The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 53 No 2 July 2014

WALKER 

~ 

Feeneys 

Clay 

Cesco 

Glazes & Colours 

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"" 

RoH Bartz - Imperial Porcelain 4317 Exhibition 2003 

Sample packs of all Walker and Feeneys 

r.'lillVCI are available for purchase. 

Icailids will be donated to

-1 

Contents 

3 EDITORIAL 

4 CONTRIBUTORS 

TRIBUTE 

5 Bob Connery by David Cross and Andrew Stewart 

9 AWARDS & GALLERY 

12 SHARDS 

14 FOCUS: EMERGING 

15 Clay Therapy Caterina leone reports on Alana Wilson's Aquatherapie works 

19 Alana Wilson Collage 

20 Convergence: Andrei Davidoff by Varia Karipoff 

23 Alana Wilson Collage 

24 Emotional Intelligence The art of Charlotte Le Brocque by Stephen Bird 

28 Of Peace and Pottery Caitlin Eyre introduces Daniel Garretson 

30 Hello Emilie! Emilie Ristevski shares her passion 

32 Dog in the Trees Kate Fagan's response in poetry to Alexandra Standen's ceramics 

34 Some advice from those who've been around a while .. , 

37 Let's Hit Re-FRESH A letter to the future from Rachael McCallum 

41 Four artists review one exhibition Pippin Drysdale's Tanami Mapping III 

45 In Context by lindsey Wherrett 

48 A Search for Answers Caterina leone talks with Moyra Elliott and Peter Wilson 

50 Profile: Elisa Bartels 

51 Profile: Bokeh Gallery 

Emilie Ristevski 

porcelain bowls 

photography and styling 

2014 

Page 30 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 53 N02 July 2014 $16 

Cover 

Lindsey Wherrett. black. and 

white plates, 2014, Clay.vorks YG 

wheelthrown. diam. 24cm 

Photos: Jonathan Wherrett 

Publication dates 

1 April, 17 July, 20 November 

Publisher 

The Australian CeramICS Ass(xJatlOn 

PO Box 274 Waverley NSW 2024 

To 1300 720124 

F: +61 (0)293693742 

mail@austratianceramtc5.(om 

WNW.australianceramics.com 

ABN 14 001 535502 

ISSN 1449-275X 

Managing Editor 

Vicki Gnma 

www.vkkigrima.(om.au 

Guest Ednor 

Catetrina Leone 

W'WW.caterinaleone.(om 

Marketing and Promotions 

Carol Fraaek 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 1

Contents 

52 Profile: Leah Fraser 

53 Profile: Lorraine Guddemi 

54 Profile: Stephanie Hammill 

55 Profile: Home@735 Gallery 

56 Profile: Jacob Ogden Smith 

57 Profile: Thomas Quayle 

58 Profile: Tessa Wallis 

59 From Paint to Clay Caterina Leone talks with Ben Quilty about his recent ceramic work 

65 NATIONAL EDUCATION: PICTORIAL SURVEY 

PROMOTION 

75 Three Experiences of our National Pottery Competition Port Hacking Potters Group 

REGULARS 

79 VIEW 1: HERE&NOW14: The state of ceramics in WA 

Curator Emma Mahanay Bitmead introduces this upcoming exhibition 

81 VIEW 2: Round the Mountain 

Merrie Hamilton reviews Gail Nichols' recent exhibition at Sabbia Gallery 

83 SPACES AND PLACES: late Nights and Dusty Clothes 

Amy Kennedy inteNiews Leah Jackson, Resident Artist at Northcote Pottery Supplies in Melbourne 

87 WEDGE: Of Layer Cakes and Hokey Pokey - It's all in the Cooking by Moyra Elliott 

88 POCKET PhD: Objects of Embodied Tension Belinda Winkler shares her PhD research 

90 STUDIO: An Overflow of Creativity Caterina Leone reports on Cascade Artists' Studios 

92 POTTERS MARKS 

93 CERAMIC SHOTS 

96 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: Time Out Julie Pennington reports on her Spanish residency 

98 GATHERINGS: On the Edge of the Shelf A report by Gabrielle Powell 

100 THE AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS TRIENNALE 2015 

104 AUSTRALIA WIDE: Reports from around the country 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 53 No 2 July 2014 $16 

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2 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

Editorial 

Vicki Grima, Alana Wilson and 

Cath Fogarty at Chinaclay on 

21 June, celebrating Alana's 

exhibition and Chinaclay's first 

anniversary. 

I hesitated to use the word 'emerging' as the defining word for this issue's focus, but had difficulty 

coming up with other options; 'new' and 'unknown' didn't really fit. The aim of this special issue is to 

encourage and support those in the early stages of their career whether recent graduates or those who 

have decided to prioritise their art above everything else. And so, embracing the term 'emerging', I 

asked Caterina Leone to join me as guest editor. I have enjoyed seeing some of her creative ideas come 

to fruition on the following pages. 

Some words from Caterina Leone: 

Ceramics is the art form Ihal, more than any othel; makes my heart beat faster. I sense it is becoming 

more popular and yet many SliJI do not understand its magic. J hope to help change thor by writing about 

ceramics in a way Ihal unearths this particular magic even for those with no more knowledge than thaI 

something called 'ceramics' exists. As this is the 'emerging' issue. / was also inspired by the way today s 

emerging artists consider the representation of their work in social media. As photography is more 

imporlantthan ever. J organised for two separate artists, a ceramicist and a poet, to interpret the work of 

another. based solely on images. 

