Gisèle Buthod-Garçon is French and lives in the region of Occitania. She became aware of her passion for clay in 1976, after visiting Senegal. The raw aspect of clay, the burning vivacity it offers and its carnal appearance are at the source of this attraction. Ever since she adopted ceramics and started work as a professional in 1982, she has continually experimented, relentlessly learning and solving problems with unequalled stubbornness. All her work is conditioned by her adoption of a specific firing method, known as raku firing. Oily enamel and raku seemed absolutely irreconcilable, yet Gisèle Buthod-Garçon has established her fame on the very basis of this paradox. She combines rough surfaces and formal harmony. She creates as though echoing the arid, bleak landscapes that surround her. Her work translates the immemorial trace of human fragility and the timelessness of things.
