Dimitrina Sevova, Dwellers of the Windy Vessels, 2024

Site-specific sculptural installation of ceramic objects and found objects. Dimensions variable.

The organic forms of the objects in the sculptural ceramic installation are inspired by the oldest musical wind instruments, which are clay vessels, as well as rhythmic instruments and toys, like clay water drum vessels, ocarinas, ceramic flutes, molded ceramic instruments like ghatams. They also derive from the artist’s interest in vessels of clay in their multi-dimensional functionality and dysfunctionality. From the Lacanian vessel in which he evolved the Ego around the void of the vase, the jar of Heidegger, to Pandora’s box, which in its archaic form is a vessel. In their cultural, historical and psychological dimensions, they are vehicles of aesthetics and spirituality but also containers for the transportation of food, water, goods.

In the use of black ceramic, the artist refers to the notion of noise and parasite in the paradigm of Michel Serres. The collective is black and makes noise. A black box making white noise. Serres locates the origin of language in the rhythms and patterns of the natural world. In humans, the development of language and music involves the hand, which finds ways of channeling the wind of the lungs through holes in the clay vessels or beats the drum, producing bursts of wind. The black bodies of clay are critical and sonic vessels, inorganic mediators inhabited by wind and ghosts. In a play on words, the German “Ton” means both clay and sound. The grouping of the objects expresses togetherness, something ritualistic like the African drum circles. The installation aims to introduce fun, be funny, and confuse. The ceramic objects are a third black body, the mediating agency of mysterious and tactile character that invites to play, as in playing the instrument but also in an emphasis on playfulness. They are not only for touch and play but also for the aesthetic pleasure of the eye.

Text: Dimitrina Sevova

Dimitrina Sevova, Can’t Unring the Bell, 2024

Performance, 30 minutes.

In interaction with a soundtrack of melodies and rhythms collected from nature, the performers explore the grammar of a sonic language, animating the objects in the installation in the installation Dwellers of the Windy Vessels, producing noise, sounds and rhythms, in a kind of temporary cacophonic orchestra of dissensus. A video compilation of appropriated images offers a visual tour of the history of the oldest sculptural ceramic instruments, like drums, or flutes with a hollow body and globular shape going back to the prehistoric period. These instruments are found all over the world in different cultural contexts and are in use to this day. They are molded forms of animals, humans, organic or abstract vessels with finger holes or resonant bodies. The audience is invited to touch and perhaps even carefully play on the objects on display.

Text: Dimitrina Sevova

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  Waschhaus, group exhibition Resonant Bodies at Waschhaus. Photo: Luca Zanier

Waschhaus, group exhibition Resonant Bodies at Waschhaus. Photo: Luca Zanier