Photo: Bennicke & Rasmussen
Excerpted from "Tingenes Tydelige Sprog [The Clear Language of Things]"
By Charlotte Jul
Bennicke and Rasmussen are two of Denmark’s most experienced ceramic artists. While they have lived and worked together for the past 52 years, their practices are very different. Karen’s works speak to the idioms of architecture, mathematics, and Constructivism, while Peder’s work tells singular stories through archetypal forms, symbols, decorations, and references.
Peder and Karen live where the road bends, among fields, horses, and a large estate from which they rent their home. The house in Bregentved used to be the estate’s smithy and had not been occupied for fifteen years at the time of Karen and Peder’s move. That was 50 years ago; today, the house is a synthesis of studio and living space, of practice and reflection. Turning left from the kitchen, you enter the studio; turning right, you find yourself in the living room.
Every room in the house is filled with works of art, and Karen and Peder are personally acquainted with most of the artists who made them. There are stories about their works on every ledge, shelf, cornice, corner, and crevice. It’s full of life in its varied artistic expressions — it’s cozy and it’s interesting. As potters for more than fifty years, Karen and Peder have a natural understanding and sense of texture. The eye wanders and rests on a piece or two (or three). Visiting their home is like being in a gallery: here, too, it pays to dwell on things, as there is always more than meets the eye at first glance.
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Peder and Karen work alongside one another every day, even though they might be in several different places on the property — in the glaze workshop, the design studio, the office upstairs, the garden, or their other studio and gallery up the road. “In the summer I love being there,” Peder explains. Karen adds, “We have become more different with age. As you get older, you become more sure of who you are — as a person and as an artist.”
Karen is the master of detail, rigorously and meticulously following her mathematical calculations to construct models out of 25 to 70 pieces of cardboard, glueing them together in an analog, three-dimensional method to arrive at the finished form. See it, understand it, feel it, and then meticulously translate it into ceramic sculpture.
Peder is looser in his process and works intuitively from his sketches, models, and calculations, building his pots on the fly. Peder is a master at telling stories through his medium, combining glazes and decorative elements in layers of complex references. Peder’s idiom is classical and historically grounded, while it is the decorative elements and ornaments that follow narrative and imaginative paths. Karen’s practice engages with architecture by creating layers, angles, spaces, and tensions between the exterior and the interior. But even though their styles, methodology, and thought processes are different, the two artists engage one other before, during, and after the work is finished.
“We each work with our own expression, but we share the process and preparation. We both create models, draw sketches, and take measurements.” In this way, the couple works in a classic “old school” way, but with great respect for their materials’ potentials and tendencies.
“Sometimes, the object takes over and resolves itself. ‘Okay, this is what you wanted it to look like…’ And eventually it all falls into place,” says Karen.