Past

1 – 26 JUNE 2023

NATURA

Formes Libres

Esther Verhaeghe – art concepts is pleased to present for the first time Formes Libres (pseudonym of the Brussels artist Sophie Gohr) with her new very poetic work of jewelry and ceramics

“The material is a language (…) art must be born from the material.”
Jean Dubuffet

 

PLACE
3 AVENUE G. MACAU
(Côté Étangs)
1050 Brussels

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VERNISSAGE
1 June 18 – 21 h

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OPENING HOURS
1 – 11 June
daily from 14 – 19 h

Fri + Sat
16/17 + 23/24 June
from 14 – 18 h

and by appointment

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The main source of inspiration for the jewelry and ceramics of Formes Libres (Sophie Gohr’s chosen artist name) is nature.

As a curious gleaner, she constantly collects plants and shells during her walks. For years, hundreds of specimens of a great diversity have been archived. This research and collection are the source of her creation. They embody his anchorage in the elements, in particular the earth and water, which nourish her artistic activity.

From this paradigm, her imagination does not form images to represent the elements, it magnifies them. Guided by her quest for serenity and authenticity, she offers a body of work and objects of great formal purity, sometimes evoking silence or the subtle sound of the wind in the branches, sometimes the waves on the beach.

 

 

For her jewellery, Formes Libres makes plant forms sacred by dipping them in a bath of gold. Following the example of ancestral cultures (Egyptian, Inca, Indian, Greek) the use of this noble metal reveals the preciousness of natural forms while revealing the richness of textures, veins, etc. This gilding process takes place after a long period of three years of drying of the plants. With this “precious herbarium”, Formes Libres underlines the temporality and the material transformation of nature and as such her jewellery transcends the sole aesthetic dimension, as these frozen plant forms lead to a questioning of the finitude of nature and of the human being.

In parallel, her ceramic practice combines kneading and experimenting with clay, stoneware, porcelain, colour pigments and glaze. Her aim is not to create perfect, utilitarian or smooth objects. On the contrary, she dares to take risks and sometimes discovers unexpected results once the firing is over. It is from this alchemy that new combinations are born. The results are organic and subtle, evoking the foam of the waves on the beach, volcanic craters, the ocean floor, and the various colours found in the landscape.

Both the jewellery and the ceramics of Formes Libres are condensed from nature and celebrate the beauty of our much-mistreated planet earth.

Carine Fol
Doctor in art history
Curator and author

 

© Esther Verhaeghe 2024
© Esther Verhaeghe 2024