Mette Maya Gregersen was born in 1973 and studied towards a BA in Ceramics at Camberwell College of Arts, between 1996 and 1999. She also trained as a potter in Denmark and spent 5 years working in France before moving to England. She now lives and works in Denmark.
Mette moulds wet clay around wooden shapes before firing the work. She speaks beautifully about the process of creating her wave pieces and what they mean to her: ‘The wave reflects the constant movement in time, how nothing stays the same but is influenced by time. In the firing, the wood burns away to leave a wave-like memory, a solid fragment of something fluid and ephemeral. Our life experiences change us, leaving lasting marks, but the “solid” moment of experience is gone forever. I have travelled many places in search of something, only to find that each place leaves nothing but a fleeting impression. It is these fleeting moments that find permanent form in my wave work.’
Each of these pieces is fired several times and creating these waves absorbs Mette totally: ‘When building up a piece of work, I become intensely absorbed, an intimacy which leaves no room for compromise.’ This patience and artistic absorption results in real excellence, recognised by the fact that Danish-based Mette has won a string of ceramics awards in Denmark, including the Unika Prize, the Silkeborg Culture Fond award and the 2010 Art & Design Prize of 1879. Publications featuring Mette’s work includeCeramic Review, Sep/Oct 2011;101 Kunstnere, by Tom Jørgensen; Experience Clay, Maureen Mackey andThe Complete Practical Potter, by Josie Warshaw.
