The efforts put in by a potter often go unnoticed, like the works of Elena Renker, who was born in Germany but is now based in Auckland, New Zealand. Elena’s hand-thrown and hand-carved vessels are each works of art, with unique patterns, irregularities and imperfections that give them a human element and make them come alive to the touch. As she puts it, “My aim is not perfection; on the contrary, my belief is that imperfections make the bowls come alive; nature’s perfection lies within its own asymmetry.”
Her range of ware includes tea bowls, sake and tea cups, incense boxes and vases, among others. She works in the Japanese tradition, using two or three types of fresh clay blended with sand and grog (pre-fired and ground clay) that will fire for days or even weeks to a rich brown hue. Once formed, her pieces are decorated with ash or iron slips and partially glazed using quick gestural moments that contribute to an aesthetic beauty defined by a sense of flow and dynamism. Like many other passionate artists, her work is arduous but also an endless process of joyous experimentation and play.
As a ceramics collector, I’m fortunate to have acquired two of Elena’s works (shown below). The first is a Chawan or tea bowl decorated with white Shino glaze in a blaze of patterns reminiscent of a natural landscape. The second work is an incense box, with a beautiful irregular form that makes it look more like a sculpture. The surface is Shino- and ash-glazed, and fired for more than two weeks at temperatures well above a thousand degrees centigrade in Elena’s Auckland kiln.
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