‘Black Stool is connected to the collection of Ceramic Furniture. The ceramic furniture collection is for me the joy of creation from soft clay. The tubes are hand pressed by very simple machine. I freely join them and bend them to the shape when they are still soft. the resulting objects are on the border of functional furniture and sculpture piece. But this time I used much coarser clay which is normally used only for fireclay bricks.

This clay has very low plasticity, cracking during the work and it is almost impossible to shape and bend. I worked with these properties to show the tension and structure in the clay. During the work the whole sculpture gradually collapses under its own weight. The final shape is fixed during firing to a high temperature of 1350 ° C.

It is a special salt firing, when into the furnace during firing is added salt, which reacts with quartz in the clay and create very durable glaze on surface. It is a traditional technique used in Germany since the 14th century.’

Milan Pekař is a Czech ceramic artist, born in 1980.

He’s currently Assistant Professor at Studio of Ceramics and Porcelain Academy of Arts Architecture & Design in Prague since September 2011, and Head of Applied Arts Department 1 since 2016.

MATERIALS :
fire clay, salt glaze

DIMENSIONS :
28 x 28 x 28 cm

Unique piece handmade in Hungary, 2018.