New and different approaches to reviewing and interpreting art are necessary and should be as exciting 

as the work being made by the emerging artisls of Australia. Many have laughed at my 'youthful naivety' 

when J express my opinion that arts writing should no longer be paid for by an interested party. The 

opportunity 10 guest edit this journal has shown me Ihat perhaps this is possible after all. and that the 

way fonvard lies in approaching critical writing as an art form, capable oj existing hand-in-hand with Ihe 

artwork il explores. 

I hope you enjoy the issue. As always, feedback is welcome. 

Note: I am currently curating Back to the Table , an exhibition of emerging ceramic artists and potters 

who I asked to consider our changing relationship with tableware and gatherings around the dinner 

table. It runs from 14 September to 16 November 2014, so I hope you can make it to Sturt Gallery in 

Mittagong - it's always well worth the trip! 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

Contributors 

Stephen Bird is a Sydney-based artist who initially I 

trained as a painter at Art College in Dundee, 

Scotland. He works in a range of mediums 

including ceramics, drawing, painting and 

I 

animation. Stephen has exhibited extensively for I 

over twenty years in the United Kingdom, USA I 

and Australia and lectures part-time at the 

I 

National Art School, Sydney. 

I 

www.stephenbird.net 

Caitlin Eyre is an emerging curator and arts 

writer based in Adelaide. She completed her 

double Master of Arts (Art History and Curatorial 

and Museum Studies) at the University of 

Adelaide in 2013. She is currently serving as 

the Resident Curator at Carclew (a youth arts 

organisation in Adelaide) and is the Assistant 

Curator for ARI Grid Projects. 

E: caitlin.l.eyre@gmail.com 

---------------------- t 

Kate Fagan is a poet, songwriter and musician 

who lectures in Literary Studies at UWS. Her 

latest collection First Ught (Giramondo 2012) 

was short-listed for both the NSW Premier's 

Literary Awards and The Age Book of the Year 

Award, and she supported Joan Baez on her 

2013 tour of Australia and New Zealand. 

www.katefagan.com 

Photo: Brian Rapsey 

I 

I 

Caterina Leone is a freelance writer and artist. 

A graduate of the National Art School, with a 

BFA in Ceramics, words are now her clay. She 

is obsessed with unearthing new and different 

ways to write about ceramics, approaching 

writing as a connected yet independent art form 

from the ceramics it investigates. 

www.caterinaleone.com 

4 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IULY 2014

Bob Connery in Japan, 2010; photo: courtesy Bob Connery's archive 

Bob Connery 1941-2013 

A t ribute by David Cross 

Bob Connery, master potter, musician, scientist, teacher and visionary died peacefully at Murwillumbah 

Hospital on 12 December 2013 as his daughters sang his soul on with a rendition of Six White Horses. 

Bob's studio and gallery, Stokers Siding Pottery, has been an icon of the Northern Rivers art scene for the 

past 30 years. Bob and his partner Julie Rainow, who managed Stokers Siding Pottery, have showcased 

arts and crafts from the Northern Rivers and all over Australia, including the work of Indigenous 

artists. They have nurtured and helped develop the careers of dozens of artists and craftsmen and 

women. Bob's own work was internationally acclaimed and recognised, particularly in Japan where 

his lustre ware ceramics were so highly regarded that he was given 'signing rights' by Grand Tea 

Master Sen Shoshitsu, effectively guaranteeing the quality and worth of his work. Bob was one of only 

two westerners to have been given such recognition and was accorded the right to have a kiln in Japan, 

The move to the Far North Coast was an outcome of a vision Bob had of creating an arts community 

along the lines of Monsalvat (an artist's colony in Victoria). A number of friends who shared similar 

views and values became involved with the project. A run-down old dairy and banana farm at Stokers 

Siding was bought in 1973 and Duck Palace was born . As much an outcome of the alternative-lifestyle 

hippy era as it was of a Monsalvat vision, Duck Palace was one of the first alternative communes or 

co-operatives in the Tweed (NSW). With the purchase by the partnership in 1977 of the old Stokers 

Siding Store and Bakery, Bob had the opportunity to pursue his dream of establishing a commercial 

pottery and gallery. Over the next 30 years the distinctive two-storey building became the centre of his 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 

S

Above: Bob Connery, bowl and box; Sen Shoshitsu, 15th generation descendant of Sen Rikiyu, founder of the Tea ceremony, 

awarded Bob's teabowls with 'box-signing'. This means that the work is formally accepted for use in the Tea ceremony. 

Below: Stokers Siding Pottery; photos: Jimmy Malecki 

and Julie's creative life. Bob resigned from teaching and devoted himself solely to the produdion of 

ceramics and, in partnership with Julie, the development of a gallery that provided a retail outlet for his 

and others' work. 

Bob's passion for ceramics developed early when he learnt raku pottery from Shiga Shigeo in the 

1960s. His interest in ceramics was further developed through working with Roswitha Wulff, and later at 

Stokers Siding he collaborated with Laine Langridge and then Andrew Stewart. His early work at Stokers 

was woodfired until he installed a gas kiln. The first firing of the woodfired kiln proved to be a very 

drawn-out affair involving the consumption of a few too many glasses of red . Burnt and blistered Bob 

and Laine ruefully decided to limit drinking during future firings. 

With his background in science Bob was well placed to experiment with various glazes, some of 

which were made from local clays. His expertise in reduced-lustre glazes, developed in the 1990s, 

owed much to his science training. And it was his 

mastery of lustre ware, an ancient Persian style, 

which cemented his reputation both nationally and 

internationally. 

Whether throwing pots, playing music or 

cooking for friends, Bob was a passionate 

perfectionist. Sometimes a hard taskmaster. he 

was a loyal and generous friend, a devoted family 

man and a respeded community elder. He will be 

greatly missed by countless friends, colleagues and 

admirers. 

