Weight - Exhibition June 2011


Weight
Elisa Helland-Hansen - Norway
- www.elisa-hh.no
Exhibition 2 - 25 June 2011

At this exhibition Elisa Helland-Hansen invites the visitors to lift up the cups – see, touch, close their eyes and sense weight and gravity.

Elisa Helland-Hansen - VEKT:
“In my kitchen live 44 different cups and beakers. They are not randomly chosen. And neither their weight, size, volume, form, surface and expression are random.

Through many years of use, I have noticed how the weight of a cup has its own value and gets importance in the sensuous experience of drinking. An oppressive day, the tea drunk from a heavy beaker may give peace in mind. Coffee in a feather light cup may comfort a fragile condition. Or I can hold a cup, that really irritates... wrong weight for the need of the moment.

This interest in the weight of the cup has resulted in a research of the limits of the cup at a given mass. What possibilities lie in a lump of clay at 222 grams? How many varied expressions can I get from the same weight?

My starting point became a series of 9 beakers with identical profile and size, but with a rise of weight from 111 grams to 999 grams.
Through the evaluation of this row of cups grew new series, where the relationship between weight volume and apportion of mass got a special attention. Further on my choice of glaze, colour and pattern became influenced by the character of the specific cup.”