Anna Rothlin

In a traditional Eastern cultural context, consciousness and matter are intertwined. In that context negative and positive spaces relate to each other.
With that in mind, the vessel is an interesting object to work with.

In my master work I explore “Thinking through making”, a process where making and thinking alternate back and forth, in iterations. The making or designing can be taking place intuitively.
We face big questions about liveability on earth, not just small practical problems that need to be addressed. That is why I did not develop an industrial mass produced product and the reason why my theme might seem like taking on much. This is not great art, nor cool design, it is a way of thinking and acting together with a material and a technique.

By making diminutive stoneware vessels, I enter a long tradition of the time-consuming, hand-building technique of Yixing clay teapots, and the even longer tradition in history of potterers. Scaling down the vessel, to the point where it has no contemporary practical function, as a way of talking about the practice of sensitivity. In a fast and insatiable present.

By re:learning to become more sensitive, empathy for different types of existence becomes possible, and togetherness between human beings and their companion species opens up.