This text by David Cross is an edited version of an article 

which first appeared in The Tweed Valley Weekly and the 

onhne Echonet Daily in December 2013 . 


------------------------------------ -------------------------- 

Tribute: Bob Connery 

Ceramics by Bob Connery; the green and red open bowl (on the right) uses what was termed an 'envy green' base glaze. 

Photos: courtesy Bob Connery's archive 

A tribute by Andrew Stewart 

I met Bob in 1977, back when he and Laine Langridge started Stokers Siding Pottery. They built a little 

woodfired Dutch oven kiln and I used to come over and fire it with them. 50 began a long friendship 

that was also a friendship with Julie, Mary Lee, all the kids, and the whole extended family and farm. In 

fact, the interesting dynamic of extended families was something we had in common and my extended 

family has woven in and out over the years too, including the seven years I was Bob's partner in the 

pottery and lived upstairs. 

Working alongside Bob, I became familiar with his moods, from occasional despondency and the wellknown 

bellow when things went drastically wrong, to the much more frequent bouts of enthusiasm, 

which sometimes were like a force of nature you just had to go along with. He loved music, food, wine 

and sociability. But he could also be inward, driven and oblivious. He worked quickly with the easy 

rhythm of a musician who plays with the freedom that comes only after lots of practice; he was also 

always a meticulous craftsman. 

I got to know his way of making pots well. I can pick Bob's pots the same way I might have picked 

him out in a crowd. They have a 'Bobness' about them. I can see his familiar gestures and movements 

as he made them. Handles, spouts, lids, rims, foot rings - they sprang from his fingers in a way that, to 

me, is unmistakably Bob. His decoration energetically fills all the available space, just as his personality 

would fill a room, whether it was a classroom or the Stokers Hall on New Year's Eve, playing with the 

band. 

Over the last couple of decades the two major themes in Bob's work were lustres and Japan. He first 

became interested in pottery through Shigeo Shiga in Sydney in the sixties and Japanese ceramics were 

always an inspiration. His first visit to Japan around 2000 was the beginning of a close relationship with 

a group of potters there, mostly in the pottery village of Koishiwara in Kyushu. 

In the early nineties Bob started working seriously on his reduced lustre pots, becoming a master of 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 20]4 7

Tri bute: Bob Connery 

Ceramics by Bob Connery; the vessel (above left) uses a lovely turquoise base glaze with copper and silver 

lustre which appears gold after firing _ The slab-built vase (above right) features a copper red base glaze that 

breaks to copper green after lustre firing; photos: courtesy Bob Connery's archive 

the difficult chemistry, application and firing of lustre pigments. He developed his own original style 

that was different from traditional Islamic lustre pottery, so when he took this with him to Japan it was 

considered quite exotic. A remarkable cross-cultural feat then happened - he began making tea bowls 

and other tea ceremony ware in reduced lustre, which was exhibited to great acclaim and Bob was 

given the imprimatur of an important tea master. 

In Koishiwara, Bob-san became a respected and loved figure, in particular by Hizuru and Narumi 

Kajiwara and their children, Yume and Shotaro. They lived with Bob and Julie here in Australia for some 

months while Hizuru studied lustres, and the first thing they did when they got home to Japan was to 

build - no, not a lustre kiln - a deck! 

Right from his beginnings in the high school science lab, Bob was always an inspiring and generous 

teacher. He taught ceramics at Murwillumbah and Lismore TAFE Colleges for many years and 

conducted workshops in lustre and other techniques in various parts of Australia. Through his teaching, 

encouragement, publications, travel, dynamic personality and, of course, fine pots, he touched many 

lives and made many friends. 

For me, there was never anyone I could talk about pots with as I could with Bob, but it was never 

just about pots. It was about music and art, books, science, politics, philosophy and years of shared 

references. And it was never just talk. It was working and doing things together. Bob kept working, 

courageously, right to the end, still experimenting, still aiming for that next lustre firing. He had a few 

people working with him on that and I was glad to be one of them. 

This text is an edited version of words spoken by Andrew Stewart 

at Bob's Memorial Party on 2B December 2013. 


Shards 

CORRECTION 

Karen Weiss would like to 

apologise for the mistake 

which appeared in The Journal 

of Australian Ceramics, 

53/1, April 2014 in her article 

Another Country. On page 

38, paragraph 3, it read, "Kim 

Anh Nguyen left her birthplace, 

Vietnam ... . " Kim-Anh Nguyen 

was actually born in England. 

On page 40, paragraph 1, 

mention was made that . 

"by then she had two small 

children". In fact, by then Kim 

Anh had three small children . 

I NEW DVD 

I A short film has been made by 

filmmaker Carolyn Constantine 

about The Course of Objects 

- the fine lines of inquiry, 

TACA's 2014 biennial exhibition 

at Manly Art Gallery & Museum; 

16:30 mins. The DVD includes 

interviews with curator Susan 

I Ostli ng and artists Simone Fraser 

and Toni Warburton in their 

studios; $15, includes postage 

within Australia. 

Call 1300 720 124 or go to 

I www.australianceramics.com 

and click on 'shop' . 

I THANK YOU SQUARE ONE! 

The Australian Ceramics Association 

would like to thank Square One 

I Studios at Erskineville for their 

warm welcome at recent meetings 

of the Association committee and 

members. SQ 1 Studios houses many 

artists, potters and other creatives. 

