This installation was conceived for La Grange Dîmière, an old tithe barn in Isère, France, which belonged to a Cistercian monastery, now demolished. The barn currently belongs to the state and is dedicated to ceramic exhibitions. Its imposing timber frame rises to 18m at the centre of the single space covering 400m2.
Clay is very present on the site; the silts from weathered rocks in the surrounding hills are washed down to be deposited locally. Several adobe buildings adjacent to the barn are witness to its abundant presence.
I wanted to emphasise the process of creation of clay in this work which I call Flux d’Argiles (flow of clays). I contrast the movement of liquid clay flowing vertically under gravity, seen on the six large suspensions, with the 27 more sedimentary fired sculptures lying horizontally on the floor. These annular forms nevertheless evoke a feeling of movement and of passage, and in some cases push up to meet the flows on the cloths. Les Passeuses, as I have named them, are a series worked during lockdown in 2020 and 2021. They are created from clay slabs folded in on themselves to become large rings, open in their middle. They evoke for me the fluid movement necessary to go towards the unknown, inviting us to pass from one side to the other: like traversing the threshold of a door, or allowing us to cross to the other side of the river.
“The works of Jane Norbury seem to be the emanations of nature without however imitating it, in a magical balance between the work of the hand and the innate qualities of the material.”
Didier Brousse, Galerie Camera Obscura 2021
