Recently, I have made shapes that were inspired by both ceramics and paintings of still lifes. Ceramic vases are often part of a figurative painter’s repertoire; I like to imagine that these forms, after having been represented in two dimensions, have been brought back to a second life as ceramic objects. In this creative process, the object leaves behind its function as well as part of its volume.

The slabs of clay, cut and put under all sorts of pressures and constraints, take a certain shape. Once the shape is set, its surface becomes a blank page on which different experiences are inscribed. The surface holds in itself traces of its encounters - a nail that sinks in, the crease of a piece of plastic that embeds itself in the material.

My creative process leaves space for chance and imperfections. Once the kiln reaches its high temperatures, the work gains a life of its own, it reacts to the various combinations of slips and glazes, to the gas emanating from a nearby piece decorated with oxides, to the tiny variations of temperature that can occur in that enclosed space. So many elements outside one’s control can give the work its distinct character.

The current series has a human presence. I call it Silhouette; it’s anthropomorphic - I see in it a neck, a back, a bust. One day it might have a sensuality, a frailty, a hesitation. It’s a body that responds to my fingers, that arches its back, bends, stoops, stands up straight. Sometimes I create groups, families, strangers who come together.

There is a series of silhouettes that evokes refugees who cross seas to find a land of respite. They bear the fading memories of those waters.

Another recent series was inspired by contemporary ballet, which I discovered in London in the 1990s. How can a dancer move their body beyond its limits ? The work of choreographers fascinates me: the way they find unusual, sensual expressions of the body. A simple line in space drawn by the movement of a leg can focus the full attention of an audience. I try to seize some of these furtive emotions, and revive these moments in my studio, through clay.

Emmanuelle Lepic currently lives and works in London.

EXHIBITIONS

2018 Pullens’ Yards Open Studio, London

2019 Pullens’ Yards Open Studio, London

New Designers, Business Design Centre,

London

2022 Artemis, a celebration of Female Talents,

and Alveston Assembled, Alveston Fine Arts, London

Pullens’ Yards Open Studio, London