Katie Jacobs (far left) enjoys Dinnertime at Guldagergaard
At first I thought I was turning into my grandmother. Which doesn't normally happen at 24. Without noticing I'd become obsessed with the new Crown Princess of Denmark, to the point where I would be buying both New Idea and Who magazine in the same week just to get my hands on more pictures of “Our Mary”. I knew I was in trouble when I begged the local newsagent for their poster of the cover of the Women's Weekly, which had a picture of the princess looking rather stiff and robot-like in an off-the-shoulder red dress. The headline, “Mary Too Glamorous – Palace Upset”, was also supplemented with a photo of Fred looking indifferent, captioned “Frederik Outshone”. This poster I immediately placed on the fridge to the amusement of my flatmates. Their initial encouragement turned to thinly-veiled hostility, after the fifth time some innocent guest of theirs asked the question “What is Mary doing on your fridge?”, which was my cue to talk at length about my new favourite subject.
I should explain that my initial interest in Mary was largely due to the fact I was going to Denmark and she was all I knew of the country apart from Royal Copenhagen porcelain, Hans Christian Anderson and long days in summer.
I am currently at the Guldagergård Ceramic Center in Skaelskør, which is two hours from Copenhagen . The town is quite small, which consists of a harbour, a microbrewery, a few great second-hand shops and about twelve artists-in-residence for an international seminar on Storytelling and Poetry.
I have a studio at the Centre for two months, and have found that I am not even close to being the most obsessive of the artists. Ilona Romule is an amazing artist from Latvia , who makes perfect plaster molds of various hand-sculpted components to form her gothic-inspired porcelain artworks. She then paints them immaculately with gold lustre and china paints often using only tiny dots to illustrate beautiful scenes and textures. We have given her the nickname of the “Long Legged Queen of Casting”.
American artist Richard Notkin also has an amazing process. His current project is going to be constructed from approximately 1,500 tiles that are 5cm by 5cm, which will all be fired so smoke makes black patterns on the clay. These will then be arranged perfectly so the smoky dark colours on the tiles will form the two-dimensional image of a political world leader. The tiles are not flat though, they are the relief shapes of skulls, and cooling towers and bones and bricks.
My project for the summer is to make a bust of the new Crown Princess and cast many life-sized heads from it. I intend to glaze them all white and hang them on the wall as if Mary is swimming out of it – like the Han's Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid, or the a contemporary version of a figurehead from a Norse or English ship. I will add raised patterns to the sckin surface that have been inspired by Royal Copenhagen porcelain. It is fortunate for me to have experienced mold-makers like Ilona and Richard here to help with the casting and sculpting process of such a piece.
When I arrived here at Guldagergård, there was a letter waiting for me with the Royal Stamp of Amalienborg on it…the princess must have replied to the letter I had written three weeks before coming to Denmark! I opened it and found that she had thanked me for my brooch and photos of my work, but unfortunately would not be able to come and sit for a portrait. It was probably just as well, I might have frozen under the pressure and not been able to produce anything at all! I just sighed and looked at my thick pile of magazines. I am glad I had this little obsession, because now I have something to work from.
Katie finished her Bachelor of Applied Arts (Ceramics) (Honours) in 2002. Since then, she has been to Germany for an exhibition, to discover that it really is the land of chocolate. She has been showing since then at Linden Gallery (Acland Street, St. Kilda), Seventh Gallery (Gertrude Street, Fitzroy), and Heide Museum of Modern Art (Templestowe Road Bulleen), among others. She would like to thank the Ian Potter Foundation for their generous support toward undertaking the residency in at the Guldagergaard Ceramic Centre in Denmark.
Last modified 29-Aug-2005
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