About Céline Salomon
French Resident #7 | February 21 - April 21, 2024
Céline Salomon is a French ceramic designer. After graduating in architecture in 2013, she made a change of scale a few years later by training in porcelain, notably during a long two-year stay in Jingdezhen, China. Upon her return, she set up her own studio and created a series of tableware pieces. Architecture and nature are the dual sources of inspiration for her work. As an explorer, she then challenged the quiet strength of ceramics by combining it with other raw materials. This new impulse resulted in unique pieces of furniture and lighting that were soon exhibited in Paris, London, New York and Basel.
Presented in partnership with Villa Albertine
Supported by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation
Celine’s pieces are delicate creatures that have just emerged from their raw state, straddling the line between art and design. She wishes to transform our perspective on things by exploring associations of texture, colors, and materials.
Made of ceramic, a material with a reputation for fragility, her pieces fearlessly embrace other raw materials, and surprise us with their organic energy. Her work is imbued with the forces of nature, the imprint of a mountain landscape colliding with the energy of an imaginary architecture. Céline likes to imagine her work in the intimacy of everyday life, ready to suggest a story, always elegant. In each of them, a tension between form and material, surprises and opens the eye.
The starting point is always the material: it suggests a form, not the other way around. Throughout the creative process, gestures convey the emotions and inspirations of the moment. The presence of the hand remains visible until the end, from the drawing to the prototype to the model. Each piece, composed of organic curves or architectural lines, retains the scale of the human body.
Residency Project
“My work for this residency starts with a simple question: how do architecture and nature meet and cohabitate in a city like New York?
Steered by my desire to delve ever deeper into the relationships between architecture and nature, the first part of my trip will involve an immersion in the city. I must explore the territory, steeping myself in this environment, this unique, multicultural melting pot, on a whole new scale for me.
One characteristic of New York that particularly inspires me is its typically American gridiron plan, all portioned out in blocks. This plan creates powerful perspectives for architecture, but requires that the often-constrained natural elements fit into the grid, which alternates between high-rises and parks. How does the living world—both humans and wildlife—evolve in this restricted, orthonormal environment? When we build cities first and green spots afterwards, what place is actually left to the latter?
Such over-densification also leads to a conquest of the sky, causing an exceptional concentration of skyscrapers, which themselves allow for an incredibly rich dialog of materials (between earth and metal, or glass and brick), textures, and colors. Where is the balancing point between fusion on the one hand and juxtaposition on the other; between natural and artificial?
The impressions that I gather will be used to create a new collection of objects, made in collaboration with a number of New York artisans, the holders of crafting expertise. Co-crafted in ceramics and glass, wood, paper, or leather, these objects will all reflect the ties between the animate and inanimate world, as well as our trans-Atlantic relationship and experiment.
I will also have the great opportunity to spend 5 days at the Corning Museum of Glass to create pieces that address this issue of urban and constrained nature. This work will combine glass and ceramics.”
Residency in Residency at Corning Museum of Glass
Céline’s Experience
● Which was your main objective with this residency in New York?
CS: “My residency started with a simple question: how do architecture and nature meet and cohabitate in a city like New York? From that, my main objective was to immerse myself in this city, so hectic and raw at the same time, to observe it as a sculpture, to feel and lose myself in it completely. New York and its immense urban canyons, with perspectives at each intersection that fade in the sky; its materials, its lights, its profiles, its people were all intense inspiration for a new set of pieces, rougher, more massive. I wanted to understand and feel how a typically American gridiron plan, all portioned out in blocks, would let the living world - both humans and wildlife - evolve in this restricted, orthonormal environment.
This residency was also about meeting with other artists, craftsmen and makers, who, like me, work in Collectible design, using ceramics as well as a multitude of other materials such as wood, metal, glass and resin. I wanted to dive into their world, discover their inspirations and engage in future possible collaborations.
Finally, this residency was about meeting with a multitude of interior designers and decorators, in order to multiply project and commission opportunities in New York and throughout the US. I wanted to meet them face-to-face and present my work through a portfolio and samples, and to explain the range of possibilities offered by my practice. These encounters were complemented by meetings with other Collectible design players in New York, such as galleries, dealers and agents, to better understand the ways of this growing market.”
● What was the most exciting and unexpected discovery?
CS: “It's hard to choose one, as so much happened! I'd say 5 things really stood out for me:
- Wandering around, getting lost and discovering the different faces of New York at all hours, in all weathers, with my camera in my hands. The skyscrapers disappearing in the clouds and rain, the first blossoms in the parks, the incredible sunsets, people looking for a ray of sunlight in a freezing early morning, life reflecting in countless windows.
- My week at Corning, discovering glassblowing and my incredible exchanges with the teams of glassblowers on site. It was my first time experimenting with glass, and it was a defining moment in my residency.
- The Noguchi Museum, lost in Queens, with its very special atmosphere, made a deep impression on me. I had to go back several times, as it fuelled my curiosity but also imposed a real sense of calm and introspection, far away from the hustling tempo of the rest of the city.
- My meeting with ceramist Peter Lane, whose work and career I greatly admire, in his Bushwick studio. We talked for hours, and he introduced me to his team.
- The unique encounters with the artists I met in their studios, who took the time to explain their practices, their questions and their projects. It was always a unique experience, and I feel grateful to have met these people.”
● Are you planning on creating a collection with the discoveries, insights and/or inspiration gathered throughout these months?
CS: “Absolutely! I’ve come back with many ideas, inspirations, and drawings. I am in the process of internalizing all of that. During my time in Corning, I had the opportunity to make prototypes, so once those arrive in Paris, I will work on those design again. I think a full collection of new pieces inspired by my stay in New York will see the day next year, in 2025.”
● What do you consider was the most important and beneficial outcome of this experience?
CS: “Perhaps the most important and useful outcome was the most American lesson of all: dare to set high goals and do your very best to pursue those goals. Through the many encounters I've had, I've had to learn how to talk about my work, my practice, myself, and most importantly, choose what I want the world to see of me and my pieces, what my narrative is. I became more receptive by discovering this new culture. Talking to other creatives opened my mind to what's possible and how high we can go, especially because Americans see the sky as the limit. This experience opened my horizons to new possibilities.”
● Would you be interested in coming back and pursuing new collaborations in the US?
CS: “I'd like to continue the exchanges I've started with galleries and retailers, so that I can be represented in the US, and in particular exhibit my pieces created during the residency in New York. In particular, I have a gallery with whom discussions are well underway, and I'd like to be able to exhibit this new work next year or the year after.
In the near future, I'd also like to be able to return to New York to continue the prospecting I've already begun, and to maintain the links I've established with both the professionals and the artists I've met. In fact, I'd like to consolidate, even expand, my network there, and envisage transatlantic relations in the long term.
I'd also like to take part in events organized in New York, such as Collectible Fair in September 2024, WANTED at ICFF and Oui Design in May 2025.”
