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Maurice Savoie - Artistic Process
I have been working in ceramics for more than fifty years. The current period is for me one of the best, and is marked by a freedom that I had rarely before achieved - one might even speak of a certain delinquency!
Considerable skill is required to manipulate clay, and I have a deep respect for its history and the memory of the ancestral techniques. However, I have discovered my greatest motivation through the act of transgression - I work with an exacerbated awareness of the impact of the material on the esthetic language, and the meaning always emerges from an exploration of the form. I have in hand an extremely rich material - rich in its possibility for transmutation - and for me, this is still a source of constant wonder.
Story-telling marks my work. Initially, I created large wall pieces with writing stamped in the clay, then various narrative strategies came into play. I created animals reminiscent of the bestiaries of ancient ceramics: werewolves and grotesque monsters. Their forms gradually opened up to allow other stories to come into play, and these were followed by all kinds of vehicles - submarines (Nautilus), boats (the water-craft series) and tanks that were both playful and dream-like, at the limits of folk imagery. Mythology holds an important place in the work.
Mythological figures and goddesses followed: Icarus here, Isis there, in hybrid, made-up stories. I gave myself over to bric-à-brac of stories and forms, the movements of some underscoring the transformation of others. Today, the objects are shaped from multiple fragments in ceramics and found objects in a variety of materials like metal, wood and glass. At the semantic level, I continue to refine my narrative approach, exploring not only myths, but also the circulation of these images charged with meaning and which, transformed, allow me to comment on the world around me.
Maurice Savoie
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