Bouke de Vries

Exhibited by Adrian Sassoon

Material 17th century Chinese Blanc de Chine porcelain figure and 20th century Royal Worcester gold lustre porcelain fragments on a bronze base supported by a steel armature

Dimensions Height 62cm (24 3/8") Diameter 25cm (9 7/8")

Place of Creation United Kingdom

Price Price available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

Using his skills as a restorer his ‘exploded’ artworks reclaim broken pots after their accidental trauma. He has called it ‘the beauty of destruction’. Instead of reconstructing them, he deconstructs them. Instead of hiding the evidence of this most dramatic episode in the life of a ceramic object, he emphasises their new status, instilling new virtues, new values, and moving their stories forward.

The spaces in between the fragments become an essential part of the structures and the objects sometimes take on a cubist quality. With some works the viewer may be confused as to where the original makers of the piece stop and where the artist begins, making the work biographical and giving it new currency.

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