Bouke de Vries: Fire, Works

About

VEGAS Gallery is delighted to present ‘Fire, Works' Bouke de Vries first solo show with the gallery, showcasing new works in which De Vries continues to examine the contradictions surrounds the perception of perfection. Creating new sculptures from the broken remains of ceramic vessels and figurines, the artist began his career as a restorer of ceramics. While studying at conservation college, De Vries was asked to assist in sorting through crates and crates of the fire-damaged remains of the important ceramics collection at Uppark House in West Sussex, a National Trust property, still partly occupied by the Meade-Fetherstonhaugh family. A devastating fire in the 1980s destroyed the very important collection of ceramics that was housed on the first floor. The intense heat had caused the ceramics to distort, the glaze to burn and most of the original decoration to be burnt off, leaving behind a ghost of its past glory. Created deliberately in extreme fire conditions, the most traumatic event in the history of these objects is taken as a new starting point for the exhibition and instead of it causing them to be discarded, it triggers a new chapter in their story as, phoenix-like, they rise transformed to live again.