Peter Marigold: Meissen

Interested in the possibility of adding his own marks to the existing pieces, Peter Marigold developed a collection of vessels for the German porcelain manufacturer Meissen.

The German porcelain manufacturer Meissen invited Peter Marigold to collaborate with them during the Meissen Art Campus workshop.

Working in the Meissen factory with the staff he developed a series of pieces derived from the existing plaster moulds that he found there.

Marigold was interested in the possibility of adding his own marks to the existing pieces almost as ‘noise’ rather than designing from zero. After choosing the moulds for different vessels, he began scratching at the finely modelled negative surfaces and then casting them once again. This process was repeated several times, making deeper and deeper scratches and clawing digs into the moulds, casting each subsequent excavation until the mould reached the edge of its usability.

The resulting series of casts show the evidence of Marigold’s hand made marks as they distort the original form. The marks have an ambiguity between destruction and creation – on the one hand they are aggressive, arbitrary attacks on the mould, but when turned in negative they become bubbling creative growths, almost organic and tree like.