JOHAN TAHON
Albarelli – for all sores
Valerie Traan gallery
23.01.2014 – 08.03.2014
www.valerietraan.be
Interview with Johan Tahon about 'Albarelli for all sores'
"There is a certain beauty in efficiency"
With his famous white sculptures Johan Tahon became the most famous Flemish
sculptor. In Galerie Valerie Traan he shows for the first time his versions of the
albarello, or pharmacist's pot, capriciously covered with white glaze. These ointment
jars with their healing powers and their ancient utilitarian are of great importance to
Tahon. He doesn't consider these hand-molded pots to be ready-made objects, but
sees them as modern variants on ancient forms that have survived over time.
"It gives a great freedom, a certain lightness, to make utilitarian objects," explains
Johan Tahon. "There is not that philosophical burden that weighs on you when you
make art. The utilitarian, the making of utensils, is a discipline in itself. For me, it
refers to rituals, to primal expressions of human civilization. And yet I have never
before done anything with pots."
How did you become interested in pots and ceramics?
Johan Tahon: "I studied sculpture in Ghent, and my former wife studied ceramics. In
St. Luke the disciplines ceramics and sculpting were related in the traditional fashion.
Because of the studies of my wife, I was aware of medieval ceramics. At one point I
made a rather important archaeological find. I found a majolica milk jug in a cesspit
that had been uncovered in front of the Town Hall of Ghent. I passed there one
Sunday and saw that the pit was filled with all kinds of objects. I jumped into it and
took out some objects (in those days that was still allowed), although they were full
of mud. At home I noticed that there were some intact pieces among them.
Afterwards they turned out to be quite important. This event was strange, almost
magical, to me. I was the first person in centuries who had made these objects
visible again. Among these objects was a 16th century milk jug, which I still I have. It
was never used as a milk jug. It was put somewhere near the statue of the Holy
Mary as a ritual object: it was far too beautiful to be used.
I 've been to the Cinquantenaire Museum in Brussels and spoke with specialist
Claire Dumortier about it. There I learned who made this milk jug, where he made it,
how many children this man had, where he came from, and so on. It turned out to be
a famous potter: Guido Andries. Originally his name was Guido di Savino and he
came from Castel Durante near Urbino. He had learned the art of majolica in Italy
and brought it to Antwerp. In those days they knew only plain brown pottery here. He
built a furnace in the basement of the house ‘Den Salm ' at the Cammerpoorte (now
Kammenstraat 32, not far from gallery Valerie Traan - mh) that he bought in 1520.
He was married to Margriet Bollekens, she was Flemish, and had sons who
continued his work. His products were sold even in England - albeit only to the very
rich.
This event gave me the impetus to seriously start collecting. I have a small pottery
collection ranging from early Islamic ceramics till the 16th century. The work I do now
is not a continuation of that tradition, certainly not in a technical sense, but in a quiet
way it is a tribute to, a token of love for these magical objects that live on through the
ages. They form a tradition that goes back to Islam, and even to China. On a pot you
can still find the fingerprints of the maker: to look at such an object is really a form of
time travel."
ALBARELLO
Why did you specifically want to make Albarelli, apothecary jars?
Johan Tahon: "What touches me in the albarello is the very simple basic shape
which probably originated over centuries. It has the right ergonomic shape to be
properly grasped and moved. That basic form has been around since early Islam around the year 900 - and existed until the industrial revolution. They were originally
used to contain medicinal herbs. Later they evolved into ointment jars. The form of
the albarello is seen as a phallic shape, and in that sense I see a certain similarity
with the sculptures I make, with my larger figures. The original albarelli did have a
white coating. The name ' albar - ello ' - 'He's beautiful white' - still refers to that.
People could write the name of the product that was in the pot on the white surface.
My first idea was to make a connection between the albarello and my other work. But
I quickly abandoned the idea: this kind of form can not be improved. I am trying to
make a fusion of the original albarello-shape with contemporary ceramics. I do not
use a turntable, the objects are modeled. I model a lump of clay until it has the shape
of an albarello. Only when you start doing that, do you realize what the possibilities
are."
HEALING
Why is the subtitle of the exhibition 'for all sores'?
Johan Tahon: "There is a psychological component in this work: a quest for healing.
