Yannick Fourbet Born in 1966 Douala Cameroon, my childhood was a West African life where for 16 years I developed a fondness for craftsmanship, fishing and diving.
My route to pottery was by way of a brief exploration of marine biology studies in California, a degree in marketing from San Jose state university in 1993 and a return to France where I dealt in and restored French country antiques.
Curious by nature, as an antique dealer, I began to search the history of these French urns called Anduze (name of the village where they originated from) and in 2003 by a concourse of circumstances of life which I have always embraced, I became the artistic director and a shareholder of Le Chêne Vert, a horticultural pottery business with 15 employees at the time; in a township called Anduze, in the South of France,
Ultimately I came across 18th century Anduze pots and developed techniques to restore them which then inspired me to create patinas to make 21st century clay pots look as if they were antiques straight out of my kiln.
In 2010, during a potters’ festival in the municipal Parc of Anduze, I was captivated by an old farmer by the name of Gilbert Serres, who was creating pots in front of a large audience using plywood and coiled cisal ropes. Needless to say, my curiosity and my insatiable thirst of discoveries led me into wanting to know more about this technique so over a “pichet”of rosé I sweet talked him into teaching it to me.
Nowadays I am grateful to Master Serres for showing me the way with ropes and plywood but more so because today I operate from New Zealand with his technique.
Stars align in Central Otago
When London-based Philippa (yet to become my wife in 2015) walked into Le Chêne Vert in 2012, she was enamoured with the pots I was making. Keeping in touch over potentially importing the handmade Anduze pots to New Zealand, we met again a year later when I was exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show in London.
At this point Philippa saw the potter through the pots then marriage, twin babies (in 2016) as well as a relocation to New Zealand in 2018 happened in quick succession.
In another twist of fate! the bucolic beauty of Domaine Rewa, our vineyard in Central Otago, came complete with a stone house originally designed by a French viticulturist, Jean Desire Feraud in the 19th century. I work on a bespoke basis giving shapes and colors to sometimes really abstract ideas. The vast landscapes, hills, lakes and ocean shores are awe inspiring to me. My technique is sculptural, physical and rather ingenious. Pottery to me is the art of shaping earth (clay) with creativity, patience, soul and fire. I found a happy place in my busy life.
Success never comes without hard work and bumps, yet today, I am very lucky to operate in a vineyard from a 280 square meter “Atelier” located in one of the most beautiful regions of Aotearoa. I owe it to my wife and to life in a much broader sense.
