.

When you are not having to reinvent (or use) the wheel every day, there is an expansiveness within the known frame.

Dahl’s clayworks remember the absolute mystery of the organism. From symmetrical to bilateral symmetrical, each comes to life as she engages with the clay. From highly complex, anatomical pieces through to pieces which capture a motion or a concept. Perhaps increasingly, the artist describes the process as inherently organic – both formally and methodologically.

They are not mimics, but real expressions of biological processes. 1977 (EMPANGENI, KWAZULU-NATAL)

if the micro is macro

Predominantly composed of white earthenware, Astrid Dahl’s work pays homage to form and symmetry. She currently lives on a smallholding in Nottingham Road, KwaZulu Natal with her husband, her children, several dogs and cats, chickens, pigeons and fish.

astrid dahl

b. Although the sculptures are heavy, her intention is to create pieces that have a feeling of lightness and fragility.

 

Hand-building vessels using the coiling method, is a slow, meditative process. The limitations of coiling (requiring a base, a certain way of working layer by layer) allow for a freedom-within-constraints.

“You’re working with a medium which unfolds organically to reveal seemingly limitless potential of form” Astrid Dahl explains in her studio in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.  Against an inspiring landscape of rolling hills, huge skies and epic sunrises she lives with her family on a smallholding finding endless connections between her surroundings and the works she creates. 

Astrid’s journey with the material began at the Technikon Natal in 1995, graduating in 1999.  Her then ceramics lecturer was and continues to be a major influence, even arranging a visit for his students by Zulu women to teach the traditional method of coiling clay - a time, Dahl says, when she found her vocabulary.

All of her vessels – large “organic abstractions” – are made using this technique. The artist is not afraid of scale and will go as big as her kiln can manage.

Dahl was inspired by her lecturer Hennie Stroebel who encouraged her “to explore and create using clay as a language.” Later, after experimenting with various mediums and approaches, she was introduced to the images of Karl Blossfeldt, which ultimately instigated Dahl’s expansive career of botanically-inspired work.

They do not seek to look precisely like botanicals, but are like them, sustaining themselves, unsolicited and without premeditation, maintaining a specific emphasis on form in and of itself, juxtapositions of gravity and light, and making the micro macro. Her appreciation of her natural environment  – rolling green hills, big blue skies, gorgeous sunrises, and all that comes with country life –  reveals itself in the beautiful forms she creates. 

 

Dahl's sculptures vary in complexity depending on the form she is looking to capture.

The vessels exist as vessels, filling the centre of a room with real presence, and they also exist as material traces of a rigorous daily search for the things that are beautiful and worthwhile and true. Working without drawings or references, Dahl’s vessels – although meticulously executed and finished – are formed quite spontaneously.

A chance encounter with respected South African designer, Neville Trickett whose introduction to the botanical photography of Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a stylistically important turning point for her.  Taking her cue form his prints, she began to exclude colour in favour of black and white and experimental forms enhanced by the monochrome palette.

For her the black tones must take on a shape which allows the fluidity to be observed whereas the white has a lightness of spirit and reflection.  Slowly she builds the works, coiling and sculpting the clay.

Dahl describes always loving coiling, and being good at it.