BIO

Marea Hildebrand (b. 1989) is a Zurich-based ceramic artist with an MA in Transdisciplinary Studies from Zurich University of the Arts. During her master's program, she became the Director of the School of Commons—an international education program dedicated to the study and development of peer learning in arts and cultures. She has curated numerous exhibitions or conferences across several countries and co-juried for art and design prizes.

Hildebrand is a self-taught ceramicist with a background in painting and textiles who uses the coil method to hand-build works that sometimes reach near to two meters in height. The unique surfaces of her pots are the result of a multi-firing technique and countless hours of painting and etching rhythmic patterns, creating one-of-a-kind pieces she refers to as surrogates of her emotions. Embracing imperfections and the beauty of transience, she crafts serene works that resonate a deep sense of calm. Hildebrand has referred to her practice as a way to set aside the restlessness of thought, let her hands do the thinking and find comfort in the weight and presence of natural materials and seemingly archetypal shapes. Her upcoming exhibitions in Berlin and New York, along with commissions in Saudi Arabia, have led to the expansion of her practice in scale.

Her inspirations include Japanese and Korean ceramic art, as well as the philosophy of 侘び寂び (wabi-sabi).
 
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Using black stoneware clay and slip coloured from her extensive collection of powdered pigments, Marea Hildebrand hand-builds each pot and towering sculpture using the coil building method. Every work is fired multiple times at temperatures ranging from 960 to 1250 degrees. Their surfaces are notched or painted with individual, rhythmic strokes that can consume the artist for days. For her, time is measured by the slow and repeatedly interrupted process of coil building, the painstakingly elaborate designing of the surfaces, the firing and the re-firing.

A self-taught ceramicist, Hildebrand has a background in painting and textiles. The balance she has perfected between precariously small bases and rotund forms expresses her desire to create works that hold space, have presence and even creature comforts, while maintaining the fragility of all things. “I need accomplices in the room. I need volume. I need matter. That's also a reason why my pots are so heavy,” she explains.

Her work arises from a need we can all relate to: the need to turn off our thoughts. She came upon sculpting as a means to rediscover stillness. “I chose this very labor-intensive, very slow practice in coiling, hand-building, and mark-making because it turns off my mind and lets my hands do the thinking.”

She is clear that her interest is not in reproducing or reflecting the human form. Her works are not imitations of bodies; they are “surrogates” of her emotions, a way to “outsource” her energy, her grief, her longing, and have pieces of herself travel to realms where she cannot go. Though repetition is an aspect of her practice that she values, she continually seeks ways to break any rigidity in her process. She contradicts patterns she has painstakingly painted over the surface of a pot by pouring over them, creating bulbous drips, that she sees as parasitic beings upon beings. Everything must be round, she explains, “round objects for me symbolize longing.” She searches for mistakes to repeat them—all in the pursuit of breaking routine, disrupting penchants to perfection, efficiency and utility.