Pieter Theunissen is a Belgian ceramic artist who creates sculptural helmets that seem to have been unearthed from a forgotten past—or imagined for a world just slightly different from our own. His work is rooted in a fascination with history: from medieval weapon collections to ancient warrior cultures, from castle armories to ritual objects. Yet the pieces he makes are not replicas—they are reinterpretations, playful and poetic, shaped in clay.

Each helmet is a unique sculpture, often featuring bold forms and tactile surfaces, with eye slits, grilles, or stylized breathing holes that evoke both protection and mystery. A signature element in Pieter’s work is the use of natural materials like dried grasses and grains, which serve as helmet crests. These give the works an organic, almost ceremonial presence—soft, swaying elements that contrast beautifully with the solidity of the ceramic base.

While helmets are the heart of his practice, Pieter occasionally turns to other forms, such as urns—objects that share the same stillness, symbolism, and quiet sense of ritual. He also creates curious contraptions and sculptural objects that defy easy categorization: ceramic eggs, firearm-like shapes, and imagined tools that play with function, absurdity, and symbolic weight. These works extend his interest in history and ritual into a more speculative, sometimes whimsical register.

He also works with bronze through traditional sand casting techniques, though seldom in direct combination with his ceramic work. Blending craft with concept, and humor with reverence, Pieter’s sculptures invite viewers to look twice: into history, into material, and into the strange power of objects that seem both timeless and oddly alive.