Lotte Westphael

Ceramicist

©Kirstine Mengel B

©Erik Balle

©Laura Isabella Christensen

©Erik Balle

How to capture poetry

Lotte makes ceramic vessels inspired by intangibles
She embraces the irregularities that occur during firing
Her objects appeal to both sight and touch

Lotte Westphael’s ceramic pieces flow and float yet appear solid at the same time. She finds inspiration in architecture, textile art and classical music and seeks to fuse these disparate elements in her ceramic shapes. Lotte’s cylinders are built of thin strips of porcelain cut and reassembled, creating a distinct and unique design in colour displacement. The colour patterns are meticulously planned, but her process is open to the irregularities that creep in during the final phases of creation. "With every addition of a new colour, cracks can occur." But this offsetting of perfection is what gives Lotte's pieces their complexity and beauty.

Interview

©Kirstine Mengel

©Kirstine Mengel

How do you approach beauty in your work?: I believe you have to cultivate your senses to experience beauty. My pieces are made of thin porcelain – put them in the sun and they suddenly radiate. Beauty arrives when we invite forces outside of ourselves to work with us.
How do you handle the unpredictable firing phase?: My work is a dialogue between my will and that of the porcelain. In the beginning, I strove to create the perfect circle, but the firing phase created small distortions. I no longer view these as failures; instead, this is where beauty seeps in.
You call your pieces ‘Syncopes’ – what does this mean?: Syncopation is rhythmic displacement. For me, it means disrupting the pattern. Being open to the material and the inaccuracy of technique takes my pieces to unknown places. I am influenced by architecture and music: architecture is frozen music, and music is liquid architecture.
How do other forms of art appear in your craft?: I come from a Danish tradition as regards simplicity and colour, but I’m inspired by structural and tactile expressions of textile art, and I strive to merge the two in my work. I design and build patterns that make up the piece itself. The pattern is not a decorative element.

Lotte Westphael is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1986