I Among them are Julia Meyerowitz 

I Katz, Claypool Ceramics Studio, 

I Deb Taylor, Milly Dent, Naomi Taplin, 

Merran Esson and Jan Downes. 

www.sq1.net.au 

NEW WEBSITE 

Ceramics Victoria's newly 

redesigned website. 

www.ceramicsvictoria.org.au 

VAUCLUSE HOUSE RESIDENCY 

Andrei Davidoff has been awarded 

an Australia Council for the Arts 

Early Ca reer Residency Grant, which 

he will be undertaking at Vaucluse 

House in September 2014, with the 

resulting project being exhibited in 

December. See article on Andrei's 

work on page 20 of this issue. 

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CERAMIC SHOTS 

Our photographic cha llenge for The 

Journal of Australian Ceramics, 53/3, is 

Clay with Scale . Take a photo of one (or 

more) of your ceramic creations and play 

with the scale. Make it look BIG I Make it 

look small. Whatever your idea, there must 

be a ceramic link. Submit your image to 

The Journal of Australian Ceramics by 

following the requirements outlined here: 

http://tinyurl.com/claywithscale 

See the winners of ... and the word is 

CLAY on pages 93-95 of this issue. 

BOOKS ON THE SHElF 

30 Objects 30 Insights 

Published in April 2014 by the 

Gardiner Museum; Editors Rachel 

Gotlieb and Karine Tsoumis. A profile 

of 30 historically and culturally 

important objects from the renowned 

Gardiner Museum, Toronto, which 

has one of the greatest collections 

of ceramics in the world. The 

paperback features works by illustrious 

names such as Marc Chagall, 

Betty Woodman, Marilyn Levine, 

Wedgewood and Delft. 

To purchase go to http:// 

blackdogonline.com; USD$29 .95 

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SO HOT RIGHT NOW? 

Check out curator Glenn 

Barkley's feature article in Issue 

51.4, May 2014, of ART and 

Australia titled, 'So Hot Right 

Now? Contemporary Ceramics 

and Contemporary Art'. 

Go to: 

www.artandaustralia.com 

to buy the issue. 


MAJOR REPORT ON CRAFT 

A new report, Mapping the 

Australian Craft Sector, was 

released on 18 June 2014. It is the 

most comprehensive national 

study of contemporary Australian 

crall and design in decades. The 

report was commissioned by the 

National Craft Initiative (NCI), a 

partnership between the Australian 

Craft and Design Centres (ACDC) 

and the National Association for 

the Visual Arts (NAVA) and was 

funded by the Australia Council 

for the Arts. The findings of this 

report suggest contemporary 

craft is facing a period of unusual 

turbulence, characterised by a 

number of challenges and exciting 

opportunities. 

(J 

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A~C&WItlt8 

OPEN 

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16&17 AUGUST 

I AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS OPEN STUDIOS 2014 

On Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 August 2014 hundreds of potters across 

Australia will open their studios to the public over a weekend that promises 

to be a celebration of clay, creativity and community. The event is hosted by 

I The Australian Ceramics Association (TACA) for its members. See page 111 of 

this issue and www.australianceramics.com for a list of participating studios. 

Download Mapping The 

Australian Craft Sector here: 

www.nationalcraftinitiative. 

(om.au. 

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::.-==-~ ----- 

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Images from the 

Reduced Lustre 

Workshop with 

Bob Connery in 

2010 at 

Lue Pottery, NSW. 

https:llflic.krl s/aHsjpVdj3c 

CERAMIC RIDERS 

Ever thought of using a bike to create 

pots? COFA graduate, Ion Fukazawa 

has developed a device that generates 

centrifugal force (via a manned-bicycle) 

which is then used to create ceramic 

vessels. Created as part of Ion Fukazawa's 

COFA final year design exhibition, the 

video was shot on Cockatoo Island in 

Sydney. http://Yimeo.comI71867178 

BE IN IT TO W IN USDS48.000! 

The 8th Gyeonggi International 

Ceramic Biennale (GICBiennale 

2015) will be hosted by the 

Korea Ceramic Foundation from 

24 April to 31 May 2015. As 

part of the main program, The 

International Competition is calling 

for entries. It is open to all and 

artists are encouraged to display 

their imagination and creativity in 

ceramics (clay) to the fullest. 

The Grand Prize Winner will receive 

I cash KRW 50,000,000 (approx. 

USDS48,000) and a solo exhibition 

at GICBiennale 2017. For full details 

please visit, www.kocef.org; 

submission of images: 

I 1 September - 7 November 2014 

INSTAGRAM AND #AUSTRALIANCERAMICS 

From Shannon Garson, President, The Australian Ceramics Association: 

I have just started using Instagram, an exciting social media resource. Like many web-based 

resources, Instagram is particularly effective in keeping regional artists in touch with their 

peers. I have been making an effort to use the hashtag #australian ceramics when posting 

photos of my work. Hashtags are a way of organizing images you post to the internet or 

Instagram so anyone searching Instagram or Google for 'Australian ceramics' 

will be easily able to find your work. You can link any images on Instagram 

back to your entry in the Australian Ceramics Directory. I suggest that this 

would be a great way for artists across Australia to be part of a wider 

international community and get their work seen when someone is searching 

for an Australian potter, sculptor or ceramicist. 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IULY 2014 13

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Focus: Emerging 

Opposite page: Alana Wilson, Aquatherap;e 

(Reef Amphora), 2014, porcelain paperelay 

various glaze finishes; photo: artist 

Below left: Alana Wilson, Aquatherap;e 

(Whitewash), 2014, porcelain paperelay 

various glaze finishes; photo: Scott Wilson 

Below right: Alana Wilson, Aquatherapie 

(Standing Amphora 11), 2014, porcelain 

paperclay, various glaze finishes 

Photo: artist 

Clay Therapy 

Caterina Leone reports on Alana Wilson's Aquatherapie works 

Alana Wilson is, to be blunt, an emerging artist to watch . Her work is already recognisably hers, yet with 

intriguing developments from each body of work to the next. Engaging in person, Wilson possesses the 

desire to experiment coupled with the self-confidence to do so. The result is a beautiful interrelation 

of aesthetic, meaning and technique and a surface treatment that is unusually advanced for such a 

young artist. A recent Honours graduate of the National Art School, Wilson was awarded the Sabbia 

Gallery Exhibition Award in 2011 for her graduate body of work, she was the recipient of the UNSW Arc 

Ceramic Residency, and most recently, has participated in a group show at emerging gallery Home@735 

in Redfern. 

