Throbbing Stillness 容器 by Maru Meleniou is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 铜奖 in 美术与艺术装置设计 Competition Category.

铜美术· 2022

Throbbing Stillness 容器

by Maru Meleniou

Client: Maru Meleniou Ceramic art &design lab

A' Design Award 铜奖 Winner in 美术 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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Colors

The Design

About Throbbing Stillness 容器

《悸动的静止》是一系列探索抽象思想、概念和存在问题的船只的一部分。《悸动的静止》的悖论在于，它并不是花瓶的预期功能，而是意味着存在一个能够容纳与观看者进一步交流的空间。通过其有机的形式，它成功地超越了媒介的刚性，并且似乎充满了生命能量的振动。它的形状和颜色突出了诸如空、潜力、扩展等概念。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铜奖

Throbbing Stillness 容器是 A' Design Award 铜奖得主，这是授予以创造力、独创性和敏锐见长的杰出设计的极具声望的认可。铜奖得主是技艺娴熟、创意惊人的作品，印证了其设计师丰富的经验、想象力与机智。预计Throbbing Stillness 容器将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的物品，兼具显著的专业性与创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铜奖的设计融入艺术、科学、设计和技术领域的最佳实践，并因注重细节而出类拔萃。Throbbing Stillness 容器出色地满足需求，触动渴望，迷住情感，并吸引好奇心。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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.
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.
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.
Image Credits: Image No1, No2, No3 No4 Nikos Koustenis
Image No5 Maru Meleniou