Renaud Sauvé

Irlande, Que.

Studio: How would you describe your approach to your medium? What made you choose it?

Renaud Sauvé: In French the words ‘’atelier’’ (workshop) and ‘’réalité’’ (reality) are perfect anagrams.  This is my outlook… how things happen to me.  The reality I perceive comes to rest and unfolds in my workshop.  This is the creative and fertile link with Nature I have chosen to set up.  My craft is very old, indeed over 20, 000 years old.  Shaping objects out of clay has become the focus of my life.  It is an arduous process that needs constant fine-tuning and over the years, far from the turmoil of urban life, I keep moving forward.

Renaud Sauvé, Intertwined vegetal, 2021. Carved lid of a porcelain box with clear glaze, 7 x 11 x 11 cm. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

S: How would you describe yourself, personally and professionally?

RS: I was born in Montreal and at the time my father was working for a company (Sial) that sold materials and tools to ceramists.  The smell of clay is part of my earliest memories.  When we moved to the African Congo, I was 10.  At a very early age I was introduced to an intuitive form of craftwork and I believe that is what sparked my creativity.  Since then, I try to keep my eyes open, I try to be attentive, and I see myself as absorbed into a spectacle of nature-as-energy.  I live in a forest where a turbulent river runs with waterfalls, swirls, crevices and collapsed banks of clay.  This treasure trove is a living and glittering spectacle and an unending source of inspiration.

Renaud Sauvé, Candle snuffers, 2020. Porcelain and clear glaze, varied dimensions, Photo: Blaise Misiek.

S: What inspires you?

RS: I believe that Nature and Art are linked on a deep level.  Many times before opening my eyes in the morning, when I am just about to emerge from sleep, motifs and patterns pop up.  I try to grab hold of these fluid images as I wake up and go to work in my workshop.

As a potter I chose to dedicate myself to porcelain work.  This type of clay has a reputation for being unrewarding and unpredictable.  It requires steady hands and does not put up with any floundering.  You need daily contact with porcelain to get a feel for its nature.  It has exceptional qualities:  it shifts from a translucent to an opaque state depending on thickness and it vitrifies when fired thoroughly.  Among the various types of clays, porcelain is the one with the hardest paste.  It is white and produces a crystalline sound when you make it reverberate.

Renaud Sauvé, The Wave, 2021. Porcelain, clear glaze and etched with needle (mishima technique), 10 x 7 x 7 cm. Photo: James Arthurs

S: What do you see as your contribution to the field of your craft?

RS: Over the years, after experimenting and ruminating on objects I wanted to make, it enables me to draw some observations:

Ceramics have an outer and an inner essence, something revealed and something hidden, visible and invisible.  These aspects are equally significant.

Considerable effort must be given to the search for a balance between the main lines and the smaller details.

Surface treatment of ceramics can suggest their inherent in-depth treatment.  This is possible when potters manage to avoid the pitfalls of seductive decoration.

Human qualities one could be looking for oneself can also apply to ceramics:  nobleness, simplicity, strength, magnitude, meticulousness, delicacy, warmth…

Renaud Sauvé, Cosmic Box, 2021. Porcelain, cobalt glass beads and clear glaze, 7 x 7 x 14 cm.  COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

S: What wisdom do you want to impart to younger makers?

RS: It is important to strike a balance between the knowledge of traditions and innovation and so produce a modern piece of ceramics of high quality.  Ceramists are creators, technicians and performers.  I believe that the occupation of making vessels at its very essence is performative and involves some form of subtle commitment between bodies, objects and places.

Lastly, I learned that silence as it works in sync with the breathing predisposes ceramists to repeating the gestures that are essential to creating a piece.  

The idea is to reconcile what I see and feel just as the need to experience a rich and silent life at an unhurried pace…

Renaud Sauvé
ig: @renaudsauve

This article was published in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of Studio Magazine.