Martine Thoelen
Lives and works in Switzerland

The Belgian artist Martine Thoelen, based in Switzerland, expresses her-self through painting and ceramics. Her works draw on her deepest self, and reflect the duality of her inner world, one of both strength and acute sensitivity. The depth and daring of this artistic approach enables Martine Thoelen to permeate her works with an entire universe of emotions, and to give life to delicate yet powerful creations.

• Séverine Malant

Thoelen’s work is a process. The works are formed and shaped. A single work goes through a process of multiple firings to build up color and tex-ture.Thoelen takes disparate fragments of the world around her and trans-forms them into letters. She experiment with different kind of porcelain, co-lour palettes and thickness. It’s a game of colours, composition and hid-den messages. Emotion is a great motivation in her work. You will find hid-den messages in her work, pieces of the written letters and sometimes just a clear message, a statement on its own.

Some of these objects are fired in an anagama, an outdoor, wood-stoked kiln which requires constant tending over three or more days of firing. Tex-tures of wood ash, pine sap, charcoal, and mineral glazes combine to produce subtle, variegations on the pieces’ surfaces.

• DW15

Haar werk belichaamt de fragiliteit van het materiaal. Voor haar ‘Hidden Letters’ maakte ze het porselein haast zo dun als papier. De kwetsbaar-heid is tastbaar. Dit werk beroert vele toeschouwers. De oorsprong ligt bij verscheurde brieven, die hun inhoud nog deels prijsgeven in het werk. Ve-el dichter kom je niet bij een in een porselein geschreven brief.

• Koen Van der Schaeghe

Artists: Martine Thoelen