Collaborations with the Lembesis Family, Sifnos, Greece 1999-present

I have worked with Yiannis, Niko and Kateh Lembesis since 1999 in their pottery on the island of Sifnos, Greece. From my home east of Athens, it takes me about 7 hours to reach the Lembesis pottery.--bus, metro, foot, fast boat, and bus. I usually visit several times in the summer to work for periods ranging from 2 days to 10 days.

Originally, I was invited to be one of a number of artists who did not work with clay, who would work in collaboration with the traditional functional potters of Sifnos. The result was to be an exhibition in the abandoned monastic buildings of Firogia.

The first year, 1999, I was assigned to work with the potter Giorgos Exylzes. Our area was to be the monastic kitchen. And I proposed that we develop and inscribe utilitarian vessels with texts from some modern and contemporary Greek poetry that in theme or idea referred to food or to the kitchen.

One poem was from the “Axion Esti”, an epic work by noble prize winning Odysseus Elytis. The title of the poem was 'the Garden of the Lambs' and I knew there was a traditional pot that Sifnians used to cook lambs. George does not throw large works and he took me to the Lembesis pottery where Yianni threw two 'mastello'.

The following summer, I worked with Nikos Raviolos, one of Yianni's nephews who is also a potter. We developed a series of 11 utilitarian bowls and vessels related to traditional Mediterranean recipes. Such as poppy petal or dandelion or caper salad, wine in which rosemary is added (which is good to lower blood pressure), and strawberry leaf tea. Again Yianni threw some large bowls that I inscribed with patterns for the holding of koliva, a traditional food served at memorial services for the dead.

Since that summer, the family has graciously welcomed me as team member in the decorative work on vessels.

Yianni, Niko and Kateh Lembesis (3 generations)

We discuss the development of forms for various cooking and decorative uses. A lot of this is based on revisiting (through reproductions) the Byzantine ceramic forms and how they relate to the traditional utilitarian and decorative forms with which they are so familiar. In addition, we have been experimenting with an expansion of sgrafitto patterns, based either on the byzantine or on observation of natural forms in the environment.

We have also experimented with using some of the traditional Byzantine glazes over the traditional white slip (baidana). The pottery has not worked with color before.

In February, 2004, Yiannis and his two eldest sons, Manolis and Nikos, who work with him in the pottery, visited the University of Minnesota as Artists-In-Residence in our new art facility. It was an extraordinarily mutually beneficial for everyone. Students and faculty were thrilled by the Lembesis’ facility and productivity in throwing traditional forms, especially the ease with which they adapted to a variety of clays which, up until that point, they had never encountered. Everyone joined in the process of sgrafittoing on pots. The Lembesis enjoyed the exchange with students and faculty, especially their introduction to the wealth of information regarding glazing processes that Professor Tom Lane generously offered. And there was of course the overwhelming hospitality of Minnesotans in winter!

A set of DVD’s of this residency, including a powerpoint presentation about the traditional pottery of Sifnos is available from Michael Hanisch, michael@mindthemind.com

Tom Lane visited Sifnos with one of our graduate students, Nick Darcourt, in the summer of 2005. With the family they developed a video documenting the traditional pottery of Sifnos. In Greek and English with subtitles it is available from Tom Lane. tlane@umn.edu

In 2006 Niko returned to Minneapolis to work in the studios with our undergraduate, graduate students and faculty, exchanging ideas and approaches to functional and sculptural ceramics.
As a result of what he learned during this visit he has successfully initiated the use of lead free glaze to all ceramic work in the Lembesis pottery.