Special Exhibition

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„Tea Table“

An Exhibition with students of the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design Kiel, class of Prof. Kerstin Abraham, the ceramists Young-Jae Lee, head of the workshop Margarethenhöhe in Essen and Julian Stair, London, plus the sculptor Volker Tiemann, Kiel, at the Marianne Heller Heidelberg (Germany), 10 April – 22 May 2011

If a gallery of contemporary ceramic art like Marianne Heller`s in Heidelberg, well known around the world for its exquisite exhibitions, is attending to a slightly dull looking theme as „Tea Table“ you can be sure: This will be something unusual – and someone expecting only useful pots and cups will be mocked in some way... The class of Prof. Kerstin Abraham of the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design Kiel was engaged in this theme, guest lecturers were invited – the magician of the ceramic still life Julian Stair from London and the Korean Young-Jae Lee, living and working in Essen, celebrated for her delicate and variously shaped one-off bowls and her fine tableware – and so the students examined the “Tea Table” from an artistic point of view. The research led to results which unexspectedly show metaphorical or even funny dimensions of this “british” theme and make the viewer think about culture and sociology of the habit of drinking tea. A little exhibition tour was planned – including Julian Stair and Young-Jae Lee plus the sculptor Volker Tiemann from Kiel – which is now making a stop at Marianne Heller`s gallery.

Julian Stair`s enigmatic still lifes of bowls and pots made of grey or red stoneware or milky porcelain and put in straight rows on massive bases typify the act of offering in a formal clarity while Young-Jae Lee`s fine glazed bowls celebrate the nuance of shape which instantly gives individuality to similar things. This dignified kind of ceramics gets in a neighborhood of students experiments standing in sharp contrast: There is for example Nadine Theinert`s teapot-machine pouring tea, milk and sugar at the same time into a cattle trough putting different vessels in one and turning the inside out. There is the table landscape in the installation of Kerstin Wieseler who foils the prescripted arrangement of the well-laid table in bringing different pots and cups into a new esthetic relationship. There is this mysterious high-legged table creature of Susanne Koch enclosing its empty tabletop like a bowl itself. And there is the little teapot of Meng Chan put on a ceramic cushion waiting to be used. Kerstin Abraham`s contribution is a homage to the decorated teapots of Hedwig Bollhagen, the grand old dame of eastern German pottery, presented on a faience top of a little table made of ash wood... And as if the question about the next cup of tea never stopped being asked the left arm of sculptor Volker Tiemann is diligently pouring wooden tea into a wooden tea cup: “...some more tea?” - “Oh yes – please!”

Examples Lecturers :

Volker Tiemann, My left arm at breakfast	Julian Stair, Still Life	Kerstin Abraham, A Tribute to Hedwig Bollhagen

opening hours:

exhibition site:

Galerie Heller
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 2
Im Stadtgarten
D-69117 Heidelberg

Phone: +49 (0) 6221 - 61 90 90
info@galerie-heller.de