Bart Drost

clay works

A contiguous time concentrated working in a different environment. That stands for Bart Drost guarantees a fierce explosion of creativity in a new Visual language. As an artist who's main attention is making art by drawings Drost was several times Artist in Residence at the European Ceramic Work Centre in Den Bosch. (Porcelain) clay as drawing material and an unconventional way of working guarantees a series of Visual projects in which form and appearance seem new but simultaneously take a natural place within his oeuvre.

clay works - galerie de natris nijmegen - 2013

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"I stand with my feet on the ground and pound in the clay", words to summarize briefly how the "stamp drawings" by Bart Drost were made.Clay works he made during his second stay as artist in residence in2007 in the sundaymorning@ekwc, formerly known as the European Ceramic Work Centrein Den Bosch. This particular clay works are now for the first time shown in public in Galerie De Natris.

 

Bart Drost calls his stay at the EKWC  jokingly "a very long Playtime". Play always delivers something on, although at first glance that seems to be not always "useful" or "functional". He discovered that you can do all "nice" things with porcelain and recycled clay like crushing by hand and stomping with bare feet. What the result of that tramping was, is not as random as it seems, because strong depending on where and in what quantity the clay is applied within the designed area. The trial and error, even with color and glazes, yielded on fascinating shapes and compositions, very vulnerable. To make the "sculptures" resilient, it was necessary to strengthen the back of them. That of course had not to not be at the expense of the original image. A wooden plate sawn out in the form of the clay work turned out to be the ultimate solution.

These wooden back plate proved to be the characteristic element of the work: in front of the image Drost places an identical protective plate, now painted in abright color. An abomination to the true ceramist. Seizes Drost here back on his artistic formation schooled as teacher at TeHaTex, Nijmegen, and as avisual artist in the Department of Monumental Textiles of the Rietveld Academy(Amsterdam)? However, the result is amazing: a packed vulnerable plate ceramic, protected, concealed, making curious, a decorated work of art.

The clayworks of Bart Drost ask for an active and curious spectator who wants to besurprised. He must - if he wants to see the art in all its vulnerability - very carefully undress the object. And what's more exciting than that!

the golden boys party - museum princessehof leeuwarden - 2001

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In late 2000 Bart Drost works three months at the European Ceramic Work Centre in Den Bosch. In this period he uses as sketch material not pencil and paper, but raw clay. The results are twenty miniature figurines with colorful glazes and a dozen transparent glazed images. In the end the figurines turn out to be theexercises for nine figures in gold enamel and three blue man figures in the installation 'The Golden Boys Party'. The ceramic images are accompanied by a dozen 'orangeailles', acrylic paintings on canvas from 1992 and 1993. This installation was shown in 2001 at Museum Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.

a frieze for Marzee - 2011

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The first reaction of Bart Drost at the porcelain clay he wanted to use in 2007 during a work period in the European Ceramic Work Centre in Den Bosch was one of astonishment, disappointment, fear, yes even distaste. For him it was only nasty crumble clay, with which he couldn't do anything. After he had formed sausages and polka dots with of it the most appropriate (re)action appeared to be hitting the clay forms. Slamming he gave direction and shape to the clay and he discovered a new way of drawing. There were more than a hundred fragile porcelain drawings made. As a minute intervention adapted to architecture and design of the Galerie Marzee Nijmegen Drost in 2011 made a temporary frieze of 111 porcelain drawings on the ground floor of the gallery.

let's dance on seascapes - gallery van st.fiet maastricht - 2010

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                                                                                                       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

story of the endless freedom - ekwc den bosch - 2007

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                                                                                             I beat with my fist the porcelain on the table.

                                                                                              As the clouds in the sky,
                                                                                              so the sharp lines blur into a haze that will disappear.
                                                                                              What remains is the picture on my retina,
                                                                                              projected on a backdrop of memories.

                                                                                              I'm standing on my feet on the ground and I stamp in the clay.
                                                                                             There in the Middle, so close and so far away.
                                                                                             The drawings will be fired.
                                                                                             So it has to bee.
                                                                                             The result is a rigid extract of my experience of making.

                                                                                             And then, there is that Wretched with his arms wide forever ...
                                                                                             How to make the vulnerable strong without sacrificing the soul?

let's dance - video ekwc

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