Ceramic wall art
- Bruce and Marcello's shared passion for creating with ceramics launched their partnership
- The creative duo set up Studio DeSimoneWayland in 2009
- Experimentation with clay is fundamental to their approach
Marcello De Simone was first introduced to clay during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, and again through a workshop given by ceramicist Marjan de Voogd in Amsterdam. In 2009, Marcello met Bruce Wayland and there was an instant click between the two artisans, a shared affinity with art and creating. Before long they were working together on their first collaboration, the Altered Perspectives series: an installation of plates in assorted shapes and sizes, which fuses decorative ceramic plates with works of art that share tonal similarities and subject matter, creating a dialogue between the two different media. A fortuitous encounter with ceramicist Pauline Wiertz, during an exhibition in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, sparked the idea of creating their own moulds and cast ceramic plates.
INTERVIEW
Bruce: The initial idea of the Altered Perspectives was immediately selected by Anthropologie and Terrain in the USA and that spurred us to create more and more of them. Soon after that, private collectors in The Netherlands, Europe, USA and Australia discovered us.
Marcello: The first work we made was using vintage plates we had laying in our cupboard and a very dark still life painting. We weren’t sure the technique would work, but it was an instant success. We still have one of the plates from that original work.
Bruce: One of our main focuses is slip casting, creating our own moulds with our signature textile structure in relief. We also create our own coloured slips in both porcelain and stoneware, using high firing encapsulated pigments.
Marcello: In general, ceramics get their decoration through glaze and/or under and overglaze painting or transfers. We have developed a technique, whereby texture and colour are intrinsic to the clay we use, creating painterly effects with one single firing.
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