Her most current body of work, Aquatherapie, is the culmination of her dedicated glaze testing 

and a refinement of her unique aesthetic. The collection takes its name from a Vogue Paris editorial by 

Mario Sorrenti. Wilson draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, from contemporary fashion, 

the classical forms of antiquity, Cy Twombly's sculptures, to her love of the ocean and her other life as 

a swim instructor. In her UNSW studio, amongst her beautifully curated collages of inspirations, is an 



Wilson's workbook. and inspiration, 2014; photo: Caterina leone 

Above right: Alana Wilson, Aquatherap;e (Amphora I), 2014, porcelain paperday. various glaze finishes; photo: artist 

image of an ancient amphora being pulled from the water's depth by a diver. Wilson's Aquatherapie 

works are, in many ways, an imagining of what comes next. Taking the classical amphora form, she 

has recreated them for a new age, whilst simultaneously making them appear ancient, encrusted with 

the accumulation of centuries underwater. Almost paradoxical in nature, her works are a celebration of 

both old and new, reconciling the conflicting aesthetics of water and fire. The veneration of antiquity 

ends with the iconic forms; their surface treatment is thoroughly modern in both appearance and 

technology. Embracing new materials such as a commercial pink slip, the resulting works successfully 

achieve her aim of harmonising "the opposing aesthetics of primitive, rough and raw with subtle, 

composed and contemporary". In some works, such as Amphora /, the glaze has consumed the 

form beneath, swallowing the openings between the vessel and its handles. In another, the glaze has 

devoured the opening of the vessel, sealing it shut. Such anthropomorphising of an inanimate glaze 

can extend beyond appearance; some pieces even make soft noises when handled, due to air pockets 

in the bubbling surfaces, reminiscent of a shell that one holds to the ear to hear the ocean. Wilson 

speaks of the works interacting in the kiln, the highly reactive nature of the chemicals used sometimes 

causing nearby works to stain one another, a collaboration of vapour distribution. The works seem 

alive, as though one may return to an exhibition to see further growth and a spot of colour that wasn't 

previously there. 

Another new form, the large, wide, uneven bowls, also draw inspiration from antiquity, this time from 

a Neolithic Chinese bowl seen at the NGV, Melbourne. It is not usually a form she is drawn to, preferring 

more closed shapes. Even this small w ay of stepping out of her comfort zone shows that Wilson is 

unlikely to become repetitive. Each successive body of work has grown into an independent, distinct 

entity, stemming from an obsessive desire to refine her surface treatment. 

Exhibited at Home@735 Gallery in March 2014, the Aquatherapie works possessed an overwhelming 

power, eclipsing their surroundings, making irrelevant the challenges of the small, unusual space. 

However, the works are quiet in their power, with their muted palette and subtleties of texture and 

colour that warrant close and long inspection. Wilson has created works that need no philosophy of 

art, no theory of criticism or even language to appreciate them; all you need are eyes. The rest is just 

justification for that pre-linguistic, primal 'yes!' 



The Secret to Alana Wilson's Glazes: 

Wilson's already distinctive surfaces have obsessed her since art school, and she has devoted her practice 

to developing them in a highly technical and precise manner. She uses porcelain or terracotta paperclay, 

for both the lightness of the fired work and the ease of manipulation when wet. Her forms are often 

exaggerated; uneven bowls with feet almost too small for their size, or vessels that bulge outwards on 

one side more than the other. The paperclay easily allows Wilson to handbuild these individual forms. 

She coats the works, after the bisque, in slip, usually silicon carbide-based. It seems fresher to her, and 

is more reactive with the glaze. The more silicon carbide in the slip, the more bubbles on the finished 

surface. Highly reactive at stoneware temperatures, the silicon carbide vaporises through the glaze 

directly layered on top, creating the texture. After the slip, Wilson paints the works with washes she 

has developed, typically containing 8-10% tin, which mattify the surface. She has slowly increased the 

amount of tin over time, consequently making the works more susceptible to vapours from the other 

glazes around them in the kiln. The tin often flashes pink during firing. In her recent work she has 

begun experimenting with red iron oxide, copper oxide and titanium washes too, the latter of which 

also mattifies, though not as successfully as tin. The titanium produces a stony-beige glaze. Lithium 

and barium, chemicals that eat into the clay, are also used helping to produce the pockmarked, spongy 

surfaces. Whilst understandably secretive about her recipes, she imparts that it is important not to mix 

the layers too much. 

