My Images Are My Language

Videointerview RBS London 25 juni 2015
Three questions:

1) What do you seek to convey/explore in your work and specifically the Sculptur work

2) What aspect of the sculptural do you find most appealing/ important?

3)What do you think is the value, positive or negative, of national/regional identity and sense of place in the interpretation of artwork and particularly your work?
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1) I seek to convey and explore a new language. I make images in clay.That is my language. It is through the language that we achieve contact with reality. We are continuously created by our language.
In eight years when I studied art, my principal subject was the study of the human body, and it brought me into an ever deepening world of beauty and connection. Art became my spectacles. The very first time I used my clay to express my deepest emotions, was when I suffered a sorrow so deep, that I could not weep, not speak nor act. I held clay in my hand, and I made a sign in the clay. I shouted in the clay! This gave me a new language, a language for my emotions. Working this way with my art, I experience a stronger awareness of myself and of the world I live in. Sometimes I work like a foreign correspondent, and then I use my clay as a camera. My new language gives me the power over my powerlessness. I am able to act.
In my group Mourning, there is a dying bird. The human and the bird are mourning together. The human and the nature are dependent on each other. The modern human does not understand this, and exploits nature.
The viewer may use my art, not as an object but as a tool to make his own journey to his inner self. I step aside, the viewer is invited to participate in a creative process of his own.

2)The most important aspect of my work is to create a language beyond all different languages founded upon words. We live in a world with a lot of information, but we are seldom able to communicate in a deep dialog. And there is no time to respond to all information .In particular we have no time or language for emotions in our culture! I believe that emotions are the creative source we need.

3) I can only answer with regard to my own work. I express deep human emotions. My sculptures express protest and appeal, affection and care. They touch upon the universal and are timeless in their expression, yet in the midst of the agonies of our time.That is the tradition of art all over the world.

Marianne Hall Sweden
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Marianne Hall continues tirelessly to characterize mankind through her sculpturing – heads in classic statures and remarkably detailed small-scaled human-like figures. From a tiny piece of clay is she able to create these palm-sized figures; one by one or grouped together, they simply stand there, almost trying to pass unnoticed. In contrast, however, they are highly noticeable and they affect you with their presence and their appeasing, often closed eyes.

Using terracotta, Marianne Hall is able to create delicately sculptured figures that portray different states of human existence with great gentleness - both distinct and firm, yet at the same time open and free.

Expressive, multifaceted and introspective, it is as if her figures are exploring the depths of humanity. They touch upon the universal and make time and space, past and present, contemporary and ancient all blend into an enigmatic making.

This makes you believe her sculpturing is shrouding the innermost of mankind. An introspective world opens up through her figures – creatures marked by fear and anxiety questioning genesis and death, but at the same time opening up to the opportunities awaiting them in life. A fragment of life history is shown and it makes you want to ask those eternal questions “Who are we?”, “Where do we come from?”, “Where are we heading?”.
Marianne penetrates this unique, immersive insight of human existence with a confident spirit. All in all, her sculpturing leaves the observer with much to contemplate.

STIG JOHANSSON
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Scholarship from The Swedish Sculptors Association in 2013

The jury writes:

“For sculptural design where life’s fragility and vulnerability are depicted tenderly and expressively.
With a great knowledge and feel for material, she shows the possibilities of the clay to become the most subtle creations.
With strong integrity, Marianne Hall maintains a timeless sculpture tradition where the monument can fit in ones hand".