Jasper van Aarle

“At EKWC I took the freedom to pursue my studio practice in an unconstrained way, to experience what could unfold in the midst of this amply facilitated context. Although clay played a role in my practice early on, this was my first elaborate acquaintance with the ceramic process. Something that initially meant a case of adjustment. “But as soon as I really began to understand the characteristics of clay, also regarding drying and firing; once I learned to respond to its workings, its own pace, its many possibilities, and many more limits, I was sold. It was like a loving, careful kind of engendering something completely earthy and natural, in which I could lose myself entirely at the same time. “More than with other techniques, the art turned out to lie in working through what clay needs as a material, what it is willing and able to do. Much less in terms of what I had in store with it. Until the clay and I really aligned, we achieved our first successes dancingly, and I was kindly requested, after three months of blissful courtship, to leave the building.”