[dentifier] K2026-005

"Since 2015, at the end of a series of sculptures for an exhibition, I have been creating a 'Garbage' or rubbish bin. I construct a container – usually a bowl topped with one or more candlesticks – in which I collect my glaze tests along with fragments from previous firing processes, rubbish I find on the street or small shards of glass. This 'mound' is fired again at a high temperature, causing everything to fuse together as the glazes remelt. This sculpture, composed of gathered elements, thus becomes a testament to a particular period and to the time spent in the studio." Éric Croes, correspondence, 2025.

A ceramic piece will occasionally crack during firing, but Éric Croes often finds the result too beautiful to discard. In 2015, this instinct gave rise to the Garbage series: sculptures assembled from waste, failed test pieces and leftover material from his exhibition preparations. Whatever he chooses to keep is gathered in a bowl, glazed and fired once more, fusing into a new work that eventually finds its own place within the exhibition.
Galleries tend to be less enthusiastic about these pieces, as they are harder to sell. Audiences, by contrast, respond warmly to them, drawn to the visible trace of process and making. There is a certain romanticism at work here: discarded fragments are granted a second life. Crowned with a candlestick, each sculpture takes on the air of a small altar – at once solemn and wry.
Garbage XX is, as its title suggests, the 20th work in the series. It was created for Croes' 2023 solo exhibition La nuit est une femme à barbe at the Brussels gallery Sorry We're Closed. The artist has folded fragments of a cracked work into it, alongside test tiles and found objects, in a precarious balancing act.