Claude Champy: Stardust

Book / Arnoldsche Monograph Ceramic

Published: 05.12.2023

Editor:: Muriel Champy

Text by:: Muriel Champy, Gabi Dewald, Tim Ingold, Jean-Pierre Thibaudat

Edited by:: Arnoldsche Art Publishers

Edited at:: Stuttgart

Edited on:: 2023

Technical data:: 208 pages 24 x 28 cm, 230 ills. Hardcover English / French

ISBN / ISSN:: 978-3-89790-695-2

Price:: from 44 €

Order:: Arnoldsche Art Publishers
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Inner pages of the book.

Claude Champy brings together man and the cosmos in his ceramics. In his studio, mechanical, geological, and chemical processes fuse to form a ceramic total work of art guided by the barely visible yet influential human gesture. Despite the potter wishing to capture the great forces of the universe in his work, he consciously consigns this part to trial and error, to an intentional loss of control, relying instead on the inherent logic of the material and fire.

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Champy's self-developed glazes come to life on the monumental multi-panel wall pieces of up to 150 cm in length, as well as on the free-standing «Cliffs» or the ingenious «Boxes for Secrets» with their hidden compartments. Stardust / Poussière d’Étoiles is a personal book on a unique artist, a perspective on an oeuvre that is as powerful as it is elemental.

What I do can only be done in a minute or two. If there is too much of a gap between coats of glaze, the result is blistering. I don’t know why, but that’s just the way it is. Often, I take a look at the piece. Right. Got to go there. Back then I’d be smoking a cigarette. Um. Okay, let’s get on with it. First go. Oh dear, it’s not at all what I had envisaged but it’s ;great as is. Ah!!! Have to hurry up, must keep that. Eight out of ten times I get my kicks out of it. And sometimes I’d just like to blow my brains out because for three seconds I had caught a glimpse of something wonderful and, like a bloody idiot, I had already slapped glaze on it.
/ Claude Champy