Alana Wilson in her studio. 2014; photo: Caterina Leone


Wilson's test pieces for 

Aquatherapie, 2014 

Right: Wilson 's collage of 

inspirations and tea-bowl test 

pieces for Aquatherapie, 2014 

Photos: Caterina Leone 

Opposite page: Alana W ilson 

Collage on Andrei Davidoff I, 

2014, terracotta clay and crushed 

stoneware clay in plaster mould 

with C-type print and titanium 

wash, h.30cm, w.21 em 

Wilson fires her works in an electric kiln. She rigorously tests the combinations of slips and washes on 

test pieces first - small mountainous shapes, which become beautiful works of art in their own right, 

placed en masse. Wilson prefers to make tea bowls for test pieces; though more time-consuming, they 

allow a greater discernment of the eventual effects of the glaze, its reaction to inner and outer surfaces 

as well as different thicknesses of application. Despite this, there are still discrepancies between the 

tests and the finished product. The tests are smaller, and thus more of them fit in the kiln, leading to a 

greater transference of colours. Originally intending to study painting at art school, a painterly approach 

and sensitivity to colour is still evident in the thick, textured, multi-coloured surfaces. Wilson begins with 

a clear idea and works methodically and scientifically to that end, indicative of her background in object 

design. Yet she still finds joy in the ultimate lack of control, the submission to the ki ln and its happy 

accidents. 

www.alanawilson.com 


Alana Wilson, (of/age on Andre; Davidoff 1, 2014, terracotta clay and crushed 

stoneware clay in plaster mould w ith C·type print and titanium wash; h.30cm, w.21cm 

Caterina Leone: Art has always been remade in the eyes of each viin·ver, and today wilh photography 

often the only access (I viewer may have to a work, there is a further element of abstraction added /0 

this remaking and interpretation. Inspired by A/ana Wi/son s own collages, which she makes before a 

body of work 10 serve as inspiration, J asked her 10 instead create collages based on another artist s 

work, and/rom photographs o/Ihat work. Using Andrei Davidoff's ceramics as her starting point, 

Ihe collages shown here, and all page 23, combine both artists' aeslhetics, generating new works o[ 

art thaI demonstrate the beauty 0/ this treml/ormation from work. 10 photo. to audience. 10 new work~ 

completed afresh by each viewer.

Focus: Em erging 

Convergence: Andrei Davidoff 

By Varia Karipoff 

For sculptor and ceramic artist Andrei 

Davidoff, last year held opportunities and 

tests in almost equal measure. I hesitate to 

ask directly whether he thinks he has kept his 

two practices - functional and conceptual - 

growing equally apace, and whether they are 

coming to a kind of resolution . 

His solo exhibition The Speicherring 

Project, shown at Craft in September, 

provided an opportunity to interrogate him 

obliquely'. " The Speicherring Project," 

he said, "is a synthesis of functional ceramic 

and sculptural elements. The premise was to 

bring the two together." It has been several 

years since Davidoff took to using clay in his 

sculptural practice, instead favouring wood 

and found objects in large-scale architectural 

interventions. This most recent exhibition 

featured lead vessels that reference the 

functional, though are rendered sculptural 

and distinct from traditional clay forms by 

their material, which is toxic. Large ceramic 

bowls echoed the shape of outsized satellite 

dishes rather than anything you would find 

in a domestic setting, and the large ceramic 

vessels resembled something out of an industrial application. Three oil paintings of the world's largest 

radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, unlocked key concerns of Davidoff's - our relationship to 

architectural spaces and how those spaces then relate to landscape. The connections between the five 

series of works are non-lineal; he invited the audience to discover links between the separate pieces. In 

a roundabout way, Davidoff answered my question about his functional and sculptural practices: "They 

took time to resolve because I intentionally held them separate." The Speicherring Project, named 

after the Hadron Collider, was intended to forcibly bring the two together, to collide them, if you will. 

Tension between the two strands of his practice will always exist, though Davidoff now doesn't see his 

themes varying that much. As he deals with the everyday at his potter's wheel, there is still containment, 

space, the inside of the bowl or pot and how it relates to its outside form. The day before his exhibition 

opening, his production-ware was featured in a prominent design blog . In a modest firestorm of 

attention and interest, he picked up several large commissions from a Melbourne interior design firm. 

A new restaurant and a design marquee beyond the velvet rope of the Bird Cage at the Spring Racing 

Carnival were simultaneous projects that tested the mettle of his home studio set up. "I work from 

20 THE 10URNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

Focus : Emerging 

----- 

Opposite page: Davidoff working in his studio under the watchful eye of Augustine; photo: Clare Plueckhahn 

Above: All ceramics by Andrei Davidoff, 2013; photos: Clare Plueckhahn 

1 Stoneware. semi·gfazed porcelain, slip decorated porcelain, various dimensions 

2 BrushStroke production series, 2013, unglazed. slip·decorated translucent porcelain, largest bowl d.2Scm 

3 Production teapots, glazed porcelain, approx. h.23cm 

4 Black White production series, 2013, semi-glazed translucent porcelain, various dimensions 

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 21


a converted bungalow in a sprawling backyard in the 

north of the city. The gas kiln I purchased for a few 

hundred dollars was a lucky e8ay find. I really put it 

through its paces in the last couple of months; it was 

firing almost every day. A timely Australia Council 

Art Start grant let me kit the studio and enabled me 

to increase my production and handle these larger 

commissions ... 

Andrei Davidoff has a few mentors to thank for his 

burgeoning small ceram ic business. He is especially 

grateful to Kris Coad and Sally Cleary, his supervisors at 

RMIT where he completed his MFA in 2012. During his 

undergraduate and postgraduate studies he exhibited 

regularly in artist run initiatives (ARls) in Melbourne 

and Sydney. Though only 30** , Davidoff is a reluctant 

technology user. However, he doesn't deny the benefit 

of being visible in social media and the blogosphere, 

whether it be a moody photo of a pot on Instagram 

or an update on Facebook. "Having a web presence, 

especially having very sharp images of my work available 

to the public, has been a boon for the business side, " 

he admits. 

