MARTA JAKOBOVITS is a ceramicist who creates works intended to be seen in relationship with other pieces and with natural objects such as leaves, seeds, stones, and bark. As she creates her individual pieces, it is always with an eye to those elements of her creation which connect with other forms, whether by shape, pattern, colour or a combination of these.
Her latest works have been shaped and formed on low ovoid plinths, meaning that the viewer looks down on an entire landscape of natural and artificial forms. It is sometimes difficult to tell one from another, and this is intentional, as Jakobovits wants her work to be in dialogue with, and to merge with, nature. These oval works are billed as islands, spiritual islands no less, meaning that our interest in them is not simply in how the pieces were formed and the way in which they relate to the natural objects that Jakobovits has placed with them, but also how they work as equivalents for mountains, hills, valleys, lakes, and more.
Jakobovits is constantly evolving her practice and her installations. These works when reinstalled elsewhere will necessarily differ, as the natural elements cannot be exactly the same in another location, making this iteration of these works absolutely unique. Additionally, she regularly incorporates new discoveries in her making, whether intentional or the utilisation of happy accidents, to create new forms and patterns through the combination of clay and glaze. A large circular bowl-shaped form at the centre of one spiritual island has cracks and crevices in the glaze — evocative of dried lake beds — a feature first found as an unforeseen effect, but one that she later learnt to replicate.
Jakobovits adopts a meditative and prayerful approach to creation and displays her work in ways that encourage contemplation in the viewer. An earlier exhibition included long works laid on the floor like pathways, around which one walked as a form of pilgrimage. In this exhibition, we move between islands, as though on boats, aware of rising sea levels through the low display of these works. Jakobovits views art as a form of prayer and says: “These ceramic pieces represent the imprint of my soul and hands as well as the spiritual relation with segments of visual arts of the groups of objects, installations and spiritual islands created through different senses, experiments and material associations.”
Photo Richard Ivey. Courtesy of the Artists and Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, LondonMarta Jakobovits speaks of shapes in a relationship with natural materials
These spiritual islands are equivalents for and, therefore, are other than actual islands. They are also natural and handmade forms brought together in symbiotic relationship to create something more than the individual parts. This work of unifying and reconciling is ultimately the work of the kingdom of God and these works are beautiful prophetic signs of the harmony that is yet to come.
As a statement of intent, she has said: “[My work is] a personal approach to trying to make the invisible of the conscious and subconscious psyche visible through [my chosen] materials. This is an ongoing process; it is very important to me. This is my life. Making shapes, families of shapes, putting them in a relationship with natural materials, such as sand, pebbles, leaves, different plants, barks and shells, or even bringing them back as a reverence for nature. [It is] an intuitive dialogue between me and what is outside of me.”
In this exhibition, her work has been paired with that of Anderson Borba, who utilises wood, often found in skips around his studio in east London. The wood is first shaped and burnt before magazine cut-outs are collaged on to its surfaces, leading to a final stage of carving and varnishing. His pieces here are primarily tall, thin Giacometti-like totems. The upstanding, vertical nature of Borba’s work contrasts well with the expansive horizontal archipelago of Jakobovits’s work.
Nevertheless, there is a dialogue between their practices. Both mould their chosen materials, clay and wood, fire their materials using a kiln and a blow torch, and build layers through glazes and collages. The result is works that speak of an intrinsic connection between art and nature, captured through the tactile relationship between shape, colour, and chemistry.
“Marta Jakobovits and Anderson Borba: Harvest” is at the Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery, Deptford, Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside, London SE8, until 26 April (open Wednesday to Saturday 12-6 p.m. or by appointment). Phone 020 3048 5220. elizabethxibauer.com
