Maarten Heijkamp

• Info
• About my work
• CV
• Contact

• Works
• Selected camera obscura works

• In Progress: Ceramics
• 1-About
• 2-Project Description
• 3-Camera Obscura Construction
• 4-Projection Panel Construction
• 5-Camera Obscura Experiments
• 6-Technical Research
• 7-Drying and Firing
• 8-EKWC Presentation
• 9-Currently

• Project Archive
• Summer at The Moth
• P.A.I.R. Landscape and Memory
• When to Pave a Gravel Road
• Catch and Release

• Method
• Camera Obscura #1
• Camera Obscura #2
• Camera Obscura #3
• Camera Obscura #4 (Current)

• Other activities
• Curating #4 (Mathijs Lieshout)
• Curating #3 (Tonio de Roover)
• Curating #2 (Abel Heijkamp)
• Curating #1 (Frank Konincks)

2-Project Description

Introduction

Currently I'm developing a method to make large format ceramic reliefs using a camera obscura.
An extremely volatile medium will meet the timeless nature of ceramics.

Motivation

My work as a visual artist consists of making monumental photographic works with the aid of self built camera obscura’s. The work questions photographic representation and our perception of objects.
I was struck by parallels between ceramic glazes and the photographic emulsion; I decided to research transferring my photographic visual language to ceramics. In order to do so, I will build a camera obscura to expose the scene directly onto wet clay. This will result in a series of monumental tableaus in which the surface will play a major role, just like in my photographic work.

Research

Due to the nature of the project and since ceramics is a new medium to me I had to overcome lots of technical challenges. I was admitted to a 3 month artist-in- residence programme at the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC, a centre of expertise in the field of ceramics in Den Bosch, NL). During this period I developed a method to translate the projection inside the Camera Obscura to a ceramic relief.

Artistic research aspects:

1. Finding visual solutions to transfer the projected camera obscura image to a wet clay tableau; translating visual to tactile
2. Working with glaze makes me a painter; can I maintain myself as such?
3. Researching the impact of the difference between a ‘live’ projection in the camera obscura and a projected ‘fixed’ image.
4. Glaze in ceramics differs from pigment in a photographic emulsion. Researching the way color and structure are formed in ceramics as base material and top layer interact.
5. Finding parallels between glazes and photographic blur
6. Researching the role of colour as a time indicator in photography

Technical research aspects

1. How to mount wet clay on the (vertical) projection panel and how to prevent it from falling down
2. How to make, dry and fire large slabs of clay without cracking or warping
3. Glaze research; finding a variety of suitable glazing techniques
4. Making the result weather and frost resistant, suitable for outdoor/ architectural applications

Realization of works

Currently I am working in my studio on the completion of my plan; I will make more experiments and work on large format reliefs. I arranged all the necessary equipment; installed a large gas fired kiln, built drying racks, bought mixing equipment and glaze materials. The existing large format camera obscura will be equipped with a large projection panel (3 x 4 meters) to support the clay slabs.