Andrei Davidoff. Transition Series 

Speicherring Project, 20 13. installation 

detail, slip-decorated porcelain, each approx. 

diam.55cm; photo: Anita Beaney 

His studio shows the ravages and triumphs of a working space - the floor runs at an angle downwards 

to the back window, ivy grows through crevices, and a whispering gum tree dominates the southern 

w indow. "I enjoy this space," Davidoff says of the bright studio with green aspects. The shelves of his 

studio are stocked w ith examples from his three current production series. Glazed porcelain, brushwork 

w ith slip, and glazed dark stoneware are a nod to an Eastern aesthetic and a Scandinavian sense of 

design. "An integral part in the functional series is the interaction between clay and glaze. 

I want people to experience the distinct but complementary characteristics between 

the two. " Today, his production series is stocked around Australia and also in London. 

www.andreidavidoff.com 

· Wriler Varia Kanpoff IS Andrei Davidoff 's partner and believes all diffICult questK>nS to one's loved ones should be asked 

obhQueIy. 

• ~ Andrei IS actually 31 but has trouble admitting it. 

- .......... 

~ 

-.~- 

Andrei Davidoff, 720 Series. Speicherring Project. 2013, installation detail, semi·glazed porcelain, various dimensions 

Photo: Anita Beaney

Alana Wilson, Col/age on 

Andrei Davidoff II, 2014 

photocopied ceramic dish with 

pastel and black iron wash on 

paper, h.30cm, w.21cm


Emotional Intelligence 

The art of Charlotte Le Brocque by Stephen Bird 

All learning has an emotional base. 

PlaID 

In his recent BBC TV documentary about outsider art, Alan Yentob tried to define the difference 

between 'art brut' and the established art scene. He says, "Official culture has a dialogue with art 

history, whereas art brut is usually a monologue." I am not an enthusiast of black and white definitions 

of art, but it is an interesting observation seeing as so much contemporary art is a reinterpretation of the 

art of the past. In an education system that is increasingly driven toward homogenised artist statements 

and concept-driven practice, I often ask myself whether it's possible for an artist who has gone through 

a formal arts education to maintain some of the enthusiasm, passion and intuition of the untrained 

artist. 

Charlotte Le Brocque was born in Darlinghurst, Sydney, in 1991, but grew up (and now lives) in 

Woronora Heights, NSW. Her father has a shop which sells and fixes power tools and her mother 

worked for some time at the local library. Charlotte remembers setting her sights on being an artist 

at the age of six, and her parents have always been fully supportive of that decision. Charlotte'S 

grandmother, Viva Titterington, was a self-taught painter of imaginary landscapes. At high school 

Charlotte was encouraged to paint by her art teacher, Catherine Harry, who also suggested that she 

apply to study at National Art School. 

For some artists a chance encounter with a certain medium, along with an encouraging tutor, 

changes the direction of their art forever. This was the case with Charlotte when, in 2011, she studied 

raku ceramics under the guidance of Don Court at National Art School. Don's enthusiasm for pottery 

was contagious and I remember listening in admiration as he eulogised over a small pinch pot made 

on the very first day of the course. And it was during the afore-mentioned raku class that Don's gentle 

encouragement planted the seed in Charlotte's imagination which WOUld, over the next three years, 

blossom into a body of work which has received much attention from some of Sydney's most respected 

gallery owners. For the works presented in her degree show at the National Art School in 2012, 

Charlotte also won the Sabbia Gallery Prize, which has led to a solo show at the gallery in 2014. 

Charlotte's technique, developed during Don's class, was unassuming and rudimentary. It's the one 

which many of us pass right by without a second thought as we develop skillS and refinements to 

24 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 20'4

Charlotte le Brocque, Shaun, The 

Over Enthusiastic Shearer With 

Sharp Shears, 2013, raku clay, glazes 

h.S8cm, w.2Scm, d.21cm 

Photo: Stephen Bird

Charlotte Le Brocque, Put Your Paws Up And Drop the Carrots and You Can Dig But You Can't Hide, 2013, raku clay 

and glazes. approx. h.3Ocm. w.l Scm. d.20cm; photo: Stephen Bird 

navigate our way through the complexities of the arVpottery maze. Charlotte was looking for a simple 

engagement with a material through which she could communicate and understand countenance from 

within herself and from those around her. She didn't want apparatus or machines to come between 

herself and her creations - tools would dull the sensation she ekes out of the clay with her fingers. I 

have seen Charlotte scrutinising a lump of clay for many hours. I have then left the room for a short 

time to return to a fully formed clay character sitting on the table with Charlotte nowhere to be seen. 

I now real ise she is an artist who needs to be totally alone to produce her works. Charlotte's early 

works were glazed with the most unctuous fritted glazes (containing copper, iron, cadmium and cobalt) 

which she mixed, and then applied in private after class had finished for the day. I remember seeing a 

whole table covered with these heads the day they came out of the kiln and they stopped me in my 

tracks. Having gained self-confidence and self-awareness in the preceding years, Charlotte had found 

a language that really worked for her, and it was interesting to see that develop into a menagerie of 

expressive animals. 

Charlotte's works expose something about her emotional state. They reveal her feelings about herself 

and her relationship to those around her. A clear influence on Charlotte'S work is her favourite childhood 

film by Walt Disney, The Lion King. She admits to strongly identifying with the carefree warthog 

Pumbaa who, with his motto 'hakuna matata' (no worries), has a peculiarly Australian persona. 

