Disrupted systems, knitted porcelain, earthenware, 2011. Photo: Claudia Corrent
Disrupted systems express the vulnerability of the human body in its physicality, while the morphology of the textile becomes the tool with which to materially visualize its precariousness, a fragile and corruptible system in the moment the organs cease to function well. Disrupted systems is a collection of knitted materials, also made of porcelain, Bone China and earthenware. They are created manually, by knitting a thread of clay with large wooden “knitting needles”.
It is no coincidence that Marie Ilse Bourlanges and Elena Khurtova, have chosen knitted material for this project, where the continuity of the thread (a single uninterrupted thread) communicates the idea of organic growth in expansion, like a chain of stitches that repeats and becomes denser through the technique of knitting, more or less impenetrable according to the method.
The work is prevalently created in fine porcelain, which expresses a sense of fragility and an impression of durability. It recalls an idea of a system in a broad sense, not only cellular and organic, but also social, widening the reflection to the human need to trust in a regulatory structure, even in the knowledge of its inherent instability.
In their research Marie Ilse Bourlanges and Elena Khurtova, who have worked together since 2009, combine traditional sculptural techniques with modern technology, in a sculptural investigation that conceives the work as a whole process, through the creation of installations and objects that overcome the gap between form and content, in a dynamic and vital tension between matter and memory.
Disrupted systems, knitted black porcelain, 2011. Photo: Claudia Corrent
Disrupted systems, knitted porcelain, knitted black porcelain, earthenware, 2011. Photo: Agnese Morganti
Marie Ilse Bourlanges (1983, Paris) and Elena Khurtova (1982, Samara, Russia) live in Amsterdam and have worked together since 2009.
They both studied Architectural Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, specializing respectively in Textile Design and Ceramics.
Khurtova/Bourlanges’s work has been published in numerous art editions, as well as presented in personal and collective exhibitions, including: Le Dragon, Delph, Delv, Drag (personal), PlanB, Amsterdam, Holland, 2016; Cognitive Dissonance, Spartanburg Art Museum, USA, 2016; International Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics, Vallauris, France, 2014; Prospect & Concepts, curated by Wim Waelput, Art Rotterdam, Holland, 2013.
