London Design Festival: New departures, by Gabriele Koch

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Being an interior design student, I often have to work on creating 3D visuals that reflect well my ideas. My favourite type is model making, and this led me to experiment and research different materials. In the past few months, I have developed a passion for ceramics and pottery. The first thing I went to see within London's Design Festival, was New Departures, a solo exhibition by German ceramist Gabriele Koch.


The exhibition is being held at London's Contemporary Ceramics Centre and will be open until October 6th. In the exhibition, it is possible to see her most recent work, as well as past collections. This allows the visitors to see the way her style shifted. Gabriele Koch was born in Germany and spent most of her childhood in the Black Forest. She then moved to London, where she attended a ceramics course at Goldsmiths College.

Gabriele's latest collection revolves around the contrast between textures and colours. The roughness of the dark earthy clay with the smooth surface of porcelain, the black with the white. Then, in other pieces, the roles invert, and the porcelain is given a rough edgy finish, while the black clay is glassy and shiny. Compared to her past work, the shapes of the vessels are less organic and even simpler, allowing the eye to focus on the colours and the decorations. The patterns on the older pieces that she produced are more organic and natural, but they still play a harmony/contrast game with the shapes and the textures.











The natural and effortless simplicity of Gabriele's work is what really caught my attention: even without having a deep knowledge of this field, I was fascinated by her work. The capability of seeing unseen potential in simple shapes or materials is becoming a popular challenge among artists and designers, and I believe New Departures reached the goal.

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