Bouke de Vries

After working with designers John Galliano, Stephen Jones, and Zandra Rhodes, Bouke de Vries switched careers and studied ceramics conservation and restoration at West Dean College. As a private conservator, he confronted issues and contradictions pertaining to notions of perfection and worth, which he now uses as the starting point for his own works as an artist. Exploiting his skills as a restorer, his artworks reclaim broken pots after their accidental trauma. But instead of reconstructing them, he deconstructs them, emphasising their new status, instilling new virtues and values, and progressing their stories.