a sheet of wet stoneware is draped over a wooden peg and left alone. it sags, folds, and at a certain point would tear. catalin filip dries it just before that point. the result is the 'melo sconce', a wall light whose shape was decided less by a hand than by the weight of the clay itself.
architecture, then clay
filip was born in romania in 1989 and grew up in the years after communism, a time he describes as one of new freedom and few resources, in which artists had to be inventive. his background is in architecture, and he moved to the uk in 2014. ceramics he taught himself, by trial and error, developing techniques for the forms he wanted to make. the architecture stays in the work as an interest in structure: his pieces are sculptural, but most of them are also lamps, a stool, a mirror, things that have to stand, hang and carry a cable.
letting the material decide
the starting point is always the same: what raw clay does when gravity acts on it. filip bends, pulls and stretches the material, and takes it close to collapse. on the ribbed pieces each fold is pushed to the point where the clay nearly gives way under its own weight, and then dried quickly to keep the movement. after firing, the soft gesture of the wet clay sits in a hard, stone-like body. he wants traces of the making to remain visible, and the pieces read that way: a fold, a crease, a slight lean are records of the process rather than finishes applied on top.
three clays
he works in three bodies. black vulcan stoneware is coarse and dark, and on the unglazed pieces it keeps a raw, granular surface. white stoneware is lighter in tone, and red terracotta warmer. on the lights, the outside is left in a textured natural finish while the inside, where the bulb sits, is glazed cream or antique white, so the light comes off a smooth surface while the outer skin stays matte.
the series
the melo pieces are the most direct form of the idea. the 'melo sconce', the 'melo fold' desk lamp and the 'melo lamp', a pendant on its own braided cable, are each a single form left to fold under gravity.
rakis takes the opposite route: a vertical stem of ribbed stoneware, every rib a fold pushed to its limit. it runs from the 'rakis lite' table lamp to the 'rakis floor lamp', 120 cm of three stacked sections, and the 'rakis mirror', a round mirror in a ribbed black frame.
the knotto lamps add tension from outside. on 'knotto 01' the orange power cable binds the base like a ratchet strap, so the ceramic skin looks pulled taut and creased; 'knotto 03' is a floor lamp of four elements, strapped tubes with three more stacked on top.
two pieces carry romanian names. 'taburet' is the word for stool, and the piece goes back to the old, slightly crooked furniture in his grandmother's house; its ribbed legs carry the seat. 'fum' means smoke, and the candle holder in terracotta takes the shape of smoke rising and drifting.
sculpture and vessel
the largest works with us have no function at all. 'movement phase 1' is pulled and folded black vulcan, fixed at the moment it seems about to give way. 'mnemonic hold', 180 cm tall, sets clay shaped by heat, pressure and gravity against wood marked by fire. two vessels in terracotta work with the round body: 'indent(ation)' is interrupted by pressed-in hollows, and in 'morform' two rounded forms lock into one.
what to look for
three things are worth knowing before you choose a piece. the first is that every piece is made after the order, in four to six weeks depending on the piece, and formed by hand, so shape and surface differ slightly from one to the next. that variation is the method, not a flaw. the second is the edition: the melo lights, the rakis lite and fum are open editions, most other pieces are limited to five, and morform to three. the third is the year: the melo and knotto lights date from 2024, rakis floor lamp, mirror and the sculptures from 2025, fum from 2026.
filip's work has been shown at the british ceramics biennale in stoke-on-trent, at the london design festival with mint gallery, at ceramic art london, at romanian design week in bucharest, in athens and in guadalajara. all his pieces on spazio: catalin filip.