Bodil Manz is praised for her slip cast porcelain cylinders. The porcelain is wafer thin and beautifully translucent. Manz decorates the cylinders with geometrical patterns, sometimes on both inner and outer surfaces, where the resulting effect is a pattern on one side, offset by a shadow on the other. The light pours through them, enabling the outer and inner decoration to merge and form a single composition. One source of inspiration for Manz is the work of artists Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich, both pioneers in geometric abstract art. In much of her work, Manz uses blocks of primary colour with fine black lines.
In Rain (2017) the outer surface is decorated with fine blue lines and vertical slits that allow the light to pass through the vessel, emphasising its translucency even more and creating an interplay between inside and out. The rim is emboldened with a dark glaze.
Rain (2017) relates well to the ceramic collections in the Usher Gallery, Lincoln. The simplicity of form and colour links to the oriental ceramics and other contemporary craft pieces. Manz has also been influenced by the Danish landscape, reminiscent in parts to the Lincolnshire landscape with its big, open skies.
