
Thiébaut CHAGUÉ – Céramiste


Termitière – Wood fired stoneware on location / Grès cuisson au bois sur place


Mandragore
Wood fired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois
dim : 43 x 34 x 27 cm – Front and back mandragores

Mandragore
Wood fired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois
dim : 43 x 34 x 27 cm – Front and back mandragores

Mandragore
Woodfired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois – dim : 57 x 50 x 43 cm

Cocon
Wood fired Stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois – dim : 67 x 107 x 52 cm

Métabole
Woodfired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois – dim : 37 x 51 x 46 cm

Matrice
Woodfired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois – dim : 58 x 94 x 45 cm

Matrice
Woodfired stoneware / Grès cuisson au bois – dim : 62 x 63 x 49 cm
« I come to you with my desire, not with my yearning, but with my wellspring, not just my thirst. »
It is midnight in the port of Southampton. It is a cold and damp January night in 1978 : I am 19 years old and have a knot in my stomach. I know just a few words of English. I have my thirst for a companion.
Thirst and a wellspring of inspiration
A well-spring and a thirst.
In my electric blue overalls I mount my mobylette surrounded by a flood of disembarking lorries … my project being to complete a tour of England’s potters and, my ambition to become a pupil of Richard Batterham and especially of Michael Cardew.
I am familiar with his work through his book « Pioneer Potter ». The title speaks instinctively to me and these two words encapsulate the artist’s commitment and the primeval question of how an inanimate material can express human sentiments.
Unable to read the english text, I memorised every one of the limited number of illustrations and also obtained a copy of Cardew’s itinerant retrospective exhibition catalogue ; on the inside cover is written in my parents’ handwriting : « Thiébaut Chagué Bruxelles 1978 ». I can still today see every single illustration : the sumptuous « Rose Bowl », the dish with the dove bearing an olive twig, the pitcher with its helical stopper.
These images inspire me in the same way Renaissance masterpieces affect others, for they emit an aura, a presence I am drawn to, but which I cannot quite identify. Amongst these illustrations is a small jug made in 1924 by Cardew in Bernard Leach’s studio and which bears an inscription on the underside in Gaelic :
« Thou noble pot, I love your origin and there is no other than thee in the whole world »
I come with my thirst.
I spent two and a half years in England, several months at Richard Batterham’s studio and two years with Michael Cardew.
With them and with several other potters besides : Francine Fruchard, Owen Watson, Pierre Culot were the Master Potters who imbued breath and confidence in me.
My stay is over, it is winter. even colder, and I had gone further north than York facing heavy snow that year and, heading south, I collapsed with exhaustion at Peterborough before reaching London where I took my mobylette off the train at Paddington.
It is my first ever visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Museum of Mankind. I am bowled over by the fabulous ceramic collections and I spent entire days exploring and sketching the treasures I came across.
The pots, such humble objects, are universal and timeless and link mankind in all places and at all times. Learning to have the patience and perseverance to reach the wellspring of creation, loving through the intake of breath and returning to the wellspring and not losing one’s thirst.
The Victoria and Albert proposed to me a project to coincide with the public re-opening of their ceramic collections in September 2009 … for me a very great honour and a mark of confidence I felt privileged to receive.
« The Thirst and the Wellspring » is the title of the sculpture I prepared for firing in the V&A’s gardens. A homage to all those who had passed on to me their breath of enthusiasm, and the urge to pass it on to others.
Of double form ; this piece will highlight fluidity and the fire will come from within it : a sculpture and a kiln all in one ; think of the liquidity of fire, think of the flux of water … flowing downwards while fire flows upwards.
It is the sculpture that will remain as testament to the drama of the event and the moment. Concentrating the energy of all those involved over three days and two nights’ firing in the Madjeski Garden – that is the dramatic event and, what is more, a shared experience that could never have occurred in the solitude of my studio.
When you have something to say, you will always find the way to express it, so said Michael Cardew in « The Pioneer Potter ».
My sole regret is the absence of desire. Desire is a mobilisation towards the Absolute, the intelligible world. Man is a creature of desire, the driving force of human life is need.
This sculpture I wish to be black, basic and unadorned. I want it to exude a presence and that you cannot grasp what draws you to it, and, in so doing you lean towards it and listen close to one of its openings. You should hear the rumbling of the Fire that has passed through it and feel its warm Breath.
« Thirst and well-spring
Well-spring and thirst ».
Je viens à toi avec mon désir, non avec mon manque, avec ma source, pas seulement avec ma soif. Il est minuit dans le port de Southampton, il fait froid et humide en ce mois de Janvier 1978. J’ai dix neuf ans et l’estomac un peu noué, je ne connais que quelques mots d’Anglais, je viens avec ma soif. La Soif à la fois et la Source De ce bateau de nuit vêtu d’une combinaison intégrale bleu électrique je débarque. Au milieu du flot des camions je chevauche ma mobylette. Mon projet : faire le tour d’Angleterre des potiers, mon ambition : devenir l’élève de Richard Batterham et surtout de Michael Cardew. Je connais le travail de Cardew par son livre « Pionner potter ». D’instinct le titre me parle. Il résume par ces deux mots l’engagement de l’homme, de l’Artiste, et la question originelle : comment une matière inanimée exprime le sentiment humain. J’ai passé deux ans et demi en Angleterre, quelques mois dans l’atelier de Richard Batterham et deux ans dans celui de Michael Cardew. Eux et quelques autres : Francine Fruchard, Owen Watson, Pierre Culot sont les maîtres dont j’ai reçu le souffle et la confiance. Fin de mon périple, c’est l’hiver il fait encore plus froid, je suis allé jusqu’au nord de York affrontant la neige qui est tombée en quantité cette année là, au retour j’ai calé de fatigue à Peterborough. J’arrive à Londres la mobylette sur le train à la gare de Paddington. Cette coupe d’or du désir,
Sully Prudhomme, extrait de « La Justice » La proposition m’a été faite par le Victoria & Albert Museum de réaliser un projet pour la réouverture des collections de céramiques au public. C’est un grand honneur et une marque confiance, tel je l’ai rêvé : un privilège. Cette sculpture je la veux noire, brute et sans artifice. Je veux qu’il s’en dégage une présence et que l’on n’arrive pas à comprendre ce qui en elle est attirant. Je veux que ce faisant on se penche, on tende l’oreille vers une de ses bouches. Il faut que du feu qui l’a traversée on entende le grondement : Ressentir le Souffle. La Soif à la fois et la Source |