The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 52 No 1 April 2013

Focus: New Zealand Ceramics
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2005 Premier Award: Merilyn Wiseman. Arctic Rim, earthenware, h.43cm, w.11Ocm. d.27cm
Judge: Robert Bell
Artist's statement extract: The naming of a work brings its difficulties, as do too many words of
explanation ... , prefer to allow the work to speak for itself. The Utle is intended to act as a
trigger to activate dialogue.
The Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award's demise in 1998 presented a gap that was difficult to fill as
it became clear that more than a competition was in peril. By then there were many other competitions,
although none carried the same cachet or the rewards. The real void comprised withdrawals of a
variety of specialist retail venues that steadily changed focus or closed doors from the late 1980s as
progressively lifted import restrictions allowed in competitive ceramics. A corollary to this meant one
after another tertiary programs removed ceramics from their offerings as students turned to what
seemed more rewarding courses in the shrinking retail and exhibiting environment. When courses were
retained they went under the heading of Visual Arts and were part of a wider, more generalised arts
program that might include clay, but only under a fine arts rubric and with no cognisance to ceramics'
particular and rich histories.
The vacuum has been partially filled by Distance Learning Courses offered via local pottery societies
that resource from Otago Polytechnic. These courses offer a certificate and a diploma but no degree
qualification. Results vary enormously, depending on who can be found to teach in the region, but it's a
chalk and cheese affair when compared with a well-resourced tertiary program.
When Garth Clark was in New Zealand in 2006, he talked about how, in America, ceramics had
settled into two layers. One was essentially taken up by major public and white cube galleries while
the other operated at local and regional level and was active in craft fairs and direct sales of various
kinds. What had been in between, the specialist craft gallery and regionally focussed publicly funded
institutions where craft media work was exhibited as such, had for the most part departed from that
purpose or disappeared. The first category was small and particular, while the second was still large and
active, but aging.
While Clark's somewhat sweeping generalisations seemed a tad extreme at the time, I have since
realised that much the same has happened here, albeit in our own small way with our own small
community. There are a few whose work has been taken up by white cube spaces who enjoy what
such venues can offer and comply with what such venues expect. Most have no regular gallery and
34 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2013