Bart Drost

don't fixe yourself, you,

don't freeze but

start to move without hesitation

suffering as a ritual

makes no sense

only the slow time brings redemption

he, still young yesterday,

already old tomorrow

so fragile from the start to the finish,

let's dance

During his residence at the European Ceramic Work Centre in Den Bosch in the autumn of 2007, Bart Drost makes roughly 100 fragile porcelain figurines. Variations on the suffering Jesus figure. After all, why a suffering human being as a role model?

He prefers the figure of Jesus wandering, dancing and jumping.
And if that is too much, at least take him from the cross and hold the arms relaxed.

The special thing of clay, of porcelain is the change of the substance: ductile mass is oh so vulnerable when it is dry. In the heating process transforms this vulnerability goes through an almost melting until it is finally rock hard porcelain. Drost followed the firing process of a porcelain Jesus figure and filmed it: the vulnerable Jezus in the kiln lowered his arms and emerges strong again.

In the movie below the heating and transformation time is reduced to a few minutes.

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