During this summer (2014) I was asked to participate in the group exhibition Fire! at Venus over Manhattan, New York. The ambition was to present a dynamic and diverse picture of how artists are working in ceramics today. I accepted the invitation. What makes this event relevant from my research perspective is what had caught the curators (de Pure de Pure) attention. They wanted me to show objects from the Crowd series. It is one of few works based on wheel throwing that has managed to make it outside my studio walls. Albeit Crowd series have mainly been shown in a context of modernistic antiquities (which probably has to do with the tradition I was trained in, see below). This is a part of the art field I normally doesn't engage with. In my thesis I have written about wheel throwing generally and about Crowd in particular trying to understand why it is so hard to convince others and myself that wheel throwing is a good idea trying to express oneself artistically on a contemporary art/crafts scene. During my studies in the eighties I put a lot of effort in learning how to throw. Totally convinced that I had to do that if I wanted to become a potter or ceramist. For a couple of months I learnt throwing at Gustavsbergs Porslinsfabrik under the guidance of Sven Wejsfelt. This was an important period in my becoming of a thrower. Gustavsbergs Porslinsfabrik can be counted as on of the more distinguished upholders of the functionalistic and modernistic tradition in Sweden during the decades before and after the nineteen-fifties. Berndt Friberg, who made his career at the factory, starting as thrower ending up as fully acknowledge ceramic artist, influenced me a lot. He had, at the time, attracted a lot of attention, world wide, with his skilfully thrown objects. Sven Wejsfeldt and Bernt Friberg worked under influence of the same tradition. As a thrower I bear stamp of this modernistic “less is more”-tradition, even though expressive artists like Axel Salto, Herta Hilfon and Anders Liljefors from the same era, also had (and still have) a big influence on me as an artist. But none of them were as much throwers as B. Friberg och S. Wejsfelt. After my studies it was obvious that I had mistaken me about throwing. Rather than being a useful skill it felt as if wheel throwing in it self drove me away from the more prestigious part of the art/craft scene I craved for. To some degree I lost my faith in throwing. Maybe I had to look at it as something obsolete, without any potential to say anything relevant in our time? However, I kept on throwing but only as something with secondary importance. Though still with a hope to find a meaningful way to express my self with the technique after all. And if nothing else, throwing somehow has importance for my identity as a ceramist and it gives me a sense of meaning, momentarily, while practicing the craft. So the question from de Pury de Pury really turned things upside down, suddenly placing my thrown objects in the centre of a contemporary art scene. Never before I had extracted that kind of attention for my thrown objects and never before I had exhibited with names as Ai Weiwei, Rosmarie Trockel, Sterling Ruby etc. I see Fire! as a way to rethink and deepen my reflection upon wheel throwing and its potential to be used as a way to express oneself artistically. Furthermore I have had the opportunity to get a first hand experience from an international contemporary art scene. Altogether this has importance for my main all-embracing research question; how do I as a practitioner understand the processes where clay is turned into artistically expressions, into clay-based communication? And how to understand its place and meaning in a contemporary context? During this summer (2014) I was asked to participate in the group exhibition Fire! at Venus over Manhattan, New York. The ambition was to present a dynamic and diverse picture of how artists are working in ceramics today. I accepted the invitation. What makes this event relevant from my research perspective is what had caught the curators (de Pure de Pure) attention. They wanted me to show objects from the Crowd series. It is one of few works based on wheel throwing that has managed to make it outside my studio walls. Albeit Crowd series have mainly been shown in a context of modernistic antiquities (which probably has to do with the tradition I was trained in, see below). This is a part of the art field I normally doesn't engage with. In my thesis I have written about wheel throwing generally and about Crowd in particular trying to understand why it is so hard to convince others and myself that wheel throwing is a good idea trying to express oneself artistically on a contemporary art/crafts scene. During my studies in the eighties I put a lot of effort in learning how to throw. Totally convinced that I had to do that if I wanted to become a potter or ceramist. For a couple of months I learnt throwing at Gustavsbergs Porslinsfabrik under the guidance of Sven Wejsfelt. This was an important period in my becoming of a thrower. Gustavsbergs Porslinsfabrik can be counted as on of the more distinguished upholders of the functionalistic and modernistic tradition in Sweden during the decades before and after the nineteen-fifties. Berndt Friberg, who made his career at the factory, starting as thrower ending up as fully acknowledge ceramic artist, influenced me a lot. He had, at the time, attracted a lot of attention, world wide, with his skilfully thrown objects. Sven Wejsfeldt and Bernt Friberg worked under influence of the same tradition. As a thrower I bear stamp of this modernistic “less is more”-tradition, even though expressive artists like Axel Salto, Herta Hilfon and Anders Liljefors from the same era, also had (and still have) a big influence on me as an artist. But none of them were as much throwers as B. Friberg och S. Wejsfelt. After my studies it was obvious that I had mistaken me about throwing. Rather than being a useful skill it felt as if wheel throwing in it self drove me away from the more prestigious part of the art/craft scene I craved for. To some degree I lost my faith in throwing. Maybe I had to look at it as something obsolete, without any potential to say anything relevant in our time? However, I kept on throwing but only as something with secondary importance. Though still with a hope to find a meaningful way to express my self with the technique after all. And if nothing else, throwing somehow has importance for my identity as a ceramist and it gives me a sense of meaning, momentarily, while practicing the craft. So the question from de Pury de Pury really turned things upside down, suddenly placing my thrown objects in the centre of a contemporary art scene. Never before I had extracted that kind of attention for my thrown objects and never before I had exhibited with names as Ai Weiwei, Rosmarie Trockel, Sterling Ruby etc. I see Fire! as a way to rethink and deepen my reflection upon wheel throwing and its potential to be used as a way to express oneself artistically. Furthermore I have had the opportunity to get a first hand experience from an international contemporary art scene. Altogether this has importance for my main all-embracing research question; how do I as a practitioner understand the processes where clay is turned into artistically expressions, into clay-based communication? And how to understand its place and meaning in a contemporary context?