Felicithas Arndt

Translation of the speech by Dr Martina Wehlte on the occasion of the vernissage on 05.03.2023 at Kunstverein Bruchsal

“Felicithas Arndt is an artist whose work focusses on ceramics. After studying Southeast Asian Studies and Sinology in Frankfurt, she took the decisive step into art in 2014 and enrolled at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in her home town of Offenbach. With a DAAD scholarship, she spent a semester abroad in China at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2018 and her delicate drawings seem to be somewhat inspired by her impressions of Asia.”

Felicitha Arndt’s aesthetic objects and reliefs are artistic creations analogous to nature, without imitating it. Her rhythmically flowing forms are carefully worked out, the immanent movement, the surface reliefs of capillaries and narrow webs are created in the course of the work process without any prior design. The entire appearance alternates between compact and permeable and is characterised by the interplay of inside and outside. Fluctuation and Pieces of Nature are fitting titles for these works of different sizes, which are usually fired twice and either left natural or glazed to give them a nuanced colour. As with the sponge animals, the delicacy of the walls, their simultaneous stability and the receptivity of the entire body is a labyrinthine marvel that draws our gaze into the unfathomable interior, into a hidden centre. The horny egg capsules of the catshark were also the inspiration for some of the objects. The capsules are about 6 cm long, translucent light brown in colour and have curled threads at the corners. They are fruit capsules of nascent life and the goblet-like opening standing objects or the flat reliefs spreading across the wall also seem to be filled with life.

Felicithas Arndt is interested in primitive natural systems, meandering forms and symbiotic communities. Fungi with their widely ramified mycelia, algae, lichens or even sponges are robust survival artists whose principles could be adopted by humans, just as they have often taken nature as a model for technical developments. In her work, the ceramist thus also offers a constructive approach in the age of the Anthropocene, in which the possessive, destructive character of the human species is usually focussed on. Her stoneware works are heavily hardened by double firing, meaning they hardly absorb any water and are therefore also suitable for outdoor use.

The clay capillaries provide a home for earthworms or beetles in the garden, are mossed over and thus give something back to nature that was previously taken from it as clay, so that nature ultimately regains the upper hand. Incidentally, this form of co-operation is also used on a large scale as a kind of renaturation when 3D coral reefs are installed in the sea so that natural corals can colonise them again.

Felicithas Arndt is aware of this and her artistic approach should be seen in the context of a holistic way of thinking that recognises and acknowledges the interdependencies in nature, the beneficial cooperation and the longevity achieved by conserving resources.

The large ink drawings on tissue paper fit harmoniously into this cosmos. The blue-green fish, a dragon-like fantasy creature, the mysterious black bird whose body flows into abstract dissolution, reveal influences from Asian motifs and drawing art. Fragile-looking porcelain works in bright white and collagraphs complete the spectrum of this exhibition. A collagraph is a print of material – in this case clay – on paper, cardboard or another solid surface. The sheets on display create an optical effect reminiscent of the falling and spreading of a slightly coloured drop of water on a calm surface. Also unusual are the sediments presented behind glass, compositions of wafer-thin, paper-like porcelain sheets, coloured white and blue. They are fired to over 1200 degrees and then dried for one to two weeks. Felicithas Arndt’s oeuvre to date is characterised by a love of experimentation, a wealth of ideas, creative energy and solid craftsmanship. She is breaking new ground and one can assume that this has required some patience.

In any case, all the effort is worth it, because the young artist shows aesthetically and technically impressive works and certainly has a promising development ahead of her. In her still short career, she has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and now has her first solo exhibition in Bruchsal. From 15 May, she will be represented at the International Ceramics Triennial in Slovenia and from 1 July in Faenza, Italy, where she has been nominated for the Grand International Ceramics Prize. That alone is remarkable and we wish her every success at both forums.”