A short video with narration by gallery owner, curator and director Karen Sherwood.
Beans and Menhirs
Hanne Westergaard
28th April - 26th May
HANNE WESTERGAARD
“Clay has been my medium for over 40 years. I have been potting since I first discovered ceramics, and have gone through different viewpoints about my work.
I am influenced by Modernism. While at art school in Copenhagen I was taught that there are strict rules about what should and should not be made. I have mellowed over the years and can now allow myself to experiment with works I previously would not have considered making. But I feel a responsibility to be careful about what I make. The world is full of objects, and I do not want to add to that multiplicity unless I feel I have something worthwhile to say in doing so. I do not make as many pots as I used to, but perhaps I put more thinking into them.
A vital part of my life is my ceramics, and I get much of my inspiration from nature: walking on the moors and by the sea, looking at the ever-changing light and the rhythms in the patterns of nature.
I enjoy the making process and the firing; the excitement after a firing and the wait before the kiln opening, where it is revealed which ideas have worked and which have not. There are many disappointments, but in-between I may get something out that ‘shines’, and that is what makes me want to carry on being a maker.”
Hanne Westergaard
Hanne Westergaard graduated in Ceramics from Kunsthandvaerker Skolen, Copenhagen in 1964 and further studied at North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1987. Hanne has taught and lectured and continued her practice for over 40 years. She has work in public collections in Denmark and the UK and in private collections internationally. Hanne lives and works in Sheffield.