Siqou Porcelain: Parisian Ceramist Inspired by Polar Landscapes
Artist Interview
Q1. Please share your history and background with our readers.
Self-employed ceramist since 2019 under the name Siqou, I create sculptural and decorative porcelain objects in my shared workshop Atelier Terremoto in Paris in the 13th arrondissement.
After a Diploma in Arts and Techniques in Graphic Design, in 2017, I obtained a Certificate in Ceramic Arts at the Lycée Henry Moisand in Longchamp.
Q2. And you held extensive training after receiving your diploma. Where did you hold your internships?
The following year, I trained at La Maison de la Céramique in Dieulefit in the Drôme. I followed many internships with professional potters in France, particularly in the Vosges, Ardèche, Vaucluse and Drôme.
Q3. After your training, what inspired you most to begin your journey into ceramics?
It was during my year of graduation that I read my first polar explorer book "The Odyssey of Endurance" by Ernest Shackleton and that I discovered ceramics during amateur workshops.
Today I try to live from my passion and to publicize my work during exhibitions and fairs. I had the chance to obtain the 1st prize "Univers de la Maison" from the label Made in Paris 2022 but also the Prize for Young Creation of Crafts 2022 by Atelier d'Art de France. These rewards value my creations and my know-how which is of course very important when you want to live from a craft.
"Passionate about polar territories, I try to recreate a universe that is both delicate and powerful. I carried out two artistic residencies in Greenland, one in February 2019 aboard Le Manguier, a boat trapped in the ice near Akunnaaq and one in July 2022 aboard the sailboat Le Knut towards the East Coast. During these trips, I had the joy of discovering the Inuit culture, meeting the locals and admiring all the beauty of these landscapes and these cold animals."
Q3. What is the focus of your work in this series?
In addition to confirming my love for this territory, I have centered all my porcelain work on objects I have seen there, including bones, blocks of ice and animal skins. Sculpting these forms that I had the chance to see and touch is for me like a tribute to this nature, to these moments lived at the end of the world as well as a means of transmitting the different sensations that I felt during of this trip. For me, it is the traditional “art of fire” which meets “the art of cold”.
I have created a range of Fur Vases in porcelain where I try to visually rediscover the softness of a coat that you almost want to caress with a solid and delicate material. I make each "porcelain pick" by hand, they are all unique with different shapes which allows me to have a rendering with movement and an almost living consistency.
