Clara Holt
Selected works, 2023-2024
The Ancient East, 2023
Tamatori-hime diving deep underwater to steal back the Jewel from the Dragon King
The story of Tamatori-hime (“Jewel-taker Princess”), was one of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s favorite ukiyo-e subjects and is a recurring subject in Yakuza body tattoos. Tamatori was an Ama, a pearl diver who dove deep underwater to the bottom of the ocean to steal back a priceless jewel form a Dragon King name Ryūjin. The jewel belonged to her husband, Fujiwara no Fuhito, and had been stolen during a storm. Tamamo sacrificed her own life after fighting numerous sea monsters. Just before the dragon caught her, Tamatori-hime remembered a legend: dragons can only take things from the living. They cannot remove things from a dead person. She therefore thrust her knife into her chest, hid the jewel inside her, and slowly floated up to the surface of the sea. With her last breaths, she told Fuhito where she hid the jewel, and she begged him to look after their son.
The divine farmer tastes countless unidentified herbs every day
Shennong is a mythical Chinese god who lived, according to legend, around 5,000 years ago. He had the body of a man, an ox-like head and a transparent abdomen.
There were no medicines at that time, but Shen Nong thus decided to do everything in his power to expand his knowledge in the field of medicine.
Every day he ventured into the forest in search of wild plants and tasted as many as he could find. He classified them by taste and characteristics-in this his transparent stomach proved useful-and discovered those that were poisonous and those that had healing properties. In total he identified 365 medicinal herbs.
Kabuki actors
The two pieces are inspired by classic ukiyo-e themes in the late 18th century: fashionable beauty and kabuki actors. Katsukawa Shunshō and his students dominated the actor print genre: his innovative portraits clearly depicted actors not as interchangeable bodies with masks, but as individuals, distinctive personalities whose postures and colorful, made-up faces were easily recognizable to the viewer. Previously, only stereotypes were portrayed and the characters could only be identified by text notes added to the woodcut print.
Similarly, female beauty was portrayed, in imaginary or everyday scenes: artists of the time idealized the female form, observing it in virtually all its poses, casual and formal.
Shen Nong accidentally discovers an antidote to any poison
How was Shen Nong able to eat countless unidentified herbs every day while managing to avoid poisoning himself? It actually happened up to seventy times a day. However, Shen Nong had discovered a special tea that acted as an antidote that cured all kinds of poison.
One day Shen Nong was preparing a fire to boil water when some leaves from a burning tea twig accidentally fell into the cauldron. Shen Nong took a sip, and discovered that this drink could remove the toxins from all the harmful substances he tried to digest.
This special tea allowed him to live to the ripe old age of 120.
Tales from the North, 2023
Part of The Factory 2023 art exhibition in Djúpavík, Iceland
The Factory is an annual group exhibition situated in the abandoned herring factory in Djúpavík in the Westfjords of Iceland. By integrating a broad variety of site-specific art, installations and sound, The Factory builds a bridge between the vanished fishing industry and contemporary art. Icelandic and international artists, emerging and established, are represented. Each work is inspired by the artist’s personal impressions of Iceland, ultimately (re)creating an exhibition space in conversation and in contrast with the surroundings of Djúpavík. The overall goal is to form a space of sensory explorations where past and present meet—a place for everyone to breathe, exist and be.
The eighth iteration of The Factory, Enchanting Portals, refers to passages through gaps, time, and realms. Drawing on the word “paganism,” all 13 artists have crafted sensitive installations which rise alone yet correspond—almost ritually—in the strange intimacy of the worn concrete walls. There is a comfort to the somewhat unreal setting: as we move between pieces derived or inspired by shamanic drums, the skull of a wild boar, and Norse mythology, we are reminded that life is never linear. Rather, life is a braid of chaos, divinity, stones, plants, animals, decay, growth, and birth. Stopping for a moment with that vision in mind, consider paganism’s worship of multiple gods and its belief of man-nature unison as the mystifying underbelly of the exhibition.
My project consists of three vertical murals of handmade tiles, painted with blue slip and sgraffito decorated. Each tells a story from Norse mythology.
I. Thor and the Midgard serpent
Thor was a guest in the lands of the giant Hymir, father of the god Tyr, to procure a cauldron large enough to hold beer for all the gods. Thor, famous for his gluttony, devoured all the food present, leaving nothing for the next few days. The landlord then begged him to go fishing to procure something to eat. Thor chose a large bull’s head as bait, then threw it into the sea, hoping to catch something big. Finally a tug nearly capsized the boat, but from the waters surfaced the fearsome snout of Jormungandr, the giant world serpent. Hymir, terrified by the furious struggle between the god and the monster, severed the line with his knife, arousing Thor’s wrath for causing him to lose his catch.
II. Iðunn’s abduction
Iðunn is the goddess of youth and spring, wife of the god of poetry Bragi. She guards the miraculous apples that the gods eat to keep themselves young and vigorous. The story goes that she was abducted by the giant Þjazi. Without Iðunn’s apples, the gods began to grow old and decided to send the god Loki to rescue her. Loki turns Iðunn into a walnut, taking her away with him, but Þjazi changes into an eagle by flying in pursuit. The gods create a barrier of fire between whose flames the monstrous bird dies.
III. Baldr, the shining God
Baldr is Odin’s second son and the most beautiful of the gods; he shines with his own light and his hair is as white as snow. His mother has imposed a universal oath on all living creatures: nothing shall ever harm Baldr. Since then the gods begin a game that they repeat every day at their gathering: they form a circle around Baldr by throwing any object at him because nothing could harm him anymore. There is actually one plant that did not make this oath: the mistletoe. Loki, the enigmatic god of disorder, sneaks up on Baldr’s blind brother, puts the mistletoe in his hand, and guides him in throwing it. The mistletoe flies toward Baldr like an arrow, killing him and leaving the other gods astonished. Loki escaped and lived in a house made of glass to see if the other gods would come for him. But the gods managed to catch him, took him to a cave where they chained him with a poisonous snake forever.
Exhibition hosted by Hótel Djúpavík. Curator: Emilie Dalum
Captions
- Contemporary Tulipiere, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2023, stoneware and black slip
Contemporary Tulipiere, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2023, stoneware and black slip
Orpheus, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2023, stoneware and black slip
Orpheus, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2023, stoneware and black slip
The abduction of Europa, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2024, stoneware and black slip
The abduction of Europa, collaboration with Domenico Guardiani, 2024, stoneware and black slip
The old man and the sea, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + black slip
The old man and the sea, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + black slip
The old man and the sea, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + black slip
Preferirías enfrentarte a una oca del tamaño de un caballo, o a cien caballos del tamaño de una oca, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + black slip
Preferirías enfrentarte a una oca del tamaño de un caballo, o a cien caballos del tamaño de una oca, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + black slip
I’ll only hurt you if you let me, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2024, terracotta + black slip
I’ll only hurt you if you let me, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2024, terracotta + black slip
Large Sea Mouths, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + white slip
Large Sea Mouths, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + white slip
Large Sea Mouths, wheelthrown by Paolo Paoli, 2023, terracotta + white slip - The Ancient East, 2023, earthenware and blue slip, clear glaze
