Monday 4 February 2008

how much smashed china?




Photos: Last summer when the ship Götheborg returns from a trip to China (the original Götheborg sunk when almost home, 1745) and photoshop mosaic.

A special mathematical problem was solved this week.
Thank you Josefine Holmqvist!

We both have commissions in new residential quarters in the former wharf area here in Göteborg, mosaic work based on china porcellain from the East India trade (read more here). Josefine already got a box of smashed china ware and could calculate how many grams a square decimeter of china mosaic are (60g in case you also need the information).

Now I know 10 kilos of broken China from the sunken ship Götheborg is needed for my job, the commissioner will hopefully find it. Will only use original china, not fake it. If they can't find enough I rather use tiles of matching colours, without any pattern.

Josefine (Fina) shows work at Formargruppen, an artist run gallery and shop in Malmö, right now.

Elspeth Diederix, photography
via Wrong distance

6 comments:

mansuetude said...

is this China from the origional ship? sounds amazing.

j said...

well, this is a fascinating project.

I admire the idea- shaped like the Chinese scrolls.

Bibbi said...

Yes, mansuetude, it's the original broken pieces they picked up from the ship, together with lots of unbroken. Feels very historical and I'm excited about it. But it might be difficult to find as much as ten kilos, I can use less too.

J, glad you saw the scrolls :)

mansuetude said...

Bibbi: this fascinates me. I wish i were local, I want to touch a little fragment! Did some research about ships sinking like this, my grandmother grew up in a lighthouse off Nova Scotia, and I have always prepared inside a story about her life there--the drama of the place, the sunken ships, the rough seas... etc. Its so in my memory and blood. Your ship and these fragments wakes that up inside me again! Gracias!

paris parfait said...

How amazing to be able to use the broken china from that ship! It's incredible how unbroken pieces of porcelain from Chinese shipwrecks fetches so much money with collectors. No doubt, your piece will be something special!

heather smith jones said...

Oh Congratulations on your commission Bibbi! it sounds so intriguing. What form will it take?