The Touch Piece is an interactive wall piece, that asks the viewer to follow these four steps to experience the ceramic work:

  
Close your Eyes.

Breath.

Touch with one hand. feel.

Touch with the other hand. feel.

  
Earthenware, Glazed

Dimensions: 23cm x 17cm

Touch Piece 

As reaction to the hectic and distracted every day ‘This moment will never come back’ focusses on the here and now. Synchronising my breath and gestures to create circles as representation of the present moment, I activate my body to experience the moment as it is.

  
This photo series documents a series of performances carried out in some of London’s busiest spaces. Clay dust was slowly released forming a circle around my body, synchronising gesture and breathing.

  
I inhaled grabbing clay dust from a ceramic bowl. Slowly I then turned around myself, spreading my arm to release the clay dust when exhaling. Just for a moment a circle remains and with it my absent body and a sense of presence. Until the next moment takes it away.

This body of work uses the breath to address presence, the body and time.

By choosing performance with artefacts as by-products of the process, I acknowledge the different dimensions of experiences that come from the artist, the audience, the process and the object.

‘This moment will never come back’ is informed by my previous body-clay experiments developed during the studio research project. My work in performance, embodied experiences and ceramic objects investigates how clay can help us be present in our body.

  
The following photographs where taken by photographer Pablo Di Prima. Outfit by Lukasz Studencki. 

  

This moment will never come back 

‘Noting Absence’ is one of my recent body-clay-experiments in which I was activating the body through pinching pots. Aiming to celebrate full presence I visualised moments in which I was noting my own absence. Every time when I became aware of my mind wandering I stopped pinching and dropped the current piece immediately, wishing to let go of all thoughts. A pinch-pot was saved, only when it was created with me being fully present, meaning body and mind were at the same place during the process.

The audience was invited to join in, and let the clay help them be fully present in their body, while imitating my gestures to mindfully pinch pots and letting go of absent moments. Pinching when inhaling, turning when exhaling. Through this experience one could feel themself in their bodies and re-connect their body with their mind.

The performance was first presented during the group exhibition ‘_Standing Block’_ organised by ‘Lincoln Projects’ in London in 2017, and later in two galleries in 2018 one in Berlin during the solo exhibition ‘Breathing with clay’ in 2018 and again in London in Lethaby Gallery. 

Noting Absence 

Anke Buchmann sees the photographs of James McKinnon and recognises shapes, textures and natural matter in the vibrant pigmented colours. With these images in mind Buchmann drifts into the unknown using the clay to identify inspired personal emotions and memories. Her process of creation allows her to connect with emotions of aliveness, playfulness, freedom and joy and to make space for this emotional garden. The results are abstract, layered ceramic landscapes that take up space in itself. Improvisatory compositions and wonky asymmetries meet expressive fingerprints and freely attached clay leftovers that breathe tangible life into the photographs on the wall.

  

Taking up space

‘Lived Moments’ is part of the project ‘This moment will never come back’. As reaction to the hectic and distracted every day this body of work focusses on the here and now.

Over the period of 10 weeks I performed, without the audience present, a sitting meditation on the throwing wheel, placing myself in the workshop in total silence. By focussing on my breath and gestures I would throw circles in clay with one breath only. By synchronising my breath and gestures to create circles as representation of the present moment, I activated my body to experience the moment as it is. Aiming to celebrate full presence I use the circle to visualise this very moment in clay.

After having lived the moment fully present I was able to let go of it. Each moment I threw as a clay circle on the wheel, I dropped immediately after its creation. My body let go of the lived moment, while the clay captured the experience.

Throwing circles on the wheel with a single breath while focussing on my gestures and making use of the tactility of the material. It is a meditative process that allows me to pay attention to the here and now, the very present moment. After each breath I let go of the lived moment, by dropping the wet clay circles on top of each other, until my body tells me to stop. Each clay circle matches the volume of my single breath – 420g. The clay has the power to capture the fleeting presence that went into it. Through the firing process this energy is captured forever.

This body of work uses the breath to address presence, the body and time.

By choosing performance with artefacts as by-products of the process, I acknowledge the different dimensions of experiences that come from the artist, the audience, the process and the object.

‘This moment will never come back’ is informed by my previous body-clay experiments developed during the studio research project. My work in performance, embodied experiences and ceramic objects investigates how clay can help us be present in our body.

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Anke Buchmann

Touch Piece

This moment will never come back

Noting Absence

Taking up space

Lived Moments

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