Meeting with the talented ceramist Sophie Parachey, who explores our relationship to the living through her minimalist and inspired creations.

Can you tell us more about your background and how art came to you?
I followed a course in preparatory classes, then at ESCP Europe (Ecole Sup&eacute;rieure de Commerce de Paris), and during this phase I was above all attracted by craftsmanship, and by the transmission of ancestral know-how.
During my studies in 2015, I decided to meet traditional textile artisans in Latin America. This will constitute an 8 month trip as a volunteer reporter. During this experience, I understood my desire to practice the gestures of craftsmen myself. At that time, a desire was also born to recount these encounters, both with the craftsmen and with the cosmogonies of which they were the guardians.
My first jobs took me into innovation (luxury, finance, tech startup). In 2020, the desire to create objects and to return to touch imposed itself, somewhere at odds with the technological world in which I was evolving then. I had reconnected a few years ago with the practice of ceramics, of which I had kept very good childhood memories.
I then decided to devote myself to it and I joined Pia Chevalier's studio as an assistant designer trainee, then the turning lessons of master turner Augusto Tozzola. I also had the opportunity to learn ancestral modeling techniques during a stay in Mexico in early 2021, in the province of Oaxaca. I launched my first objects in the spring of 2021.

Ceramics have experienced a real craze in recent years, particularly under the impetus of Instagram. How do you manage to innovate and fuel your creativity despite some formatting?
I try to stay centered on the content: the movement or the emotion that drives me to throw myself into a piece, rather than starting from forms that I could have observed. We are inevitably influenced by what we see on a daily basis and the flood of images submitted to us by social networks, but above all this generates a feeling of saturation in my eyes.
My pieces are born either thanks to the drawing, or I discover them as they are modelled. The choices at this time are intuitive, and the form is born from a dialogue with the volume.
My research fuels my creativity. My work questions the change of scenery, the antagonism of the ancestral and the modern, and the relationship to the living through the study of different cosmogonies and ancestral cultures. I dedicated a year of research to Guatemala, during which I studied the relationship to natural elements, and particularly to fire, that the Maya K'iche' and Maya Kaqchiquel cultures still maintain today. This transmission is a great source of inspiration in my work, as well as the volcanic reliefs and the particular atmosphere of this country. Being self-taught, I wanted to take the time, to let my message mature.

Tell us about your collection of objects. What made you want to venture out of ceramics?
The pieces in this collection are modeled in sandstone or earthenware, and express themselves according to their curves, textures and resonances. Rough or smooth, they tell together a paradoxical universe. Primary and raw volumes, barely hatched from the magma, rub shoulders with more subtle soft shapes. From this astonishing cohabitation seems to be reborn a new balance.
Centerpieces, vases or trinket bowls oscillate between art and design and recall an organic aesthetic. The rough and raw textures of the &ldquo;Granite&rdquo; vases evoke wild and pristine, even archaic landscapes. While the sinuous lines of the MOTHER or SHELL II centerpieces are rather reminiscent of the fluidity of the elements. The colors are obtained thanks to work on the enamels and a play on the firing temperature of the different earths. We find, for example, in the Satin White, Shiny Camel, Matte Sage, Terracotta, and Lava Black palette.
Some pieces work as a module: the SHELL I storage compartment is, for example, equipped with a round satellite, which allows its holder to interact with the object, and to renew its look over time. Other objects work in duo or trio like the MOTHER AND SON, CELLS, centerpieces, ... Each part of the room being mobile, its user will choose the nature of the interaction he wishes to create between the different elements .

<div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://fr.sophieparachey.com"><cite class="iUh30 tjvcx" role="text">https://fr.sophieparachey.com</cite></a></div>
<div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/sophieparachey/"><cite class="iUh30 tjvcx" role="text">https://www.instagram.com/sophieparachey/</cite></a></div>
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Sophie Parachey: "My work questions the antagonism between the ancestral and the modern"

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