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Judith Lasry creates unique pieces, which she models entirely by hand, at home in Burgundy. While in Paris, she received us in the offices of her collective Gangster.
While discussing, we had the chance to see her shaping a round and slender cut in front of our dazzled eyes. An authentic and singular creation, full of instinct and poetry, like Judith herself.
Who are you?
It depends on the hours.
Can you summarize your background, when and how you first started your work as a ceramist?
4-5 years ago, for the love of food and wine, the pleasures of the table and the sensuality of the materials.
Already during my studies in design I was working on projects related to food, but had no desire to sit behind a computer, to have schedules, and suchlike injunctions. I lived in the lively market square of Aligre, I often drank delicious glasses of wine at Agrology, a grocery store next door where Nathalie and Olivier are sourcing high quality products that taste pure. I was giving them ceramics that I was modelling in my 15m2, then one day they wanted a real service, about forty pieces, carte blanche. I didn't have a workshop, it took me a year to manage to make the work. Then, a nearby restaurant (Dersou) ordered me plates. These people, friends and first customers, believed in me and finally helped me to move in that direction. I wanted to create new things, I liked it, I looked for workshops. After a stint in Brussels, I met our future collective Gangster in Paris. Then a desire for large spaces, a more raw and simple environment, made me leave the city to be in phase with my practice and my aspirations.
Tell us about your creations and your work, where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspirations, I don't really know, but certainly not from the visual world.
I work on instinct, by touch, savagely. Nothing is prepared in advance, no drawings or plans, the textures speak to me a lot. I like to make pieces that we touch, that are in our daily lives, that we live with.
And soon I will be cooking with wood, a 2-day cooking process in which we must be present and active, a process that challenges our relationship to creation and time.
What does your typical day look like? (the first thing when you wake up, and the last thing before you go to bed?)
I live in the middle of an isolated countryside on a hill, so snow or heat, I go out to feel the first lights. Then, in the summer, I walk around the house, in the winter I start the chimney fire.
To sink, readings and deep breaths with drops of ravintsara essential oil.
The taste or smell that brings back the most memories (your Proust madeleine)?
The taste and smell of the pie made with dark-red plums from the garden. A puff pastry, plums thrown by my mother's hand on the almond powder, and my eyes glued to the glass of the oven observing the transformation of the color of the fruit, this transition from violet green to acidulous and juicy fuchsia fascinates me completely.
Otherwise, the smell of citrons studded with cloves in the family buffet.
Three things we're sure to find in your purse?
My folding knife, my driver's license, and argan oil.
The clothing that suits you best?
A well-cut, high waist jean with a heavy canvas. Clothing that I have been wearing for a very long time, even when low waist was in fashion.
What is your relationship to fashion?
Androgynous: dressed in my brothers' clothes, I still wear their woodsman's jacket. But I am tampering with the pieces I kept from my mother, who was in her twenties in 1968. My daily life is made of jeans and t-shirts, yet in the cupboards I have enough to dress a whole carnival.
What does Sessùn inspire you?
The beautiful woman at all ages of her life, urban, sweet, sensual, powerful, lively and colorful.
Your favorite piece from the current collection?
The huge orange sweater "Pitkin gold", or the most delicate "Jammy cactus flower" in wine color.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Healthy.
Thank you Judith!
To follow Judith's work, give a look at her instagram
