By Kristian Jakobsen

Among young Danish ceramists, Morten Løbner Espersen has managed to attract a good deal of attention in just a few years. His work is comprehensive within the field which he has quite naturally defined for himself; his work is evidently rooted in consistency and fertility.

Over the last decades, the ceramic medium has been utilized in ways which seem to break with previous standards. The flexibility of the medium in terms of form and colouring and especially in terms of material structures has been explored with great imagination in many places all over the world. These new perspectives on ceramics have resulted in fascinating and amusing objects which often emphasize a sculptural element. But compared to prevailing trends in other areas of current sculpture, the expression of the ceramic experiments somehow seems to lack actual artistic innovation. However, they often display practical and craftsmanlike skills which may appear to be a statement in its own right. It is often odd and brilliant, but it rarely possesses genuine artistic depth. In a historical perspective, these trends may, if anything, be regarded as continuations of 18th century porcelain and faience sculpture and the experiments with stoneware around the turn of the century. Thus, in their own way, they seem to be traditional.

It is as if the experimental trends have challenged those ceramists, who prefer to work within the area which has been regarded as the foundation of ceramic art for centuries: the actual and the abstractly developed function. Seen in the perspective suggested above, this ceramic approach is no more traditional than experimental figuration. On the contrary, we have observed how immersion in form and technique has drawn new forms of beauty and often completely unexpected and innovative expressions from the medium within cogently defined limits.

It is stimulating and gratifying to observe that Danish ceramics presently exists and develops in a largely prolific environment. There are, however, fine exceptions in accordance with the traditional functional approaches, where the concept of tradition should not be understood in any restricting and certainly not in any confining sense. A number of Denmark's outstanding, old and older figures in ceramics, work and thrive on their art and craft, and as to immersion, they often attain the sublime. But, fortunately, there are many younger and young ceramists whose work is characterized by their own qualifications and the conditions of our time.

Morten Løbner Espersen's treatment of shapes, which he models and invests with a subtle relation between base, height, and curvature, is always clear. But to this clearness he manages to attach delicate monumentality which sometimes contains an almost minimalist intensity. Based on objective knowledge, and particularly on experience and experiment, his work with clay mass and glaze pushes the material to its practical and aesthetic limits. In combination with the codetermining life of the firing, this endows the finished works with a quality of presence which is quite unique.

It is evident that this method provides ample space for the play of intuition and sensitivity. Since his first work in 1992, Espersen's development has been remarkably linear; he has accomplished a lot in a few years. The observer has reason to expect new and exciting departures, but what will they be? In modern Danish ceramics, Morten Løbner Espersen stands out as one of the most interesting and promising figures.

Translation: Mackintosh & Pedersen

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