Anne Athena: talking in pictures, colour and form

As well as completing her Masters degree at Royal College of Art last year, Anne Athena was also shortlisted for the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize. We chatted through WhatsApp over the course of a few days just after she had moved from Stoke to East London earlier this month, during Britain’s latest heatwave – the below transcription is barely edited and hopefully gives you an insight into Anne’s work and thought processes and also how I am approaching her work and how it feeds into my research.

ND: How did the move to London go?

AA: Very well thank you, but very very hot 😅

ND: It is crazy hot! And dragging boxes and tools around is never fun even when it's cooler

AA: True, but it's over now thank God 😁

ND: Where in London is your new studio?

AA: Haggerston

ND: Nice 👌 super trendy

ND: Bit different to Stoke...?!

AA: Hehe well I don’t actually know the area… But that is what they say…

AA: Stoke was a good experience for me… But also very isolated 😌

ND: Were you aiming for isolation to focus?

AA: I was, but it was a bit too much in the long run

ND: I get that... I moved to a rural village in Devon on my own... seemed like a great idea at the time 😅

AA: Hehe, it’s hard to find the balance

ND: Do you think the art you made in Stoke will be different from what you will make in London?

ND: That psychological difference of people and space and location...?

AA: Mmm, I was very inspired in Stoke but mostly by my inner processes, if that makes sense? I have a lot of ideas I need to start making now

ND: Makes total sense... a lot of your work seems to wear its heart on its sleeve... autobiographical?

AA: Definitely, and I’m happy you can see

ND: Guardian-Prey and Guardian-Passion, Queen Aya, Companion, Queen Of Illusion are the ones in my mind... they also look like self-portraits (hair, eyes, face etc)?

AA: Yes, they are partly self-portraits.... However they tie in with my relationships to the people they also represent...

AA: I have an artist statement

AA: If you want to read it?

ND: That'd be great

AA: Artist statement:

Anne Athena, born in Denmark, 1984.

Anne Athena’s practice springs from her deep interest in human behaviour, spirituality and psychology, human beings and the stories of their lives. She strives to create narratives that open a window to the unseen worlds of the human being. These sometimes allude to the darker and melancholic sides of our existence, including abuse, addiction and mental health. She uses the realms of figurative, surrealism and symbolism to veil these narratives in beauty and colour. This, in combination with her passion for craft skill, art history and design results in an aesthetic that is heavily influenced by traditional ceramics; pattern, ornamentation, the figure and the vessel.

Her research method is autoethnographic, a concept that deals with the collection of meaning instead of data. Anne Athena continuously collects symbols, from the places she travels to, and through the people she meets. Then translates them into her own symbols and transfers them into the stories that unfold on her ceramic works. She keeps a record of these in her ‘diary of symbols’ which is ever growing and interpretive.

Athena’s practice, from the throwing or sculpting of the clay to the creation of numerous delicate paintings, is how she turns her studies and contemplations into form.

Anne Athena trained as a painter before she focused on ceramics and today unifies these skills, creating three dimensional canvases to tell her stories on. The greatest artistic influences she cites include Frida Kahlo, Dali, Gustav Klimt, William Blake, Kurt Weiser and Grayson Perry.

ND: How was I not aware of Kurt Weiser before?

AA: ohh really!

AA: you’re in for a treat

ND:

kurt-weiser-untitled-teapot%2C-%28portrait%29.jpg

AA: yes

AA: I met him in Arizona

AA: he’s a cowboy

ND: Love the slightly Cranach style of painting

ND: I can see his monochrome blues in your reds

AA: that may be true… never thought about that

ND:

ND:

AA: oh yes…

AA: it was a great experience for me to meet him, he made me feel like I was kinda not alone in the world.... cause he is a man of very few words...

AA: he had nothing really to say about his work...

AA: and he explained to me that he would not be using images if he wanted to say a lot in words...

ND: That's an interesting way of looking at it

ND: Would you say that is true for a work of yours like How I Lost My Blue Eyes?

AA: it’s true for the way I work, and the way I am as a person...

AA: it’s more like.... talking in pictures, colours and form

AA: when you try to put it into words

AA: it loses something

AA: this is where I think curators come in

AA: anyway I can talk about it for ages

ND: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/books/nicole-tersigni-men-to-avoid-in-art-and-life.html

ND: I thought you might appreciate that

AA: 🤣🤣🤣

AA: Indeed

ND: Would it be fair to say your pieces have a strong feminist theme and imagery? Particularly Venus...

AA: Hmm yes and no.... I guess I don't define feminism as most do... But in some ways, yes I am one… But probably not in the traditional sense of the word…

AA: If that makes any sense 😅

AA: It's definitely about freedom of femininity

AA: But I guess more in a spiritual sense then a political sense

ND: I can totally see that in the imagery on it

AA: That is so amazing that you say that

AA: It makes me very happy

AA: Not a lot of people actually read into the symbolism

AA: They do on an unconscious level, and often don't know why it speaks to them

ND: As you said before, maybe that's the curse/blessing of a curator

ND: To me, it also feels like intimately looking at someone's tattoos...

AA: Exactly

AA: I have a background in tattooing

AA: So it plays into it

AA: Essentially I think it’s about mark-making

AA: I mark my body, I mark the clay

AA: It's what I do... I'm not sure why... It’s my language, this is leading back to what Kurt Weiser said to me as well

ND: Yes, I have noticed a few of your tattoos

ND: Are they your stories? Or are you a collector of tattoo artists' work?

