Discipline
Abstract
Installation / Land / Site-specific
Material
Ceramic/Clay
Mixed media
Region
International
Biography
Martha Rieger was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1964; and has been living in Tel Aviv Israel and working there as a ceramic artist, since 1991.
Throughout the last 30 years she has been creating functional, decorative and artistic collections, showing them in different places worldwide, including Saatchi Gallery, Mino Ceramic Festival in Japan (where she won the judge's award prize), Cascais Portugal (first prize), Jingdezhen China, VI Biennal de Ceramica in Madrid, Ashton Court Estate in Bristol, Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Towson University in Maryland, etc., and all around Israel, for example the Haifa Museum of Art, the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, Trumpeldor Gallery in Beer Sheva, Mane-Katz Museum, Hecht Museum, etc.
Rieger has just graduated from Haifa University’s MFA program, where she attempted to challenge the boundaries between craft and art.
Since 2011, inspired by her work in her studio in Tel Aviv, Rieger has been creating special projects in Jingdezhen (China), where with the help of skilled artisans and the mass production facilities, she creates one of a kind large scale pieces.
Her work today is focused on the combination of traditional material and techniques from the east with a contemporaneous and western cultural approach. Her work is inspired by her passion for the old and the traditional while applying a deep, personal and unique interpretation both conceptually and physically.
Rieger’s work consists of thousands of small porcelain bowls which she created on the potter’s wheel in her studio over the past four months. The objects, seemingly small bowls containing little volume, similar to the functional bowls she used to make, now create a whole environment flooding the space from floor to ceiling. As Rieger steps on the bowls they break under her feet and form a path within the sculptural environment she created. She uses the power of multiplicity to create a route, a path, a new direction, and a possibility for a changing future. It is a ceremony for her break with the functionality of the objects she created as a potter and a symbolic act of seeking a new approach in her work. It represents the inclusion of the functional object into a work of art. The energy released from the actual marching on the objects gives new essentiality to both the material and the creative process. When the small bowls, hanging from the ceiling, touch one another, they produce soft sounds that combine with the sound of breaking bowls as they are stepped on. This was edited into a soundtrack that accompanies the work. Rieger invited visitors to walk along the paths she created and to experience the movement and sounds. The project was shown at Minshar Gallery, Tel Aviv, and Haifa University (MFA Graduate Show), Haifa, Israel, 2023.
This video was filmed in the ceramics captial Jingdezhen, China. The Israeli artist Martha Rieger and Wei Design studio worked together on this project. The biggest ceramic bubble after firing has a diameter of 100 cm.
Installation in Eretz Israel Museum by Martha Rieger, Tel Aviv. Music by Mika Hary and Mika Sade, roping by Arik Eshel.