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With energetic simplicity and the aid of harness and hoist,
Merete Larsen coaxes a solid 300 kg beech block into her
workshop, and transforms this brute mass into a translucid bowl,
capable of being sustained by a single hand. The unimaginable
lightness of her pieces has become the trademark of this Danish
cabinetmaker, who discovered the potential of the lathe whilst
learning how to restore antique furniture. Educated in Denmark
and later in the U.K., she worked for a while at the V. & A.,
before joining the Hampshire workshop of cabinetmaker Ben
Norris. Four years later, she established her own business, and
criss-crossed Europe at the wheel of a van equipped as a mobile
workshop, stopping here and there to restore a collector’s piece
of furniture. On her way, she made many stops at museums and
found herself admiring the subtleness of 18th century china
bowls. Thus inspired, she decided to experiment with bowl making
in her own medium, the wood she knows like the back of her hand.
In 1992 she buys her first lathe and embarks upon her solitary
exploration of wood turning, initially influenced by the quest
for delicacy evident in the early works of Jim Partridge.
Equipped with a couple of gouges and her simple and robust
lathe, Merete Larsen eliminates layer after layer as the hours
pass, pushing refinement to its’ absolute limit; the thickness
of the subject material diminishes into transparency. The light
of a lamp placed behind the object serves as an indicator,
permitting her to judge when to halt her action before it
becomes fatal. Vanishing in shavings, the original heavy mass is
transformed into a featherweight object of less than a 100
grammes. Wafer-thin, smoother than skin, her pieces evoke the
touching fragility of a membrane. The life story of the parent
tree is readable in their filigree grain. Their millimetre thin
sides endow them with great suppleness making them susceptible
to internal tensions. « They may well flex with heat or
humidity, but they do not crack », the artist explains. Merete
Larsen utilises local species like beech and oak, green or
seasoned, often discards. Her understanding of the material
allows her to spot from which part to select the accident of
nature, the pattern traced by a fungus attack, the motives
offered by moulds and rot. Lately, her experience of patinas in
furniture restoration has led to test new finishes for her
pieces. Her bowls assumed vivid colours, bright yellow, apple
green, and turquoise. Or even a magnificent red, the result of a
lac varnish patiently applied in all of forty layers! Certain
surfaces even assume a metallic aspect. « Sometimes, visitors
think they are made of clay, » says Marianne Brand, who
presented the artist for the seventh time in March this year in
her Carouge gallery in Geneva. In just over ten years, the works
of Merete Larsen have had the run of the best American galleries
like Del Mano or Patina, been introduced several times at Sofa
and joined the collections of the Museum of Craft and Design in
New York. In 2002, the Museum of Applied Arts in Copenhagen
devoted a large personal exhibition to her work. Two years
later, she was one of the artists selected to create an official
wedding gift for HRH the Crown Prince of Denmark.
Pascale Nobécourt
Published in the Revue Ateliers d’Art, No 63, May/June 2006 (www.ateliersdart.com) |