AA: I am in a way a collector when it comes to tattoos...

ND: I know a few people who just let tattoo artists do whatever the artist wants... and some whose tattoos are very very personal

AA: It's not really very personal for me... It’s more like jewellery… A way of expressing myself…

AA: Do you know this book? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Who-Spoke-Pictures-Through/dp/1843108895

ND: No, I don't actually

AA: it's a really good book, and is essentially also about me in a way... When I read it, so many things made sense about my life😊

ND: And your art is your way of then helping other people make sense of your life?

AA: Maybe... I have not actually thought about it that way...

AA: I probably am in a way...

AA: I more just saw it as a way of getting everything out of my system

AA: It's my way of coping

ND: I absolutely get that... when I was a practicing artist I had to just make some things to get them out of my system (even if the results were not as good as they could have been) to then allow other thoughts/ideas the space

AA: Yes it's like my only outlet in a world that is constantly overwhelming and overstimulating

AA: Yes I think that is it...

ND: The constant stream of information, images, 'likes', memes, personal feelings, rent, pressure etc etc etc?

AA: Yes, but mostly emotionally

AA: That is my source of creativity, my emotions

ND: Do you ever feel overly exposed when you present a piece? Like - 'do I want all these people knowing these things?'

AA: Yes all the time

ND: 😅 fair

ND: Does it ever stop you doing something or alter/edit it?

AA: Hehe I don't know any artist that don't tbh…

AA: And no 🤣

AA: It's not fully true

AA: There are some pretty dark pieces… I don’t make them

AA: But that is it

ND: Are there any artists who you look at and think that they've maybe crossed a line that you wouldn't?

AA: Hmmm I see it as being brave

AA: But I guess when it comes to the people that are affected by it

AA: There is a line

AA: And one has to think, is it worth it?

ND: Is there an element of working with ceramics that you think allows you to present things differently to working with a different medium?

AA: Hmmmm I just need to have a good think about that one

AA: I think that clay is a way for me to be present in the moment, to ground myself…

AA: When working with clay, you are not really the master, clay is… One must understand the material, have a working relationship with it.

AA: Nothing can be forced or rushed.

AA: And then there is again the tribal element of the marks in clay… Why do human beings do it?

AA: Maybe it’s because it was always right there in the earth?

AA: Hmmm… It’s like this:

AA: When you say something with clay, it’s “set in stone”

ND: 💖❤💖

ND: Do you feel a sense of being linked to that history of creation when you handle the raw clay?

AA: Yes definitely, a part of a tradition...

ND: Do you have a preference for building the figurative pieces or throwing vases?

ND: Or is it just whatever you feel suits the story you are trying to tell?

AA: With the vessels it’s literally building a canvas...

AA: It’s a bit different with the figures... I see them in my meditations, the shapes first...

AA: And then comes the surface painting after...

AA: Also it all started when I saw one old Iranian figure in the Fitzwilliam Museum

AA:

ND: Oh wow... that's an amazing piece

ND: I can completely see how your figures grew from that

ND: Amazing glaze on that one too

AA: It is amazing... And it's earthenware with lustre

AA: That is the one piece that made the turn with my sculptures... Before that I did not see these kinds of shapes

ND: Reminds me a lot of Spanish ceramics and William de Morgan plates from the Arts & Crafts era

ND:

AA: Wow

AA: Thank you 😍

ND: He made some amazing chargers too

AA: I’ve been wanting to use red clay for ages and just play with red and white and clear glaze

AA: That just inspired me

ND: He was very into fish and dragons 🐟🐉

AA: Fish and mermaids for me 😅

ND: I can see that working very very well

AA: I want to start carving my surfaces too

AA: Ohh so much new stuff to make

ND: Here’s a song for you… Horizons by Anna Phoebe

ND: Do you listen to anything in the studio?

AA: Beautiful 👌

AA: Oh yes music is soooo important to me😌

ND: What are you into? I'm a total music magpie... always interested in other people's influences

AA: Right now this guy on repeat

AA: Here’s an artist I want to share with you… Leif Vollebekk

ND: Yeah... I'm loving this... love his voice

AA: It's awesome

AA: The lyrics as well

ND: Here’s a song for you… The Power by Daniel Norgren

ND: Here’s a song for you… Rolling Rolling Rolling by Daniel Norgren

ND: I think you'll really like that whole album

AA: Great thank you

ND: And do you know Kaleo?

ND: Here’s an album for you… A/B KALEO

AA: Thank you 😌

AA: Here’s an album for you… WHITE NOISE Noah Gundersen

ND: Despite loving lots of music, I can sometimes be really unaware of the lyrics for a long time... 😅

AA: I always hear the lyrics first

AA: And they stick in my brain

ND: What's next for you? Have you got a show that you're working towards?

AA: Next planned exhibition is at JGM Gallery in London 2021

ND: Ooo, nice... they have a lovely space

ND: Solo or group show?

AA: They do.

AA: I think me and a painter

ND: I'm very hopeful that you'll have another show in 2021 with my exhibition... but I'll have to keep you posted on that after a few meetings

AA: Oh that sounds very exciting 😁

My thanks to Anne for taking the time to chat with me - these blog posts are published monthly, but if you want to access more exclusive content and to help my research, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

I also post photos daily to my Instagram profile.