Adriena Pekárová
Ceramic artist Adriena Kutaková is one of those people for whom work with ceramic clay has become a source of inspiration as well as a secret that needs continuous discovery. While also creating work for architecture, she focuses her attention on both utilitarian ceramics and free art creation. Her journey is characterised by experiment and the search for new techniques – she connects chamotte with porcelain, black porcelain with textile, she draws with wax enriched with oxygen and, in 2001, she started with reduction firing by the raku method, which is now a very popular yet laboriously difficult method. “I am still surprised by the beautiful metamorphosis and richness of colours. Even though the process is very random, I know what to expect through my many repetitions and trials. Usually I try the process on utilitarian vessels and this shows me what I will probably end up with on statues. Utilitarian art helps me with free work.” That was also one of the ideas behind one of her creations of a type of stylebook for various ceramic technologies and experimentation with their possibilities on the limited space of a bowl. Adriena Kutaková created a collection of 22 bowls of the same shape using a whole range of technologies. She started with a simple non-glazed smoked bowl decorated with prehistoric ornamentation, though folk technique of decorating with engobe, painting with dodder, marbling, inlaying colourful clay, burning into the glass and screen printing, she used rouge and a combination of chamotte and porcelain, and finally the last six bowls were fired by the raku method. Her collection can be compared to a spiral, starting with a simple utilitarian vessel and finishing with an artistically used artefact with a stimulating visual and tactile effect. She herself describes it as a line proceeding from utilitarian priority to artistic. It is also a certain metaphor of the creative journey she has undergone since beginning in this field.