For his most recent work, a series of 120 bowls, which is now presented for the first time at the MAK Collection Asia, Austrian
ceramic artist Kurt Spurey took his inpiration from the MAK exhibition CHAWAN. Tea Bowls (2009/10).
Out of passion for Japanese ceramics and their high standard of quality and aesthetic Kurt Spurey chooses the term chawan
for his objects, which is Japanese for “tea bowl.” He breaks off work on the way to the „usable bowl,“
which one can drink from, and leaves it at the stage of incompletion as an end point. Each of his ceramic objects thus has
its own irreproducible shape and unique history. Spurey refrains from the use of the traditional potter’s wheel. His
strength and forcefulness are expressed in molding, pressing, and cutting. In addition, he experiments with the firing and
glazing, with Raku techniques (a special reduction firing technique for ceramics developed in Japan), and gives free rein
to “the accidental” as a formative element for his works.
In addition to Kurt Spurey’s ceramics, the show includes works from the CANAL-WALKS projects by Beverly Piersol and DIE VERSCHWUNDENEN BÄCHE WIENS [The Vanished Streams of Vienna] by Alfred Graf. These collaborative projects take as their central theme the history and
topography of the city. Historical as well as geological structures of the Viennese rivers provide an important initial impetus
for both artists—sediments in the authentic sense of the word.
