Kee-Tea Rha
The carousel
"In the forest of buildings, the sounds of cars, people getting out of the subway, neon lights illuminating signs, the smells of carbon dioxide and those of restaurants...and in the middle of it all, a carousel... A historical and picturesque bubble, which, as it rotates, weaves together our childhood memories across the generations... a space that escapes modernity and our headlong rush. A suspended time, imbued with a certain nostalgia".K-T-Rha
Winner of the Jury's Prize in 2022, Kee-Tea Rha has this year proposed a project for the great hall of the Town Hall's annex on 14 May.e arr. The artist, accustomed to bringing together sculpted volumes and painted images, has imagined a surreal scene with several ceramic carousel horses. The structure of the carousel is absent. Richly decorated, the horses are installed in isolation, with a neon bar running through each one. All present ambivalent characters, between vulnerability and vitality. Clay, a material that's alive and fragile but also frozen and solid, is ideally suited to this ambivalence. Paintings of urban landscapes devoid of any presence contrast with this universe of light and color. They prefigure or prolong a feeling of melancholy, faced with the symbolic poetry of this ghostly and marvelous "carousel". FB
Prix du Jury 2022
Born in 1971. Lives and works in Saint-Jean-Le Thomas.
Training
Professional ceramics training at IEAC (Institut Européen des arts céramiques), Guebwiller
DNSEP (Diplôme National Supérieur d'Expression Plastique) at the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts
Head chef at a Japanese restaurant in Strasbourg
Exhibitions
2022: Prix du jury C14-Paris
2019: Terralha, European Festival of Ceramic Arts, St-Quentin-la-Poterie - Musée de la Poterie Normande, Ger
2018: group show, MorphologiesSamdi Galerie, Caen
ResonancesEuropean arts and crafts fair, Strasbourg
2017: Les Dominicains de Haute-Alsace, Guebwiller.
