Bronze Fine Arts and Art Installation Design · 2022
Throbbing Stillness Vessel
- A' Design Award 2022 Bronze Winner in Fine Arts and Art Installation Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Maru Meleniou Ceramic art &design lab
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 12,259
- Verification code 5A177967C4 · Verify this award
About Throbbing Stillness Vessel
Throbbing Stillness is part of a series of vessels exploring abstract ideas, concepts and existential questions. The paradox of Throbbing Stillness is that instead of the expected functionality of a flower vase, it implies the existence of a space capable to contain further communication with the viewer. Through its organic form it manages to transcend the rigidity of the medium and it seems to be vibrating with vital energy. Its shape and color highlight concepts such as emptiness, potentiality, expansion.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Throbbing Stillness is not the vessel that flowers will be beautifully arranged in. Throbbing Stillness is a vessel that aims to contain abstract ideas, thoughts and images. A vessel that contemplates the concept of "vessility".
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Height 40cm
- Tags
- Sculptural vessel, Naked ceramics, Contemporary Ceramics, Handbuilt ceramics, Raw minimalism, Slow design
- Production Technology
- It is a hand-build ceramic vessel, with the coiling technique, an ancient technique that involves creating forms without a pottery wheel, using the hands, fingers, and simple tools. That way small details, differences imperfections and qualities mirror the honesty of the creative process. A slow almost meditative process that after years of practise creates a unique relationship between artist and medium.
I used stoneware clay and painted it with porcelain slip, glazed and fired at 1220C - Design Challenge
- The most challenging part was to work on the piece as much as I would not manipulate clay to the point that it would lose its properties and its own life and substance. To create an object that carries the message powerfully. An object simple in form and yet not simplistic.
- Project Duration
- Throbbing Stillness was created in 2020 in Athens, and was exhibited in Milan Design Week 2021 at 1000Vases
- Operation Flow
- Human beings are designed to communicate.
We define ourselves through relationships and interactions with our environment, with others, with the objects that surrounds us.
Throbbing Stillness is a unique object that aims to offer a space for connection, an invitation to interact. - Research
- I am interested in the materiality of my medium and I wish to highlight its raw nature and properties. After practising with a variety of colors and glazes I realised that all this would be a kind of cover up, making it hard for the medium to carry its message. So I decided to move forward with my material being almost naked.
- Inspiration
- My inspiration comes from the book White by Kenya Hara, Zen Buddhism and the human body.
In the field of ceramics, one creates forms to contain the emptiness. The purpose of a vessel is to hold nothingness within, a purpose greater than its function. White is delicate, fragile and from the moment of its birth it is destined to be “polluted”. My vessel is not trying to be a perfect white, rather it carries a layering, in an attempt to search for a way to feel whiteness.
A vessel, a human heart, a vital organ, or a musical instrument always inhaling/exhaling, pulsating in a space of closeness and familiarity yet distant and unknown. A space out of time, far from personal feelings and agendas that is dedicated to personal contemplation. - Image Credits
- Image No1, No2, No3 No4 Nikos Koustenis
Image No5 Maru Meleniou
Colors of Throbbing Stillness Vessel
Grand Interview about Throbbing Stillness Vessel
The idea of containing “nothingness” guided me to focus on the vessel’s inner space rather than its function. Instead of holding objects, it holds quiet potential. Through the slow coiling process, I shaped the form around this void, treating emptiness as something alive and meaningful. The organic shape and imperfect whiteness emphasize this subtle presence. Throbbing Stillness aims to invite viewers not to use it, but to experience a moment in time where emptiness balances between existence and stillness, a space of uncanny familiarity.
Kenya Hara’s writing on “White” and the Zen concept of emptiness encouraged me to see form not as something to define, but as something always in the process of becoming. Instead of shaping the vessel into a perfect, controlled object, I allowed it to develop an organic, almost breathing presence. The choice of color follows the same principle: the whiteness of the surface is not meant to be pure or flawless, but a quiet, open state that creates space for the viewer’s perception. Zen reminds us that emptiness is not absence, but potential.
I chose the ancient coiling technique for its slow, meditative rhythm, allowing both the form and myself to develop gradually, like a living organism.
My creative process often revolves around the dialectic of opposites. The tension between movement and stillness emerged organically through the process of making. I wanted the piece to feel alive yet serene, to vibrate subtly without motion.
Working with the constraint of not over-manipulating the clay forced me to trust its natural tendencies. I responded to its subtle shifts and textures rather than imposing strict control. This approach shaped the vessel’s organic, throbbing silhouette and contributed to the intentionally imperfect whiteness of the surface. By honoring the clay’s inherent properties, the final piece embodies a sense of alive stillness, where spontaneity and restraint coexist, reinforcing the dialogue between form and emptiness.
I am deeply interested in the materiality of my medium and wish to bring out its raw nature and inherent qualities. After experimenting with various colors and glazes, I realized that these additions often overshadowed the material’s autonomy. By minimizing glazing, I aim to highlight the naked expressiveness of the clay, using white as a quiet space to hold the viewer’s personal reflections. This honesty allows the work to communicate through presence rather than through the distractions of ornamentation.
Just as the heart’s rhythm is sensed rather than seen, Throbbing Stillness conveys vitality through its form and presence rather than through explicit motion. Its subtle curves and throbbing silhouette allow viewers to feel the pulse of life embedded in the clay, creating an intimate, contemplative experience without needing to witness literal movement.
Most handcrafted objects naturally create a space for reflection through the subtle thread of connection with the maker. In the case of Throbbing Stillness Vessel, this is amplified by the unexpected organic form that emerges from the coiling process. The combination of handcraft, organic spontaneity and intelectual content hopefully transforms it from a static object into a space for personal reflection.
By treating the vessel as a container for ideas and contemplation rather than physical objects, I wanted to challenge the traditional notion of functionality in ceramics. This approach opens the door for future ceramic art to focus less on utility and more on experiential and conceptual engagement.
Exhibiting Throbbing Stillness Vessel at Milan Design Week and receiving the Bronze A' Design Award reinforced the idea that ceramic art can transcend cultural and functional boundaries to create meaningful connections. International recognition highlighted how viewers from diverse backgrounds may engage with a vessel’s quiet presence.