Shape clay into a vessel;it is the space within that makes it useful. (Laozi, Dao De Jing, Chapter 11), chapter 19 from The Works

A Journey in Seeing

A long-term visual memoir by Tineke Storteboom.

Each chapter is published as it is written. Together they form an ongoing book about the development of an artistic practice over nearly four decades.

2006–2007

"The shell must break before the bird can fly."— Alfred Tennyson

After years of working on paper and canvas, my hands were drawn to clay.

It was not a departure from painting.

It was another way of exploring form.

There was something deeply restorative about working with clay.

Paint records a gesture.

Clay receives it.

The bowls emerged in the simplest way I could imagine.

Each one began as a flat sheet of clay.

A single fold transformed the surface into a vessel.

Nothing more was needed.

Inside each bowl, I pressed the lace of my wedding dress into the soft clay.

The delicate pattern remained hidden on the inside.

A private memory, quietly carried within every object.

In 2007, these forms became the starting point for a commission from Ahold.

Around sixty unique porcelain bowls were created as gifts for business partners around the world.

No two bowls were identical.

Each carried the same gesture,

yet each found its own form.

Looking back, I realise that I wasn't interested in making objects.

I was interested in discovering how a simple form could hold memory, touch and presence.

Perhaps that is why I have so often worked in series.

Not to repeat an image,

but to explore its endless variations.

One gesture.

Many lives.