JULIA SCHUSTER

Master Class with Alexandra Engelfriet 'Materiality - Body as a tool - Ceramic heritage as matter'
Part of the European Ceramic Context 2014


A frame is provided. A site. A group. Five days. Raw matter.
Initiating, allowing an unbeknown space.
Open. Trusting. Safe. Self-contained.
I draw closer.
The moment of first taking my shoes off.
Sinking into the clay with my bare feet.
Slowly. Shy. It takes time and it gets time.
Then. Soon. A stillness is born. Nobody speaks.
An exercise in presence. Bliss. I embrace it.
Here and now. No intentions. Feeling. Breathing. I close my eyes.
In in inside me. So much there.
It is good. Just being. The motion of the soul.
To perceive and feel myself.
A dance. My dance. My dance with clay.
The most beautiful dance I have ever had.
I embrace the clay and it embraces me.
Joyful. Curious. Powerful. Demanding. Rythmic. Fast. Intense.
I remain breathless. I pause. I hold still. No time. I am.
I caress the clay and it caresses me.
Searching. Slowly. Carefully. Seeking. Sensing. Finding.
I remain without words.
Gratitude.
The next days I return to the clay longing.
Encounters. Encounters with me, the clay, with soulmates.
We find each other. I can feel her through the clay without touching.
The body reaches out. A touch. One body. Two bodies. The clay around us. Skin deep.
A union most special. Movement and moving. Flow. Simple and profound.
At the end of each day a rite de passage. Washing ourselves in the ocean.
Vastness. Nature. Wind. Water.
A holy washing completing our expressions in clay each day.
I have experienced and felt something that the mind did not know.
Yet within my body it was always present. I have guessed it my whole life.
In the lack of intentionality I find love. 




Photos © Alexandra Engelfriet