Josef Wieser
Embracing the Unexpected. Article on Josef Wieser, published in the international ceramics magazine Neue Keramik/New Ceramics in May/June 2024.
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Embracing the Unexpected
Josef Wieser (Allhartsberg, Austria, 1969) is a veritable alchemist at heart. His knowledge and understanding of the finer details of local geology, mineralogy and the workings of clay is, in all sincerity, unparalleled. He has spent his entire professional life sourcing, testing and fine-tuning his ingredients to find the best formulas to achieve the specific effects he wants to create. He is continuously challenging himself to coax the most out of the materials he is working with and has spent decades developing and perfecting his stoneware and porcelain recipes. In essence, he is not someone who simply wants to replicate the ideas or aesthetic of other people or cultures. He has always been keen to build on influences and express his own voice, and is adamant that this can only be realised when you allow the interactions between clay, form and natural processes to do the talking.
With its picture-postcard houses painted in soft pastel colours of pinks, yellows, blues and beige, the unspoilt Austrian town of Waidhoven an der Ybbs, where Wieser moved to establish his workshop and studio in 1996, nestles neatly in the rolling Alpine foothills of wild-flower meadows along the Eisenstrasse, or Iron Road, in the heart of a broader area known as the Eisenwurzen. As these names suggest, iron ore has been and continues to be a precious commodity in the area’s history. It is also one of the key components in much of the clay he uses. The geological topography of the landscape is varied. To the south lie the limestone mountains of the Ybbstaler Alps, which lead on to slopes of sedimentary sandstone and shale (flysch to the technically minded), down to the nutrient-rich loamy soil of the Danube valley to the north, before rising again to the granite hills of Bavaria and the clastic metamorphic rocks (or gneiss) towards the Czech Republic. The whole region serves as a resource for Wieser’s raw materials. And, at the root of everything, it is the character of these ingredients that ultimately determines his adopted aesthetic.
Joseph Wieser has been working with clay for over four decades. He still treasures the palm-sized elephant he made at the age of nine and had already designed and built his third kiln by the time he was 19. It therefore comes as no surprise to hear that this sense of purpose and determination incentivised him to study two different subjects simultaneously, one to become a hafner (ceramic stove builder) and the other in pottery. It is a combination that has served him well. Not only as a source of income but also to feed his creative instincts and aspirations. He is a consummate professional and has steadfastly maintained written records of his clay recipes, testing and of each firing since the 1980s. He uses a variety of kilns, both hand-built and commercial, depending on the type of work he is making. He employs his smaller wood-fired kiln, for example, for his more fragile glazed work and reserves his impressive, four-metre-long anagama kiln for the more dramatic pieces, which he fires over five days and five nights, assisted by a team of capable colleagues and using up to 15 cubic metres of locally sourced spruce wood. He admits that it is an intense process of high concentration, watching, listening and continuously making the necessary adjustments. There is a lot at stake and it is a fine line that separates success and failure. When everything comes together, the results speak for themselves.
For someone who has never really travelled extensively, it is somewhat surprising to see how consistently he manages to capture the very essence of what might be considered quintessentially Japanese: exceptional craftsmanship built on generational learning and experience, with a distinct sense of propriety and earnest sobriety, especially in the case of tea-ceremony ceramics. Historically, this aesthetic is, of course, the complete opposite of what appealed to the delicate sensibilities of Western tastes and it is why comparable functional pottery made in Europe in the same period, from decorated earthenware to stoneware storage containers, was primarily ignored, particularly from an artistic perspective, right up to the Arts and Crafts movement and into the twentieth century. Hence our former focus on replicating the cultivated refinement of Chinese porcelain. Only with the advent and rise of studio pottery did this type of work start to attract the belated appreciation it deserves. Over time, styles and concepts coalesce and blend together to form new and interesting paths of individual expression. And this is the approach that Josef Wieser has adopted. Not in the arbitrary sense of any particular ideology. We learn and develop our own voice and share it with others. It is beyond East and West or facile cultural divisions. It becomes far more universal. What matters to him are works that convey character and presence, solemnity and composure.
Perhaps it has something to do with his own quiet, thoughtful disposition. He is completely modest and unassuming in nature. His approach is studious and thorough. From researching, sourcing and harvesting his own raw clay, through the intricate, protracted process of preparing the mixes and recipes, which can include up to 12 different ingredients for his stoneware and up to 15 for his porcelain, to the precision and intense focus he maintains in shaping his work, right up to packing the kiln, piece by piece at precisely the right angle, in precisely the right position, each step is executed with meticulous care and attention to detail. For his more plastic work, he uses finer-grained feldspar and quartz clay, iron-rich, with less kaolin, fired at slighter lower temperatures further back in the kiln. And for his more robust forms he incorporates coarse-grained feldspar and quartz clay, again iron-rich but high in kaolin, fired at higher temperatures closer to the firebox. Basically, therefore, form follows material and it is the material that determines the function. These are all processes within his control. Yet once he has finished and the arduous task of firing gets under way, he is more than happy to hand over the fate of all his labours to the mercurial temperament of the kiln gods. Despite all the thought and careful preparation that goes into all his work, to him it is also a process of continually moving forward, treading new paths of discovery and embracing the unexpected.
While his vessels display a sense of orthodoxy in adhering to certain traditional Japanese principles, the range and diversity of his repertoire also reflects his reluctance to be tied down to any specific form. Success is often a delicate balancing act, but his only concern is with creating work that appeals to our innate sensitivities. There is nothing feigned or contrived. Rather it reveals how artistic expression is closely interwoven with a deep understanding of natural materials and processes, realised on a three-dimensional ceramic canvas.
Many of his creations have lively surfaces and demonstrate his exceptional positioning and firing skills. His iron-rich stoneware vessels, often in shades of deep chestnut-brown, ferric red and burnt sienna, are embellished with strong flows of molten fly-ash resembling the seductive beauty of a primordial landscape. Whereas his porcelain vessels can be more spontaneous in form: either cool and vitreous or encrusted with ash deposits, like deep-sea geothermal formations, and others with strong reduction and colourful crystalline clusters in shades of harvest gold and mustard yellow. His teabowls come in a variety of flavours, from stoic unglazed examples, high-fired close to the firebox, or further back with ghosted crescent-shaped motifs and pools of green glass, to soft, gentle porcelain specimens, balanced and unassuming with an easy ebb and flow. His shino-glazed works are silky soft with undulating contours. They catch the sun and glow the colour of golden ochre. Each object tells its own story of how it was created through clay, form and natural processes and how its beauty has been captured in time and place. Ultimately, it is the art of reticence. It is a purely sensory experience, a personal connection that triggers an emotional response. And that should be enough. People have a tendency to want to fill in the gaps. But when the gaps are closed, an object loses its mystery.
Neale Williams
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Josef Wieser was born in Allhartsberg, Austria, in 1969 and trained both as a hafner (ceramic stove builder) and a potter in Graz and at the Fachschule für Keramik und Ofenbau in Stoob. He built his first kiln at the age of 12 and was already selling his ceramic work at markets by the age of 17. He now works fulltime as an independent ceramicist from his studio in Waidhofen an der Ybbs in the Alpine foothills of Lower Austria. He harvests his own raw clay from the area to produce stoneware and porcelain ceramics fired in various kilns including his own self-built anagama kiln. His next solo exhibition will be at Töpfereimuseum Langerwehe in Germany in 2025.