A meeting with ceramic artist Marit Tingleff / KODE Art Museums

Norwegian artist Marit Tingleff (f.1954) is one of the most talented Scandinavian ceramists of her generation. With her great plates and mural plaques, she renews and reinvents traditional pottery and on-ceramic graphical designs, via her own architectural-scale style. How does she work? How did she get into this field? Is art really that important?
We followed Tingleff for two days working in her workshop and studio at Hønefoss and let her share her thoughts.
Tingleff is one of three artists presented in the exhibition "Forces - Dyrdal Kvasbø Tingleff" at the KODE Art Museums in Bergen 10 May-15 September 2019 and at Sørlandet Art Museum 12 October 2019-26 January 2020.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ceramicist Marit Tingleff uses earthenware decorated with slips, clay slip with added colour, as the point of departure for her pieces. Her roots are in the pottery tradition on the one hand, and in everyday utility objects, on the other, both of which she challenges with her art. She uses a coiling technique to model the surface of the clay in a flexible sand mould, which she removes once it is sufficiently stable.
Tingleff makes very large ceramic works in which she tests the material’s load-bearing capability to breaking point. The cracks that appear during the process are part of her artistic expression, and her biggest plates can weigh up to 350-400 kilos.
By letting the slip drip and run in layers on the semi-dry clay surface, then partly washing it off and adding new slip, she achieves a rich, painterly expression. In some pieces, she reinforces this with light and shadow effects achieved by using a relief technique or giving them a double, perforated form. Her work is expressive and spontaneous in style.
Marit Tingleff studied at Bergen School of Applied Art from 1974 to 1977. She was professor of ceramics at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) from 2013 to 2016.
ABOUT THE FILM
Producer: Maria Tripodianos
Directed and filmed by Paul Johannessen
This film is produced by KODE Art Museums and Composer Homes and by SKMU - Sørlandet Art Museum.