Eva Trilecová
Recycling was a topic that had opened space for experimenting and interpreting during the 2011/2012 winter term in the ceramics studio of the AFAD in Bratislava. Students came with works not limited by the elementary recycling of material or products. It was rather “reuse” of feelings, ideas and dreams. It is the person-specific approach that the teachers in this studio, studio head MgA. Daniel Piršč and Mgr. art. Markéta Nováková, apply.
Students applied various techniques and materials – porcelain and other ceramic materials such as air-dried brick, the plaster forms casting technique, soaking various materials in ceramic mass and firing, reprocessing ceramic items, breaking them and pouring raw clay. Students applied various processes such as firing in electric kilns, in wood stoves and “raku” technique and other experiments.
Students came with various solutions that emphasized that ceramic fragments cannot be recycled, that there is serial production from China and that there are common utility items. They also contemplated over the value of their work, the value of porcelain and consumer society. Works of all the students were compiled into an artwork of Martin Vanko who, as a jewellery designer not influenced by the ceramic technology, made up a recycling concept for the works of his fellows. He smashed bad items into pieces and fired them into a new object. He presented that a fired ceramic fragments cannot be recycled and that the firing process is irreversible.