Elizabeth Degenszejn

Two geometric shapes that have been distorted and show fluid movements

Elizabeth Degenszejn is a London based ceramic artist.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she studied Economics and followed a successful career in business and marketing.

She began experimenting with ceramics after having a family, following a life-long desire to work with her hands. Her passion for ceramics developed at Greenwich House Pottery in New York, where she lived with her family for 10 years.

Elizabeth’s determination to pursue a career in ceramics was made possible after a move to London in 2013, where she took a two-year Diploma course at City Lit, graduating in 2019.

Her graduation work ‘Squares’ was shortlisted for Fresh and exhibited in the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-On-Trent in 2019.

Elizabeth’s practice is studio based. Her ambition is to expand her research of materials and exploration of form and movement once she graduates. She is interested in collaborations and in developing relationships with galleries in the UK and abroad.

Portrait of the maker with her ceramic piece in hand

Elizabeth was drawn to clay because of its malleability. It is a medium that allows her to work instinctively and intuitively. Spontaneous gestures can easily mould wet clay into sculpture forms. She is fascinated by clay’s materiality, and its potential to be transformed into different states, textures, and colours to convey tension and conflict.

Specializing in hand building and slip casting, her subtle minimalist sculptures express a personal story, feelings and emotions formed in childhood.

She is drawn to the limits of edges and to how they can define a work’s meaning and aesthetic.

Her love of form informs a search for visual balance and refinement that gives the work a natural fluidity that conveys movement and transformation.

Currently, Elizabeth chooses to work with porcelain and Parian clay, for their elegance, purity of colour and natural sheen. She is committed to the quality of the finish, which can be seen through the smoothness of the surfaces she makes, and precision of her edges, both of which are polished and honed to perfection.

Geometric boxes of different sizes, in their original rigid forms, distorted with fluid movements and disrupted.

Release – (Sizes variable from 21H x 9.5W x 7D for the tallest, to 11.5H x 8W x 5.5D for the smallest)

Three rectangular boxes of same size, in their original rigid form, distorted with fluid movements and disrupted.

Release – (each 12H x 12W x 7D cm)

Elizabeth’s work speaks of self-acceptance. It confronts and questions expectations of perfection and the liberating emotions of embracing who we are and our limitations.

Release draws upon her childhood trauma and the internal dilemma of wanting to be herself, but needing to submit to her parents’ expectations.

Pure white sculptures in Parian clay, distinguished by its satin sheen, reference notions of porcelain’s elegance and the confines of tradition it entails. By gently distorting a perfect geometrical shape Elizabeth transforms its rigid structure to allow an asymmetric aesthetic that conveys movement, fluidity, and change.

Elements of rigidity harmoniously coexist with the sensuality of curves and signs of rupture, in a balance between conformity and liberation.

Medium:

Parian clay, fine silver

One box in its original geometric shape, another one same size, distorted.

Rigidity and Fluidity – (each 17H x 17W x 13D cm)

One box in its original geometric shape, another one same size, distorted and restrained by a painted string.

Rigidity and Restrained – (each 17H x 17W x 11D cm)

Two boxes glued together. One of them, distorted, seems to want to separate and be free.

Stuck – (12.5H x 17W x 12D cm)

Stuck – (12.5H x 13W x 8D cm)

Elizabeth’s sculptural ceramic forms express the conflict between conformity and independence, by suggesting internal pressures that reveal the tensions created between the desire to individuate and the need to comply with what is expected of you.

Medium:

Parian Clay, fine silver, ceramic transfer

Emotion Healing Identity Materiality Memory Society

3 square boxes showing areas of distortion with more fluidity

Fluidity – (each 17H x 17W x 10D cm)

3 tall elegant rectangular boxes showing areas of distortion with more fluidity

Fluidity – (each 21H x 9.5W x 7D cm)

Elizabeth’s work illustrates this transformation, the constant ebb and flow of relinquishing control and breaking from rigidity to allow a more fluid and flexible identity.

Medium:

Parian clay, fine silver

Box showing distorted areas that are more fluid and others that have been ruptured

Rupture – (17H x 17W x 21D cm)

Rupture – (17H x 10.5W x 5.5D cm)

Partial view of box showing distorted areas that are more fluid and others that have been ruptured

Rupture – (detail)

This process of transformation culminates in a point of rupture – liberation – expressed by embracing the beauty of shattered edges and accentuating the stress cracks with fine silver.

Medium:

Parian clay, fine silver

Emotion Healing Identity Materiality Memory Society

Elizabeth Degenszejn

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About

Royal College of Art

Elizabeth Degenszejn

Medium:

Medium:

Medium:

Medium:

MME

Social

About

Royal College of Art