Babette’ feast

Swiss graphic designer turned ceramicist Babette Maeder, uses her chosen media to create three dimensional porcelain illustrations. Babette’s quirky menagerie merges the elegance of 18th century Meissen figurines with the whim of an enigmatic imagination. The charm in Maeder’s poetic lays in its unpredictability. A frog leaning on a sausage, a gorilla clinging to a soft toy, a dapper piglet in a tie, a well hung male life drawing model standing next to a baboon. Is the monkey his pet, a dusty art academy prop or his alter ego? Did the gorilla steal the toy from a crying child on the page of a sketchbook we can no longer see? The figures seem to have jumped out of the second dimension to occupy a domestic space, weaving the stories they left behind with those of the objects they meet in our homes. Traditionally, porcelain figurines serve as conversation pieces and social commentary, but Babette’s characters are in turn their own storytellers and the actors of our own narrative. Highly collectible and addictive, her work is made of delicate yet sturdy white porcelain painted in pastel hues in a glossy, almost liquid finish. Figurines propped on sculptural bowls are the most recent addition to her range, lending functionality to otherwise purely decorative pieces. Hoarding alert!