Erika Patka: POETRY IN CLAY
Introduction in catalogue, 2004
Fotos: Mladen Penev, Erik Egerer and Lukas Beck
Translation: Nicholas T.Parsons

Looking back over the last five years, it becomes apparent that Rosemarie Benedikt has extended her range significantly during that time. In a book entitled «What the Ceramics Say» [Keramik erzählt ] published in 1999, the final chapter showcases light-coloured receptacles whose sides are decorated with flower or animal reliefs.  These elements are agglomerative and three-dimensional, concentrating themselves into sculpture–like formations. Miniatures of fish, birds, camels or cats are woven together as in a carpet pattern and convey a surprising dynamism, notwithstanding a certain monumental quality. The draught of fishes, for example, seems to become detached and to fade off into space…
For the first time, human figures occur between the animals, looking like the “creatures of light”, the protectors of the fauna, such as we find in the myths of Mexico or Australia. The figures are seen in relief and contoured in various shades of blue, or they are scratched on the surface like a drawing and thereafter coloured in.
For Rosemarie Benedikt, drawing and painting are at once an experiment and a limbering up process. She fills her sketchbook with page upon page of diverse forms, which spill over into autonomous pictures. They exhibit considerable sophistication in over changing combinations of colour and a highly individual rhythm in the brushstrokes. The brushwork transfers from paper to the ceramic surface and brings colour and movement into her world of diminutive creatures.
The “Miniature” has indeed always played a role in the artist’s creations. Alone, or in pairs, or in small groups, the figures play mischievously on the bases of the jars. In human pyramids like circus acrobats, or playing ring-a-ring-a-roses, or merrily chasing each other, they sparkle with wit. Sometimes they are individually mounted on fat containers to achieve a humorous effect. Here, as elsewhere, the little coati-mundi is the best loved animal (apart from the cat) in this gathering, and indeed is featured in all periods of her work. Recently its light-coloured body has been combined with a green and black copper glaze, dividing into two halves of contrasting colour.
The “Cat People” have grown and grown, and now make an imposing row of figures. Charming, yet with an impressive tensile power, they capture our sympathy at once. “Leo and Laetitia Luchs” carry the great fish together… Here Rosemarie Benedikt is working for the first time in Raku, an ancient Japanese firing technique which results in a craquelure surface.
In the context of the soft, rounded forms of recent years, the “boats” exhibit a significantly severe motif. Smooth sides, only occasionally relieved by burls or horns, as well as sharp edges and acute angles, offer, in their reductive simplicity, a pointed contrast to the painterly exuberance of colour and the diverse abundance of the figures on other receptacles. Once again the artist strikes out on a new path.
The liveliness and freshness of the works betrays a receptive mind, a temperament open to new ideas. The deft manoeuvring between different artistic mediums, such as painting, drawing, textiles and ceramics, brings continually new impulses. Individual original works, on the one hand, and on the other, design for industrial production (typically, industrial design Villeroy & Boch), lead to continual artistic challenges. At the same time, intellectual and emotional enrichment is provided by the artist’s regular contacts with the up and coming generation. The ongoing dialogue resulting there from is extremely fruitful for both sides and produces new momentum for creativity. As Waltraud Neuwirth has pointed out, Rosemarie Bendikt is thereby working in the best tradition of applied artists, being inspired by the genius loci, and thus following in the tracks of her female antecedents  of the legendary Vienna Werkstätte.
The contact with the young generation is also highlighted by the present book, the graphics of which were put together with the close cooperation of students of professor Walter Lürzer at the University of applied Arts Vienna. Alva Unger, Christo Penev and Mladen Penev have managed to show the world of Rosemarie Benedikt in a new dimension by means of the computerised manipulation of images. They have thereby created fascinating transitions and contrasts, which open up the prospect of unconventional ways of seeing…