Anna Mansel-Pleydell

Anna Mansel-Pleydell makes vessels, containers. They stand there naturally and at the same time challenge us with their individual artistic expression. A confrontation is imminent. Can something be left out? Can something be added? Am I allowing myself to enter into an experience that challenges my senses? Are these questions still relevant in the end? What are the ingredients of this boiling laboratory of sensually compelling stimuli?

Her work is done in clay without a wheel. The volume of her vessels is built up from strips and slabs. As individual clay building blocks, they remain after this construction process is complete and can be read as a metaphor for craftsmanship, for weaving, sewing, braiding, folding, pressing, welding and binding. We are directly confronted with the process of creation. However, the craftsmanship required for this remains merely a vicarious agent. It only becomes a means of expression in the ingenious interplay of glaze and form finding. Searching and finding thus become a self-evident unity that can no longer be separated. Anna Mansel-Pleydell was first inspired to express herself through her fascination with Japanese basketry and Chinese vessel bronzes. She took up the challenge and realised it with the help of clay and ceramic techniques. The further she moves away from her initial source of inspiration, the more vulnerable she makes herself and thus also her basic material. As the slabs and ribbons become thinner and thinner, she pushes the physical and technical possibilities of her material language clay to their limits. In addition to her disciplined craftsmanship and formal and colourful confidence, her works are characterised by a material and emotional fragility. The expressive power of her works lies in this alternation between self-confidence and questioning