Anna-Bella Papp

Anna-Bella Papp (RO) came to the EKWC to experience working and living in a peer group and to explore what this could bring to her practice. Papp focused on experimenting and acquiring knowledge, to break open her usual method for creating. She explored many of the possible directions to go in within the residency: 1. Manipulating the clay body to mimic materials from the “real world”, such as cement, rocks, and bricks. Stemming from a thesis she wrote which investigates the actual daily practice of artists, stripped of its romance. The works are a record of artists’ subtle involvement in gentrification projects. 2. Ceramic Vespa screens. During the Covid lockdown, there were no exhibitions for artists to partake in. Papp designed a Ceramic Vespa screen so that art can drive through the streets every day. 3. 3D printing only the inner support structure of 3d print files. Papp removed the outer shape of the digital design of a hat to relativize the newness of printing techniques in ceramics with the resulting straw hat-like print. 4. Repurposing found and discarded ceramics. During her residency, Papp reflected on the ecological impact of the ceramic process. Fragments of shrinking slabs were repurposed as testing sites of glazes and precariously combined into toxic landscapes.