Carlijn Fransen

C.T.H. Fransen and Koos Buster Stroucken   What if you made an entire room out of clay? With floor boards breaking when you get out of bed, with a ceramic breakfast table, milk carton, cheese and eggs? Director, performer and visual artist C.T.H. Fransen often builds compact sets in which to situate her short films. She likes to control things – to better let them get out of hand. Inspired by the everyday items Koos Buster recreates in ceramics, she proposed to co-produce a Clay Soap. Working on the series’ pilot, Fransen soon ditched the original plan to write scenarios while Buster created props. She needed to work with clay herself, while she and Buster were making up stories that focus on the objects: what might happen with those crackling cereals or a wet doormat from unfired clay? Their different styles – Buster’s impressionist touch versus Fransen’s obsession with detail – bring the scene alive. That delicious-looking toast! That casually abandoned mop!