Sisse Lee
Gnisten/The Spark (2023)

The ashtray is a vessel type with proud traditions in school and hobby ceramics. The function is so simple that even a child’s small fingers can quickly shape a plate with a rim, and just like that, you have a Christmas present for mum and dad. Or, rather, you did, since nowadays, they probably aren’t smokers. 

I first saw Sisse Lee’s ashtray on Instagram, the photo accompanied simply by the dry statement, All my friends are smokers. Sisse’s reaction was immediately to make an ashtray. Perhaps she was initially provoked, but then she felt a spark and wanted to shape and paint and support her friends in their unhealthy habits. She might have even gone out to get some beer while she was at it? Smoking is really stupid. But is it only stupid? It can also be pleasure, celebration or ‘stress management’ in the awkward grip of a fifteen-year-old. Suddenly you look cool, as you are standing there with your ciggy, the smoke rings soaring, death-defyingly, into the sky … 

The ashtray is made of white clay with a cool and confident demeanour: there is no finish, just a circle cut out of a sheet of clay, a strip of clay for the rim and four hastily cut incisions for the cigarettes to rest in. – Easy-peasy! In flaming letters, the centre of the tray reads GNISTEN [THE SPARK]. The letters do what they spell out, they flash like a spark. They are painted in tart yellow and orange glazes that were popular during the 1970s on lamps, tile-topped tables and, yes, ashtrays. The text is a sassy reference to design history’s lowbrow culture and cartoon-like pop art. In cartoons, the word BOOM was surrounded by a puff of smoke, and in 1980s postmodernism, what could be cooler than a hot dog stand shaped as a hot dog …

Sometimes, you might lose the spark, but sparks can also fly. In a simple way, Sisse Lee’s ashtray holds more than ash: a pile of ambivalent emotions gathered in one of the most humble vessels in this exhibition. ‘Ashes to ashes,’ I say! (GJ)