Pálma Babos
Budaörs, Hungary
Pálma Babos working in her studio in Budaörs, Hungary, on the new Filth Series, 2020.
Pálma Babos, Collapse, 2019. Glazed, hand-built porcelain fired to 1350 °C, 41 cm H
Pálma Babos, Couple, 2019. Glazed, hand-built porcelain, fired to 1350 °C. 69 cm H
I have a long running love affair with the plasticity and functionality of porcelain. My first encounter with porcelain as a means of expression occurred when I was at university. Its lyrical poetry touched me. I feel the process of creating porcelain objects can be compared to the writing of a sonnet. Each of these creative acts is controlled by strict rules and the even more stringent discipline imposed by the materials—whether clay or words. At its best, the end result of both can be soul-baring art of the highest order.
In today’s pandemic time, there is no direct feedback, no audience, no colleagues, no restriction of time. At the same time there is pain, sympathy, fear, tension, leisure, threat.
I am emotionally charged, tense. My studio is situated in my house so I have opportunity to continue my everyday work as I usually do. Initially my lyrical voice was muted, but my communication now is rawer—scratchier, sharper, louder—and scarier. But I have the opportunity to work: such a grace!
My Tower Sculptures and the individuals (seen and unseen) that inhabit them, pose both a question and a challenge. Have I created images of a future doom that awaits us all? Or are these pieces a statement about the unconquerable human creative spirit that can survive any cataclysm, natural or man-made? Something to dwell on in times like these.
Pálma Babos, Collapse-2, 2019. Glazed, hand-built porcelain, fired to 1350 °C, 40 cm H.
DURING THE LOCKDOWN, PáLMA BABOS FOUND The silence of the quarantine gave her time to address earlier abandoned ideas, and thoughts that have been waiting patiently in her mind and in her studio.
Pálma Babos, Ruins, 2020. Modified recycled waste porcelain fired to 1300 °C, 56 cm H.“These are my new sculptures. I use a mix of clay I have personally developed. I call it Filth!”
Pálma Babos, Clouds, 2020. Modified recycled waste porcelain, 70 cm H
Pálma Babos, Ruins, as yet unfired, 2020. Modified recycled waste porcelain, 56 cm H
Pálma Babos, Ruins, 2020. Modified recycled waste porcelain 55 cm H. “I consciously deploy chance in making my sculptures, constantly deciding how much I allow of this element in my creative process.”
Pálma Babos, new tests pieces for the Filth Series, 2020.
Pálma Babos, Ruins, 2020, a surface detail of the piece fired to 1300°C. Modified recycled waste porcelain.