ARTIST

Judith Bout-Commeau

Informed by her study of Chinese, Judith Bout-Commeau shapes works in which trace and material become language. Animals, tripods and skeletal forms evoke contemporary archaeological forms. Sometimes utilitarian, always symbolic, they appear to be in a state of metamorphosis.

Judith Bout-Commeau brings together research, sinology and a need to grapple with matter through ceramics — once with words, now with clay. In 2024, she undertook a residency in Taiwan, where she developed more sculptural forms.

Judith Bout-Commeau’s work with clay is driven by three obsessions.

STANDING UPRIGHT
The first is existential. Since Aristotle, upright posture has been seen as what distinguishes humans from animals; yet nothing is less stable. Gravity constantly unsettles us, balanced as we are on the fragile base of two feet. Each piece is an attempt to shape momentum within the pull of weight.

SUGGESTING
The second obsession is intellectual. Judith has studied Chinese for over thirty years. This concrete, pictorial language — in which meaning arises from the association of images — reshapes perception. Traces of this can be found in her work: bending the line, shifting the point of balance, suggesting rather than demonstrating.

EXPERIENCING
The third obsession, finally, is physical: a celebration of moments of bodily jubilation. Is there anything more urgent at a time when screens pixelate our emotions? Irregular lines, fingerprints and nail marks — those precious “imperfections” — create that indefinable quality which brings warmth to living matter.