Elisabeth Holder

Material: Steel

The Forge Fire as Agent and Medium

The ancient technique of forging is one way of shaping steel or iron. For the metal to be shaped by hammer blows on the anvil, it must first be made to glow by heating it in the forge fire. If coal is used as fuel for this, its non-combustible components melt and solidify into slag. Thus, forging always produces a material that, in addition to the desired object, has been transformed in the fire. The author shifts the focus on this otherwise disregarded material.

1 / 5 Spherical object and slag, 2004

2 / 5 Spherical object, 2004

3 / 5 Slag, 2004

4 / 5 Phönix. Object, 2023, Photography: Eunok Cho

5 / 5 Coral. Neckpiece, 2023, Photography: Eunok Cho

Steel and Oxide Scale

When the oxygen in the air meets the high temperatures of the forge fire, it causes the steel to oxidize on the surface. As the steel cools, the oxide layer formed in the fire falls off in flakes of varying sizes. These works shift the focus onto this oxide scale, a substance that would otherwise be generally discarded.

1 / 5 Steel plate in the forge fire, 2004

2 / 5 Detail of a scaled steel plate (left) compared with flakes of oxide scale (right)

3 / 5 Flakes of oxide scale, 2004

4 / 5 Durchblick. Wall object, 2004/2023, Photography: Eunok Cho

5 / 5 Zunder. Wall object,, 2004/2013, Fotografie: Johan Blommaert

Cast Iron

Early on, the author used her knowledge of material, its specific properties and processing methods to make it speak, as she used to say. This included questioning or ignoring traditional rules of craftsmanship. The corroded surface of the cast iron only occurred because the embedding material used is basically unsuitable for the high casting temperatures of iron.