Studio Visit with PAOLA PARONETTO
SLEEK How did you find your way to ceramics? Paola Paronetto Firstly, I’m self-taught. I took my first pottery class when I was 18. I never dared to call myself an artist, much less a designer, because I didn’t go to school. When I first tried the potter’s wheel, I instantly fell in love. It felt like the absolute most satisfying thing for me. I continued to work with ceramics from that point on, but in a very spontaneous way. I started to do design fairs, first in Milan and then in Paris, but quickly grew tired of the traditional, classic shapes everybody was doing. The journey to finding my way of working was a long one and I faced many obstacles on my path, but I kept persevering until I perfected it. It was a very beautiful process. Beautiful though complicated.
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What is it about this material transition, from ceramics to paper, that fascinates you? PP I find ceramics to be the most fantastic material but I wanted to break away from traditional ways of making. I started to experiment, to twist what I was taught, to make ceramics that challenged the form itself. I wanted to reinvent my medium and explore a new technique, so I came up with paper clay – by adding a little bit of paper to the mix, along with a secret ingredient like any good Italian recipe – which creates a very elastic albeit fragile material. I add layer over layer and wait for them to dry before working more on them and texturing them with cardboard.
This process is of course affected by the changing seasons – and the different humidities they bring – and a piece will come out differently depending on what time of the year it is made. This approach also has an interesting sensory appeal. It is mixed and worked by hand, and both the sound and texture are unique. Once the ceramic goes in the oven, the paper burns away, it gets liberated in a way, and we are left with the essence: the ‘soul’ of ceramic...
S You mentioned your studio in the countryside surrounded by animals and nature. Why is a connection to the earth important for your practice?
PP I grew up in the countryside, with open fields and animals. We had cows, sheep and a vegetable garden. It was so beautiful to grow up with the most natural materials, to be able to live separate from materialistic society. Agriculture is also a form of design. Each time I drive down the same road in the countryside at different times of the year and see the changing landscape, I thank the farmers for their art. The fields are ploughed, cultivated, then the wheat and yellow grass grows, then come the red poppies. It’s a miracle!
S Your eyes were filled with these colours of nature that then found their way into your practice.
PP Exactly. Colour is nature’s way of communicating. All colours in nature are opaque and change in relation to time and their surroundings. My sense of colour also changes throughout the seasons and is dependent on my mood. Sometimes when I can’t find the colour I have in mind, I can make a new one. Colours are stronger when they are together, like people are when they can share emotions.
S What happens when your work leaves the workshop?
PP The workshop is total chaos, an artistic kind of chaos! When I see my works in an exhibition, I get excited because I see a part of me that I didn’t notice before. I begin to realise that making is my way of searching for myself. Before I was doing it unconsciously, but now I’m really discovering this part of my process.
S For this year’s Salone del Mobile you collaborated with Veuve Clicquot to make a series of bottles for their La Grande Dame 2015. Much like Madame Clicquot, who captained her namesake brand and twisted the thinking of fourteenth-century France, you are an intuitive optimist. What do you feel that you have in common with Clicquot?
PP Madame Clicquot worked with natural products, and I too work with earth through clay. In our respective practices, we both have to consider the laws of nature such as weather situations and moisture, the seasons and the kind of soils. The property of soil from two different sides of the field will vary greatly and yield different results. Like ceramics and clay, wine is fickle according to the seasons of the vineyard. For this collaboration, Veuve Clicquot saw in my work the same optimism and connection with nature shared by the founder herself. We even share the same distinctive symbol of colour in our work – Madame Clicquot famously chose a yellow label to distinguish her bottle from others.
S And how have you been able to connect with
Madame Clicquot?
PP To get to know her personally, I visited the table where she kept her tomes and I noted down anything about her recipes, deliveries, clients and trips she made that fascinated me. While walking in the chalk cellars where champagne is fermented, I almost wanted to scrape some off to try mixing it in my clay [laughs]. It was amazing to get to know her in this deep, personal way. I immediately started to think about the connection between Veuve Clicquot’s bottles and my bottles. Originality and technical innovation were key to this collaboration. ●