Annouk Thys

Annouk works with materials as glaze and porcelain. During her study at LUCA Gent (BE) she knew that experimenting was important to her, bringing together different materials - both ceramic and others - to investigate how they interact. An interaction that initially arises as “self-forming.” Different layers of materials are brought together and each material finds its way. This process of transformation is a way of finding new possibilities through and within a material. Heat, gravity, time and space have an influence. This interplay of experiment, creation and luck - making processes tangible and showing what usually remains invisible - is what challenges her. It is the driver of her work and results in new forms or installations as she made for SMAK (Gent 2010) and The Biennale of Moscow ( 2011).
Her time in the EKWC (Nl), a residency in 2013, was an opportunity research the possibility of glaze as a sculptural medium. It was a run-up to create ‘wanderfalls’. They where shown at the 5th European Triennial of Ceramics and Glass (Mons 2017) and rewarded with the price of the public.
She continues to use glaze and porcelain as her basic materials. An elliptical and fascinating universe emerges through their mysterious poetry. Notions of the landscape, time and elements of nature appear repeatedly in her work.