(Un)settling Soil

The expo “(Un)settling soil” revisits the realm ofMarieke Pauwels, a Belgian visual artist by showcasing new creations andearlier works. Hailing from a family where ceramics takes centre stage, she developedan early fascination in clay because it was so unpredictable. Even today, aftermore than three decades as a ceramist she is still astonished by its untameableand unyielding nature. After all, soil is a complex material that can morphinto forms that are sometimes recognisable and sometimes beyond recognition. Sometimesit gains concrete forms, sometimes it does not. This represents the unsettlingpart of the work process. Her recent work that is showcased in this expois partially made in Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China andthe world during the summer of 2026. The making process became an intriguingencounter with the material. More than once the clay refuses to settle and evenwhen it was settled, it was beyond the realm of the expected outcome as it followsits own logic. It is a humbling process to work with soil, necessitatingpatience, perseverance and attention to its logic.

Yet the outcome of this interesting engagement iscompelling and arresting. Building on the earlier work of stones and bones, wesee the emergence of new creations of bone structures and stone sculptures. Buildingon earlier works with stones and bones, the exhibition brings these forms intoa new constellation. While the installation of the bones is in past exposreferred to as teeth that became oversized and morphing into a gigantic site ofrelics, in the new context they form part and parcel of the concept of the soilthat brings about life in a myriad of manifestations. It creates a realm ofentanglements, where plants, animals, humans, bones, stones and mountains intersectand affect each other to emerge as new and formerly unseen entities.

Settling and unsettling refer also to the resonancethat the ceramic art objects command on the visitors. All the works are bothappealing and alienating at the same time, inviting us to stretch theboundaries of our imagination in all directions. Bones and stones morphing intosingular composite forms that attract and repulse at the same time. A heap ofgigantic bones in porcelain or maybe they are tusks? A guanyin (the Chinese Mother Maryso to speak) adorned with a bone coiffure or is it rather a female figurewith her head on fire? Bone sculptures that look like foliage with horns? Orare these undersea anemones?  A colourfulvulva or is it an outgrown mussel? A dog with a mountain on its back? Or a“conventional” vase horizontally erupting from the wall? Has the wallbecoming fertile? No one knows. All the works have an open ending inviting us, thevisitors to reflect, ponder and to discover for ourselves.

Unfamiliar familiar scenes and artworks emplaced in arealm of estrangement and tension. The expo captures, puzzles and hopefullyopen the mind and the heart of the visitors to venture into uncharted territory.The works remain elusive and enigmatic. That is perhaps the main feature ofthis expo. 

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