2023, 45x40x18cm, Media: Wild Clay/Raw Clay, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Unglazed
The artwork 'Homescreen' was crafted during a residency at the Yingge Ceramic Museum in Taiwan. It uses natural Taiwanese clays and porcelain to depict soybean roots in the soil. Soybeans, being the fourth most grown plant globally, owe their success to a complex root system that works with rhizobial bacteria. 'Homescreen' is made up of artistic elements shaped from plaster molds of soybean roots, forming root-like structures. Natural Taiwanese clays and iron oxides represent the soil. The installation aims to explore global connections and symbiotic relationships.
2023, 220x80x80cm, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
2023, 60x50cm, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
2023, 220x200x200cm, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
To feed and energize 8 billion people, agriculture has taken on the role of chief in today's economy. After sugar cane, maize is the second most widely grown crop in the world. The sculpture "Agreement. Energycorn" is made of earthenware, which is classically used for industrial tableware. To create the sculpture, whole corn plants were casted in around 20 different plaster moulds. Waste from industrial agriculture such as corn leaves, roots and stalks were used in the form of ash to create a glaze. During development, the maize plant takes in various elements. Fungicides, herbicides and insecticides also influence the chemical balance of the plants, which appear in ash glaze as brown, green, red impurities. The ceramic sculpture picks up on themes such as globalization and ecology.
2022, 220x240x80 cm, Media: Earthenware / Terracotta, Firing Process: Electric, Mid-range, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
To feed and energize 8 billion people, agriculture has taken on the role of chief in today's economy. After sugar cane, maize is the second most widely grown crop in the world. The sculpture "Agreement. Energycorn" is made of earthenware, which is classically used for industrial tableware. To create the sculpture, whole corn plants were casted in around 20 different plaster moulds. Waste from industrial agriculture such as corn leaves, roots and stalks were used in the form of ash to create a glaze. During development, the maize plant takes in various elements. Fungicides, herbicides and insecticides also influence the chemical balance of the plants, which appear in ash glaze as brown, green, red impurities. The ceramic sculpture picks up on themes such as globalization and ecology.
2022, 30x20x15cm, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
2022, approx 300x200x100cm, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
Almost 300 casts of sugar beet roots, made from a sanitary ceramic mass glazed with sugar beet leaf ash, are randomly arranged in a pile. If these non-productive production bodies represent the ideal image of a muscular fruiting body without a mouth, limbs, organs, posture, or expression, then the ashes in this ceramic installation play the role of a witness. Just as excess ingested sugar can be detected in human body in the form of reserve fat, the brown color of the ashes also reveals the presence of copper, earth, and other chemical elements and substances that the sugar beet came into contact with during their lifetime through conventional agriculture. This ceramic installation addresses the relationship between humans and nature, particularly in terms of food production and consumption.
2021, approx 300x200x100cm, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Surface: Glazed, Oxide
Almost 300 casts of sugar beet roots, made from a sanitary ceramic mass glazed with sugar beet leaf ash, are randomly arranged in a pile. If these non-productive production bodies represent the ideal image of a muscular fruiting body without a mouth, limbs, organs, posture, or expression, then the ashes in this ceramic installation play the role of a witness. Just as excess ingested sugar can be detected in human body in the form of reserve fat, the brown color of the ashes also reveals the presence of copper, earth, and other chemical elements and substances that the sugar beet came into contact with during their lifetime through conventional agriculture. This ceramic installation addresses the relationship between humans and nature, particularly in terms of food production and consumption.
2021, 58x39 cm, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze
2021, 50x47 cm, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Low-fire, Surface: Engobe / Slip / Underglaze
Artist Statement
Linda Luse's artistic practice reflects seemingly dry themes such as work, debt, economics, agriculture and daily life. Through her installations and sculptures, she presents the ambiguity of these everyday topics. In her ceramic works, contemporary materials fuse with traditional and ancient ceramic techniques. Pressed moulds, slip casting and inventive hand building techniques are combined to create organic and fragile composite sculptures. Her self-created glazes incorporate waste products from industrial agriculture, such as leaves from sugar beets, corn, and nettles, which are included in the glaze as ash. Fungicides, herbicides and insecticides also influence the chemical balance of the plants, which appear in ash glaze as brown, green, red impurities. Luse’s installations are dedicated to highlighting issues such as globalization, mass production, and ecology.
Bio
Linda Luse is a ceramist based in Austria. In 2022, after completing her MA degree in Sculptural Conceptions/Ceramics at the University of Art Linz, she was awarded the “Energie AG Talent Award 2021” for young artists for her ceramic installation “There is no growth without debt.” During her participation in the Artist in Residence program at the “Academy of Ceramics Gmunden,” she created a highly complex and vulnerable ceramic installation titled “Agreement. Energycorn,” pushing the boundaries of earthenware traditionally used for tableware.In 2023, she participated in the Artist in Residence program at the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan with her project “Homescreen,” combining natural Taiwanese clays and porcelain to represent soybean roots in the soil. In the same year, she received several young artist prizes, including the “Upper Austrian Talent Award for Fine Arts” and the “Soroptimist Female Artist Award.” Since 2016, Luse has actively exhibited her work at national and international exhibitions, including the XVI Aveiro International Artistic Ceramics Biennial in Portugal and the Latvian Ceramics Biennale 2023.