Nadia Pasquer

Nadia Pasquer studied art and worked as an professor of drawing in Paris during the 1960’s, until she relocated to Morogues (in le Berry) in 1974 to pursue the creation of ceramics in a wood-burning kiln. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, and was shown in 2004 by Pierre Staudenmeyer in his Paris gallery Mouvements Modernes. She is represented by Pierre-Marie Giraud in Brussels, where she exhibits frequently.

It is notable that Nadia is based in Morogues (a hamlet just south of La Borne), since her work may be perceived as visually and perhaps conceptually antithetical to the traditional stoneware ceramics for which La Borne is more widely known. While many artisans of this region have engaged the earthy tones and coarse physicality of the clay as essential elements in their work, Pasquer’s pieces use the substance of earth to evoke the celestial. They are deliberately polished with clean and careful precision, then smoked or covered in slip, until the nature of the underlying material becomes ambiguous in this transformation de l’épiderme.

Far from being utilitarian in the literal sense, they are inspired by abstractions of shapes in nature or created in proportions derived from the study of concepts in the history of geometry, astronomy, and art. The polyèdres for instance refer to the artist’s singular interpretation of the five Platonic solids; named polyèdres étoilés they are incised with lines of constellations. If they could be said to serve a function, it would be that of fostering deep reflection, perhaps of the objects themselves, of his- tory, of the unknown, or of one’s position within the terrestrial and celestial realms. Described as “objects of contemplation,” these introspective pieces transport the viewer from quotidian concerns.

"Viewer" seems in fact an inadequate term in describing the experience of interacting with these objects as they are purposefully designed to lack an apparent front or back, top or bottom; there is no correct or established point from which to comprehend them. They present the challenge of demanding active engagement—through this exchange, they serve as a source of energy, a concept that brings to mind the lingam, another area of interest to Pasquer. Her mature work — whether it is the smoked pieces, which are stunning in their depth of layered darkness, or her recent research into white, which demonstrates a completely new reaction to light—is characterized by restraint of material and technique, achieving profun- dity through simplicity.