Frieda Graf and Charlotte Pohle

I had just begun my studies in artistic ceramics in the Westerwald and intended to create a life-size “father figure,” for which I produced numerous glaze tests. These had to be large enough to show how the color, surface, and flow behavior of each glaze behaved. Out of these phallic-appearing studies, I developed the first ceramic dildos and subsequently the Edition Jorinde and Joringel.

The enclosed shapes and the various shades of blue in the ceramics provoked associations with nativity scenes and images of Mary, so I picked up on that thread and studied Marian depictions since the Renaissance. The Madonna artist’s edition interprets individual works as dildo and case. For the planned Marian cycle, Virginity, Conception, Pregnancy, and Motherhood of Mary are to be realized — the first two have already been executed.

FRIEDA GRAF was my grandmother and now gives her name to this multifaceted project, which has already inspired and encouraged many people to relate their own sexuality and spirituality to history and society. The label is part of my artistic work, in which I repeatedly engage deeply with biographical themes.

Charlotte Pohle