and I don’t know if I’m always that smart, but this was my first piece where I had to use my feet to model [the clay], so it was also a new experiment. So it’s gravity doing the work – it’s my own force or bodyweight that in a way has pressed out the clay.  And then it’s been painted by pouring something from the top and allowing it to run down. So in a way it’s also gravity that’s the paintbrush, or the tool.