Upsala Ekeby 2315, “Chamotte” decor, 29cm

I’m a fan of the 2016 Denis Villeneuve film Arrival, one of the most understated science fiction movies ever made. When I first saw this vase in person, I was transported right back to the film. The vase was incredibly alien to me — almost as if the shape, contrasting surfaces and colors, and incised lines were conveying a message beyond my understanding, much as the communication by the beings in Arrival mystified the protagonist in the beginning. The effect of the vase is not so unexpected, however, considering its creation. Ingrid Atterberg, the designer, was one of the greatest and most prolific ceramic artists to ever work at Upsala Ekeby; Chamotte, the series produced between 1957-1959, was one of her many creations which pushed the ceramics envelope. As stated in Atterberg’s profile in the RetroKlassiker special issue “Upsala Ekeby, Part 1,” Chamotte was the result of her various experiments with chamotte clay, a mixture of unfired clay and crushed, already fired ceramics. Using a pottery tool, Atterberg applied a layer of chamotte clay on already turned goods, creating a new type of surface — and voilà, the Chamotte series was born. Considering the conventional nature of ceramics in the 50s, Chamotte must have seemed quite strange and unfamiliar at the time — a real alien, if you will, with a power to mystify which persists today.