Modern Ancestors by Moïo Studio
Updated: Dec 3, 2019
Modern Ancestors is the new collection from Moïo Studio, launched at London Design Fair in September 2019. The vessels deal with the idea of memory and forgetting, or a compulsion to keep remembering to look for that which is lost.
The inherent feeling of both aliveness and timelessness in the pieces reveals a desire to hold space for something that might return – both on the personal plane, for the artist, but also the ancestral and collective one. They hold space for this idea both literally as physical vessels but also symbolically as objets d’art, manifesting a preoccupation with memory no doubt inspired by the artist’s background in conservation but also her identity as a Palestinian.
The collection is made up of sculptural ceramic vessels, handmade using a mixture of wheel-work and hand building techniques. The pieces have elegant modern shapes and are covered with a monochrome ultramarine lava glaze, creating a feeling that mixes a contemporary aliveness/nowness, with a sense of something ancient and timeless. The forms come from a personal visual vocabulary initially developed using a set of rules to generate shapes, using Le Corbusier’s Modulor grid as a baseline.
The result is a combination of an affinity for this particular blue, an interest in architectural forms and principles as well as Maia’s background in conservation and cultural & historical studies. As a first major collection, it is a very personal expression of her personality, identity and affinities.
