Keramikos 2

Keramikos 2 is a collection of more than 300 ceramic dinnerware with accompanying tablecloths by Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and Natsuko Uchino, an ongoing collaboration between the two artists. This second series follows the artists’ first iterative project that began in Amsterdam in 2010 and which they have pursued alongside their personal interdisciplinary artistic activities, including painting, installation and performance. As a project, Keramikos is a post relational-aesthetic sculpture which was always presented through its activation in food related events. Keramikos 2 took form as a travelling dinner event tour.

Since 2010, Lutz-Kinoy and Uchino have produced four iterations of their Keramikos artwork, with each presentation uniquely adapting to site and local chefs. At large, the ceramics explore historical figures, works and movements, drawing motifs and inspiration from their specific sites of production, from Spain’s Hispano- Moresque, Byzantine and Islamic ceramics (Keramikos 3), to early 20th century Anglo-Japanese’s slipware exchange (Keramikos 4).

This extensive banquet set from 2012 samples its motifs and references from a time when Natsuko and Matthew were enveloped in canons of feminist art history. Many artist peers passed through to assist in the production; piles of library books filled the ceramic studio on the works of Barbara Kruger, Yvonne Rainer, Judy Chicago. Using The Dinner Party as a point of departure, the artists asked themselves, What if this permanent installation was a functional ceramic set or an outline for future performances? Imagine a sculpture that could displace hierarchies through its utility as a functional decorative object, constantly alter its presentation, interact with its environment, and be utilised as a performative platform.

Marking 13 years since its first presentation, the artists have expressed an interest in moving forward by looking backwards. This display of Keramikos 2 brings together three texts all presented in unique formats, creating a timeline of the project’s collaborations. Natsuko Uchino’s text Backwash (2009) presented here as a printed wall text, highlights the exigency on issues of cleanliness, social order, bacteria and health. Vivian Zirhel’s text from 2011 was printed on the table cloths used during Keramikos dinners; it regards french salon cultures and the history of the printed page as a feminist social space. Finally a text written by Tenzing Barshee and Matthew Lutz-Kinoy printed as an exhibition poster playfully historicizes Keramikos’ coming-to-life as seen through the eyes of their friend Robbie Fitzpatrick.

Displayed on the ground floor of Fitzpatrick Gallery, the ceramic collection is set inside a fictional stainless steel ghost kitchen, surrounded by soiled table cloths and featuring many jars of kimchi and sauerkraut by the Parisian bakery Fermentation Générale.

Selection of traveling dinners and events:

The tolerant home, Siebe Tettero, Amsterdam October 31 - November 17, 2013

Kunsthalle Charlottenborg August 29 - September 1, 2013

Kunsthalle Baden Baden March 3 - April 7, 2013

Foreign Figs for Florence, Dingum at Villa Romona, Florence September 8 - 9, 2012

Restaurant at Elaine, Museum für Gegenwarts Kunst, Basel June 10, 20