Dimensions of Time
Inese Brants
I guess we all have wondered if it is possible to travel across the nominal dimensions of what we perceive as time. And can we ever reach the point of absolute connection where present, past and future overlap? One answer that immediately comes to mind is film. Sat in a darkened room, we see a white screen come to life and suddenly may find ourselves in what can best be called a timeless state. However, the sensation is so fleeting… Thus, how do we experience the three dimensions? This feels like an unfathomable task, but in the subject world, it can be done via creation through imaginative thought and message and the author’s innovative drive.
Inese Brants is a distinguished porcelain painter and an unfading leading light in Latvian contemporary ceramics. Her long-lasting relationship with the material has been imbued with passion, joy and other powerful emotions. The budding artist’s fondness for ceramics blossomed at the Rīga Secondary School of Applied Arts and went from strength to strength throughout her studies at the Latvia State Academy of Art (now Art Academy of Latvia). I am inclined to side with Pēteris Martinsons, who was a pillar of authority in Latvian and international ceramic circles and whose description of the promising emerging artist and her potential turned out prophetic. Brants is indeed the quintessential creator, not only in her many solo exhibitions and countless group shows across domestic and international venues but also in inspired organising work towards maintaining the Latvia International Porcelain Painting Symposium – a powerful and formative tradition on our country’s art scene. Brants is a passionate practitioner of porcelain painting – she keeps her hand on the pulse for new developments in her beloved discipline, publishes research-based books on porcelain décor technologies and teaches porcelain painting to children, thus building the future of Latvian porcelain art.
Her dedication and perfectionism inspire admiration. Brants captures her creative ideas with consummate technological excellence, expertly handling the notoriously challenging material. She knows that porcelain is unforgiving and every tiniest mistake will have its cost. Brants paints compelling porcelain worlds, where she reflects on the relationship of past and present and sends a message relevant today. Her artist’s touch lifts objects out of the realm of pure utilitarianism as she continues her endless creative pursuit of new technologies and forms.
In essence, with her artworks, Brants makes outspoken mediums of narrative across the flow of time. In her creations, time does not flow away; it carries on and casts a shadow. Yesterday’s realities become today’s memories, while tomorrow remains a dream. Her artist’s credo is living in the moment and creative self-expression, identifying novel opportunities, building awareness and lifting true stories out of obscurity through fresh interpretative variations. She pays a heartfelt and creative tribute to the largely forgotten decaling heritage of the former Rīga Porcelain Factory’s creative laboratory. In her contemporary re-imaginings, the decals seamlessly blend into lavishly painted compositions as striking testaments to an endlessly seeking creative spirit. Brants has a distinctive technique – to reinterpret elements of old-time found materials. This form of creative recycling is relevant today and should be even more so for the generations yet to come. With her expert touch, the triple dimensions of past, present and future are figuratively and indistinguishably blended into a new holistic artwork. The new technologies are an ideal and most fascinating instrument of creativity for Brants. She delves into lovingly guarded museum collections to source historical photographs and processes them into digitally printed decals for interpretative compositions where photography and ceramics meet in a seamless synthesis with elements of painting, lavish platinum and gold. Essentially, her artworks are about the value that we place on human life in times of war and independence struggles. In her ceramics, time and matter overlap. Historically laden themes most certainly deserve exploring, but she will take a broader view that looks beyond the narrow and predominantly local context. Instead, Brants makes us think about the larger global problems of survival and contemplate what future holds.
The artist’s thoughtful, meaningful approach and ongoing pursuit of harmony, backed by amazing technological prowess and high precision that enable a remarkably creative blending of techniques and materials, grab the viewer’s attention and make the eye look long and deep into the utterly compelling porcelain rendition of our controversial age.
Dace Ļaviņa
ceramics collection manager, Museum of Decorative Arts and Design
Exhibition period: 31 May 2024 – 25 August 2024
