Gallery Maebashi Works, Japan
Dec. 12 – 25, 2016
Exhibition and performance “Serving makes place” was the third collaborative exhibition of artists Laura Põld and Johna Hansen. The installation and performance were developed on site during a short residency at Gallery Maebashi Works in Gunma, Japan. Artists crafted an intimate space for the visitors to enter. The performance relied on participation, collective experiencing of tactile matters, smells, touch, sharing, and building community.
The questions proposed in this collaboration were: what can be created through the act of serving strangers and how space and community structure can be altered through cycle of movements.
Artist and architect Johna Hansen built a tearoom-like space from wood, textile and rope for herself and the voluntary participants titled “Dependable objects: serving space”. Laura Põld showed a series of paintings and embroidered canvases titled “Foldings” and a collection of ceramic and found objects titled “Serving set”. Põld’s ceramic vessels were produced shortly prior to the exhibition, during a 6 weeks long residency at Shiro Oni Studio, Gunma, where a communal wood firing took place. During their performance, different spices, sugar, water, milk were mixed in the ceramic vessels and gently served to the guests.
Photos by Shinya Kigure
