Femke van Zanten   Contact/information    Go home                             



Ceramic Design








The research I have conducted within this project is a study on human rights and public awareness about human rights and banned books. The reason for this research is intrinsic. In the past few years, I have taken on a clearer position on what I find important and want to stand for. This is being informed about violations of human rights, repression of women and the LGBTQ+ community, and the overall subject of the world that seems to be in reverse regarding human rights. For this project, I extracted texts from banned books in specific countries and ‘printed’ them on ceramics.  The reason for this material being is that it can withstand time. The first forms of writing, for example, in Mesopotamia, were inscribed on ceramics, and to this date still exist. With this project, I wanted to take a stand, saying ‘you can try and repress humans, and their rights, but information and resistance will never cease to exist.







My ceramic practice began with a research assignment about a news article. It was an article about how recently a new millipede fossil had been discovered in Limburg, The Netherlands. I wanted to capture the unique animal so that it would last for many years, just like the real fossil. This is how I started with ceramics, pressing a pattern in the clay to capture the Milipede. From there on I started trying out new things with slipcasting. I am still working on my ceramics practice, and learning something new every day.






For the subject ‘the involved designer’ we got the assignment to pick 1m2 in the school or at its property and observe it, what happens, who uses it etc. I have always been very fascinated by the reflection of the stained glass windows. So I picked the reflection as my M2. I wanted to capture that reflection in a way it could always be there. I made ceramic cups and put the cups in the reflection at Dutch coffee hours times: 11:00, 13:00 and 16:00. I drew the reflection of that time on the cup and glazed it. This way with every break you take, the reflection of that time will be with you.