Page 27 - Enamel & More

Balance Points - Leontine Coelewij about enamel objects in Groningen (1989)

Balance Points is related closely to, and can be viewed as a logical continuation of Cross-cut
and Length-cut wood two wood prints from 1986. These wood prints consist also of several
parts suspended on a common point much as a carpenter hangs his tools, rulers and rubber
bands on a nail on the wall. Based on the idea of cross- and length-cut wood these works each
show a different pattern of the wood. Cross-cut wood shows in circle fragments the annual
rings of the tree, whereas Length-cut wood, in rectangular forms, shows the print of grain as
irregular as scratches on a piece of paper.

Working in commission, like at this school, often involves many limitations. The artist cannot
work as uninhibited as with his own free work. Van Elk has turned this limitation around
however. All conditions that pop up in a commissioned work situation were no limitations
to her but assumptions which she consciously included and that could determine the final
work. For instance, the architect of the school did not design a completely Hat wall, but one
with protruded parts. Van Elk used this aspect in a special way. Some forms, namely, would,
since they are fixed free to the wall hang with the heaviest part down according to the laws of
gravity. Now, however, these forms were stopped by these protruding parts in the wall, also
determining the composition this way.

But an even more specific influence was the fact that this commission would be executed in a
material new to Van Elk, enamel, and besides on a monumental scale, so that it was impossible
to keep the execution in her own hands. She remained closely involved with the execution
during the whole production process. To those who were going to make the enamel forms
she showed detailed cardboard models. For Van Elk, form and colour were already definite as
well as the surface texture, mat or glossy, and also the way the edges were to be treated. This
turned out to cause problems because Van Elk proposed a particularly unorthodox handling
of the material which differed completely from the way work was done at the factory. Van Elk
preferred, lor instance, that the edges of the steel plates would be cut and carved in a casual,
almost sloppy way. so that it would be clearly visible that they were handmade. The workers in
the factory on the other hand were used to work with the utmost precision in order to deliver a
perfect industrial product, stripped of all traces of human activity. During the following phase
of the production process, the enamel, a similar situation arose. Van Elk gave instruction not to
enamel the edges of the cut forms at certain places so that the steel would curl when heated in
the oven, something to be avoided as much as possible during heating in the factory.

For Van Elk it has always been a challenge to experiment with the characteristics of the
material in order to study how certain materials behave in certain circumstances. Thus, at the
retrospective exhibition Maria van Elk: drawing 1973-1980 (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam),
drawings were shown in which the hardness of the pencil, the blending of pencil, charcoal and
while chalk and the wrinkling of the paper played an important role. The final result was often
unpredictable in these drawings since control of the drawing process was exercised only to a
certain extent. Not the ‘ego’ of the artist was pivotal, but the ‘ego’ of the paper, the pencil and
the chalk.
While working on Balance Points Van Elk exploited the specific possibilities that enamel offers.
Even in working with this material lurks something uncontrollable, it never can be determined
for 100% beforehand how the batch will come out of the oven.

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