Recently, a severe trauma happened to us. My wife was pregnant, but 15 days after
birth our baby Monika died. That was very hard ... - The title of the exhibition:
'Albarelli for all sores' came out of this. The word ' sores' (literally 'abscess' in English
- mh ) also exists in Holland (where 'sores' means ' misery', 'trouble' , 'problems' mh). I did not know the word until I found on an old pharmacy jar from the 18th, 19th
century 'for all sores': helps with all pains .
I wanted to make a naive, imaginary object that could provide a cure, a healing. That
is a ancient phenomenon: anointment is a part of the rituals of religions. I sometimes
feel that we need these kinds of rituals as humans, even outside the church. If you
are faced with both birth and death in such a short timespan you realize that you
have a need for rituals.
The making sculptures and of objects of this type comes from a deeper need, I think.
There is something deeply human in it. A spiritual dimension - although that word is
controversial to some people. An archetypal dimension certainly. The shape of a pot
is an archetype: a vessel, a kind of container, something that keeps things together.
And there are the imaginary rituals that go with it. Imaginary, because no ointment
helps against either death nor trauma. But we must act in an imaginary way in order
to find a kind of symbolic peace. Maybe it even works. Man can not do without
rituals. It is a deeply human phenomenon and I find it beautiful."
Why have you never made ceramics before?
Johan Tahon: "I have long hated modern ceramics. But if you go back to the fifties
and sixties, you see that great artists: Picasso , Miro - but also people who you do
not expect such as Lucio Fontana or Gauguin, made them and made applied art. It
was simply a part of their body of work.
I see these forms tentatively entering my sculptures. I would not be surprised if a
kind of vessel, a container shape, will stand close to future figures I'll make. I have
done it earlier in some sculptures: I used very elementary forms that resembled a
bowl or pot. But now the pots will be a very explicit and welcome addition to my
work. I am sure that psychoanalysts will be able to explain why (he laughs). Both the
male, the phallic, and the female come together in this form."
COLLECTION
Why do you collect pottery?
Johan Tahon: "I really like objects. That's why I became a sculptor. I see sculpture
as a gift to myself. I make an object in the first place for myself. I get my energy out
of it. Only later does it get its place in the world. And then I have to let it go, because
I want to get the opportunity to create a new one. As an extension of that process I
also collect. I 'm curious about things. Partly it's research for me, partly it's pure
romance. I daydream how the creator of these objects lived, how he worked, what
techniques he used. Each object from my collection is a kind of novel to me, there 's
a story in it.
When I tell people that I in particular collect Islamic ceramics, that seems strange to
many of them. People react in a very particular way to the word Islam: "who wants to
collect Islamic objects?" I have worked five years in Istanbul. I got the chance to give
a lecture at the Marmara University. And I came in contact with a major gallerist who
knew my work from the art fair in Cologne. In his office he had a whole collection of
Islamic ceramics. He gave me the opportunity to work in Iznik, a place outside
Istanbul. There has been an important center of ceramics there since the 16th - 17th
centuries: in Iznik they made the ceramics for the sultans. I worked there for five
years. But I exclusively made sculptures there, and some drawing on tiles. I never
made a pot."
NEVER FINISHED
A recurring theme in your work is that it is never finished.
Johan Tahon: "A pot or sculpture should not be obviously finished. Otherwise
there's something missing in it, both for me and for the audience. If something is
finished, it is already dead. You should be given the opportunity to make new
associations with it. Not being finished is a advantage, it provides additional
opportunities for interpretation.
For me, there has be a lot of vibrancy and humanity in an object. If something turns
into a purely decorative object you have to 'prune' it, you have to intervene quickly.
I'm not for an ideal, for a super object. I prefer the object which has the same
vibration as life itself. I love the timeless nature of objects, their tangibility, I love their
antiquity, their being basic. These things make me calmer. I feel better with them.
There is a truth in the obvious. And there's beauty in efficiency, perhaps even the
greatest beauty.
But I also am terribly anxious. It all requires so much time: the making, the drying,
the baking, the baking has to be successful, there are things that can break or crack
in the oven. But what makes me most uneasy is the feeling that this is only just a
beginning. That I could continue to work on this project for years. I would like to
integrate the idea of the albarello in the rest of my work and give it a greater
meaning, research it more thoroughly. At times I feel I have tapped a new source
for my work. That makes me very happy. But also restless because things are not
going fast enough. In those moments I fear death. Do you know that feeling? If all
goes well you're afraid to die. But when things go bad, you do not think of death at all
(laughs)."
Interview: Marc Holthof - Sint-Denijs Boekel , January 7, 2014.
In collaboration with Gallery van De Weghe