By Ole Jensen, 2003. In connection with the exhibition ’Brugskunst 2003’,
Gallery Nørby, Copenhagen.

In the autumn 2000, I made a series of decorated earthenware dishes with
white slip. They were hung on the walls at The Exhibition Room For New
Ceramics and exhibited under the title ”Earthenware”. Red clay still possesses
a sense of the common ceramic heritage. It was basic and it worked.

Anyhow, it made me want to make more pieces in the same style – pieces
that were more distinctly utilitarian. Domestic ware for eating and drinking.

In the beginning, the forms were meant to be funny. But they didn’t really want
to be like that. Instead they’ve become simple and extremely ordinary. Large
and small. Familiar types with their own function. The cups are even more
simple and straightforward than cups generally are.

All forms are turned on the wheel. It’s also the centrifugal force of the wheel
that turns the black and the white glazes into exploding rosettes. I have been
dipping, pouring and cutting. And if, exceptionally, there are recognizable
motifs, they stem from the influences closest to me. A hand, a leaf and
the branches of the trees outside. The most successful ones are made with
greatest possible ease and without ”willing” them too much. Individually,
they are simple and unambiguous. Together, they are very unlike.

My youngest son likes the one with the hand. He thinks it’s really good.
But I am quite pleased with the lightly glazed earthenware pieces. Maybe it’s
a sign that what started off as an attempt to rediscover the qualities of the
basic and the spontaneous is now showing initial results.