Menu

Edmund de Waal

cold mountain clay

November 20, 2020–January 9, 2021
Hong Kong

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Installation view

Artwork © Edmund de Waal

Works Exhibited

Edmund de Waal, Wu-chüeh: two poems, 2020 Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, compressed charcoal, and oil stick on ash, in aluminum frame, 36 ¼ × 26 × 3 inches (92 × 66 × 7.5 cm)© Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal, Wu-chüeh: two poems, 2020

Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, compressed charcoal, and oil stick on ash, in aluminum frame, 36 ¼ × 26 × 3 inches (92 × 66 × 7.5 cm)
© Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal, poems from cold mountain, II, 2020 Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, and compressed charcoal on oak, in aluminum frame, 36 ¼ × 49 ¼ × 3 inches (92 × 125 × 7.5 cm)© Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal, poems from cold mountain, II, 2020

Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, and compressed charcoal on oak, in aluminum frame, 36 ¼ × 49 ¼ × 3 inches (92 × 125 × 7.5 cm)
© Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal, cold mountain, I, 2020 Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, compressed charcoal, and oil stick on oak and ash, in aluminum frame, 9 ⅞ × 19 ⅜ × 2 inches (25 × 49 × 5 cm)© Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal, cold mountain, I, 2020

Kaolin, gold leaf, graphite, compressed charcoal, and oil stick on oak and ash, in aluminum frame, 9 ⅞ × 19 ⅜ × 2 inches (25 × 49 × 5 cm)
© Edmund de Waal

About

Solitude is exacting. I read [the verses] out, wrote them, effaced them, worked on them, trying to find the amount of white space around a poem so that the words emerge. . . . These works are my way of writing on a cave wall.
—Edmund de Waal

Gagosian is pleased to present cold mountain clay, an exhibition of new and recent works by Edmund de Waal.

A potter since childhood and an acclaimed writer, de Waal makes porcelain works that function as repositories of human memory and experience. Drawing equally from Eastern and Western traditions, de Waal’s works blend a minimalist visual language with invocations of the written word, positing the act of collection—of objects, texts, materials, and thoughts—as an artistic form.

The exhibition takes its title from the famed Cold Mountain poems, a series of verses by the monk Hanshan, who, according to legend, lived as a recluse on a Chinese mountaintop during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Composed with diaristic frankness and intensity, the poems address the unavoidable passage of time and trace the introspective state that comes with monastic solitude.

Read more

獨處需要非常嚴格。我大聲朗讀[詩句],將它們寫下來,擦掉後再加以創作,嘗試找出詩歌四周留白的空間,讓文字浮現出來……這些作品猶如我在洞壁寫下的文字。
—艾德蒙‧德瓦爾

高古軒欣然呈獻「寒山黏土」展覽,展出艾德蒙‧德瓦爾(Edmund de Waal)的新作及近期作品。

德瓦爾自小便創作陶藝,也是一位知名作家,以陶瓷作品作為盛載人類記憶及經歷的容器。他從東西方傳統尋找靈感,作品結合極簡主義的視覺語言與書寫文字的應用,將收集物件、文字、物料和想法的行為塑造成藝術形式。

展覽名稱取材自相傳隱居山巔的唐代(公元618至907年)詩僧寒山創作的名作《寒山詩》,他的詩句坦率真摯,情感強烈,道出無法避免的歲月流逝,並刻劃隱居生活的孤寂。

寒山會在岩石、樹幹和洞壁上寫下詩作,然後讓大自然磨滅詩句,啟發德瓦爾以反覆寫下和擦拭的方式創作新作。他首先在木板塗上高嶺土漿,趁著泥漿仍未乾透時灑上金箔,並以石墨、油彩棒和木炭寫上寒山的詩句,然後塗上幾層泥釉,重複這些步驟以形成「短暫的詩」,以若隱若現的重複書寫詩句,模仿朦朧的記憶。

除了這批新作,展覽亦會展出一系列掛牆及獨立式作品,部分曾呈現於德瓦爾於2019年在紐約弗里克收藏館創作的藝術裝置《親和力的選擇》(elective affinities)。以白色或黑色陶瓷製作的容器,精心放置於黃金、雪花石膏、雲石或鋼材等元素旁邊,並安放在玻璃櫃內,不同的空間變化令人想起樂譜或詩節。

德瓦爾的藝術裝置《流亡圖書館》(library of exile)現於倫敦大英博物館展出,展期至2021年1月12日。這座鋪滿陶瓷的圖書館收藏超過2,000本史上多位流亡作家的著作,最初於2019年第58屆威尼斯雙年展期間在雅典耀科學藝術中心展出,並於同年稍後巡展至德國德累斯頓日本宮。

Edmund de Waal working in his studio.

Edmund de Waal: cold mountain clay

At his studio in London, Edmund de Waal speaks about his new body of work, created in the silence and solitude of lockdown. Composed of layers of porcelain slip inscribed with lines of verse by the poet Hanshan, these works are presented in cold mountain clay, de Waal’s first exhibition in Hong Kong.

Elisa Gonzalez and Terrance Hayes

to light, and then return—: A Night of Poetry with Edmund de Waal, Elisa Gonzalez, Terrance Hayes, and Sally Mann

Gagosian presented an evening of poetry inside to light, and then return—, an exhibition of new works by Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann, inspired by each other’s practices, at Gagosian, New York. In this video—taking the artists’ shared love of poetry, fragments, and metamorphosis as a point of departure—poets Elisa Gonzalez and Terrance Hayes read a selection of their recent works that resonate with the themes of elegy and historical reckoning in the show. The evening was moderated by Jonathan Galassi, chairman and executive editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Axel Salto looking at the sculpture The Core of Power in the kiln, 1956

Axel Salto: Playing with Fire

On the occasion of the forthcoming exhibition Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto, Edmund de Waal composed a series of reflections on the Danish ceramicist Axel Salto and his own practice.

Five white objects lined up on a white shelf

to light, and then return—Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann

This fall, artists and friends Edmund de Waal and Sally Mann will exhibit new works together in New York. Inspired by their shared love of poetry, fragments, and metamorphosis, the works included will form a dialogue between their respective practices. Here they meet to speak about the origins and developments of the project.

Edmund de Waal, stone for two hands and water, 2021, Hornton stone, bamboo, and water, 27 ⅜ × 56 ¾ × 23 ⅝ inches (69.5 × 144 × 60 cm), installation view, Henry Moore Studios & Gardens, Perry Green, England

The Thinking Hand

Edmund de Waal speaks with Richard Calvocoressi about touch in relation to art and our understanding of the world, and discusses the new stone sculptures he created for the exhibition This Living Hand: Edmund de Waal Presents Henry Moore, at the Henry Moore Studios & Gardens. Their conversation took place at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, in the context of the exhibition The Human Touch.

Edmund de Waal and Theaster Gates

Artist to Artist: Edmund de Waal and Theaster Gates

Join the artists for an extended conversation about their most recent exhibitions, their forebears in the world of ceramics, and the key role that history plays in their practices.

News

Photo: Tom Jamieson

Artist Spotlight

Edmund de Waal

October 27–November 2, 2021

In his visual art and literary works, Edmund de Waal uses objects as vehicles for human narrative, emotion, and history. His installations of handmade porcelain vessels, often contained in minimalist structures, investigate themes of diaspora, memory, and materiality. Much of his practice is concerned with collecting and collections—how objects are brought together and dispersed—and with the application of craft and placement to the physical and conceptual transformation of interior space. Manifest across his work is a distinct aesthetic philosophy that puts the hand, touch, and thus the human above all else.

Photo: Tom Jamieson