That’s the kind of thing that we easily say “oh, wow, how didn’t I think of that before?!” for the first time we see. But not for the Dutch artist Bouke de Vries. He smartly gives new life to broken porcelain vases keeping their potsherds within other glass ones – which are modeled in the original shape of the broken ceramics. A perfect way to save the memories and value of historical potteries, even if they’re shattered.
Using his skills as a restorer (c.f. Ron Mueck’s model-maker skills), his ‘exploded’ artworks reclaim broken pots after their accidental trauma. He has called it ‘the beauty of destruction’. Instead of reconstructing them, he deconstructs them. Instead of hiding the evidence of this most dramatic episode in the life of a ceramic object, he emphasises their new status, instilling new virtues, new values, and moving their stories forward.
Bouke de Vries