26 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IUl Y 2014

Charlotte Le Brocque, Say Wha t? 2013, rak u clay, glazes. h.31em, w.47em, d.2I em; photo: Stephen Bird 

Charlotte has recently been making a farmyard of charader animals including pairs of animals and 

groupings of animal-human relationships. Shaun, The Over Enthusiastic Shearer With Sharp Shears, 

is one such potent image and appears to be loaded with that capricious Australian expectation of 

the great land's bountiful supply of raw materials. You Can Dig But You Can't Hide and Put Your 

Paws Up And Drop The Carrots seem to be anthropomorphic interpretations of Charlotte'S personal 

relationships played out by cartoonish bunny rabbits. Charlotte admits to having difficulty reading other 

people's emotional states and body language, but she hopes and believes that through her work she 

will develop these essential life skills. She often judges the success or failure of a piece by the way the 

work looks back at her. I think Charlotte's practice revolves around self-reflection and projection and she 

is extremely committed to this. I look forward to seeing her first solo show and I wish her all the best in 

pursuing her career at her new studio in Sydenham, NSW. 

Charlotte Le Brocque's exhibition, I don't want to be a pie, is on from 23 July to 16 August 

2014 at Sabbia Gallery, 120 Glenmore Road, Paddington NSW 2021; www.sabbiagallery.com 

Stephen Bird is a Sydney-based artist and lecturer in ceramics at National Art School, Sydney. 

www.stephenbird.net 

THE 10URNAl Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 27


Of Peace and 

Pottery 

Caitlin Eyre introduces Daniel Ga rretson 

Daniel Garretson is an emerging ceramic artist. 

Born in Sydney and raised in the United States, he 

returned to Australia in 2003 to undertake a Bachelor 

of Arts majoring in philosophy at the University of 

Wollongong. Gradually becoming frustrated with 

the teachings of Western philosophy, Daniel instead 

focused his attentions on the questions and answers 

provided by Eastern ph ilosophies. After reading 

Soetsu Yanagi's The Unknown Craftsman , a Zen 

Buddhist perspedive on arts and crafts, Daniel 

dropped out of university briefly to travel and visit 

the studios of Australian potters. Upon his return and 

the completion of his degree, he decided to pursue 

a career in pottery and left for the United States 

in 2006 to begin a three-year apprenticeship with respeded American potter Mark Shapiro. In 2010, 

Daniel undertook a year-long residency at the Red Lodge Clay Centre in Montana where he worked to 

develop and nurture his own style and artistic practice. Last year he completed a Master of Fine Arts 

at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, one of the world's most prestigious 

ceramics schools. 

Pottery brought Daniel peace from his philosophical dissatisfactions by providing him with a different 

way of perceiving and approaching the world around him. Even now, Daniel says he greatly enjoys 

the way the making process allows him to generate questions in the studio and actively work towards 

satisfactory solutions; it also ads as a kind of meditative state for him. Outside the studio, Daniel's mind 

is busy with thought: dreaming, sketching in his notebook and thinking about the physical nature of his 

work. By contrast, the studio is a calm place where Daniel quietens his thoughts and allows the haptic 

knowledge he has gained through his pradice take over. "Approaching the clay with a loose idea, 

spontaneity is my friend," he says. "I enjoy a pot revealing itself to me rather than imposing my ideas on 

the materials." Daniel sees overly concentrated efforts to produce objects of great beauty, importance 

and usefulness as being counterintuitive to the making processes, preferring instead to approach the 

creation of works with greater philosophical depth. "Concepts, techniques, and even the objeds 

themselves are secondary to the experiences they afford," Daniel says. " It is the experience of drinking 

warm coffee from a handmade mug, or sharing a meal with friends and family using sturdy, wheelthrown 

plates that invigorates my work." 

28 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CE RAMICS JULY 2014

~--- 


Daniel returned to Australia earlier 

this year and has recently been accepted 

into the Associate Training Program of 

respected Adelaide arts organisation 

JamFactory Contemporary Craft and 

Design and is currently working out of 

their Ceramics Studio. Associates spend 

two years nurturing and developing 

their artistic practice under the guidance 

and mentorship of accomplished 

creative directors in their field, while 

also gaining specialised knowledge and 

expertise through collaborative projects, 

productions and commission work. Daniel 

hopes the Associate Program will help 

him to turn his artistic practice into a 

sustainable career venture and, ultimately, 

help him to actualise his dream of having 

an independent studio practice. 

All work by Daniel Garretson, earthenware with gold lustre 

Photos: courtesy artist 

www.jamfactory.com.au/associateprogram.php 



Opposite page: Emilie Ristevski, porcelain bowls 

wooden spoons, photography and styling, 2014 

Hello Emilie! 

Emilie Ristevski shares her passion 

I am a 21 -year-old designer-maker based in Sydney, Australia, currently studying a Bachelor of Design 

at the College of Fine Arts, Paddington. Through the combination of design, styling and photography 

I focus on translating stories and ideas to add meaning and longevity to my work. 

Majoring in Ceramic Design, my focus is on developing the ceramics skills of wheel throwing, 

handbuilding and slip casting. This is extremely important to me as I appreciate the many different 

stages that go into each handmade ceramic piece. 

I have a tactile approach to design, continually making with my hands using a range of natural 

materials. I also play with various types of clay to create diverse collections of handmade vessels and 

ceramic objects for the table. My pieces are handformed, wheelthrown, or cast in small runs, with a 

high attention to detail and the tactile handmade quality of each piece. I love the idea of being able to 

create hand-held objects that people touch, hold and use with their hands - a ceramic piece completely 

formed by my hands to be held in someone else's. 

Inspiration for my designs comes from many things - organic forms found in nature and objects 

from my travels around the world. I enjoy the simplicity and rawness of the subtle details, from surface 

texture to beautifully simple forms that stack, nest and sit within each other. I love to arrange and 

re-arrange simple forms to create compositions, combining small elements to bring a series of objects to 

life. 

Inspired by traditional craft and artisan techniques, I also experiment with other natural materials 

including wood and fibre. Pieces such as my wooden spoons are carved by hand, filed, sanded and 

polished, with some taking days or weeks to complete. 

I am drawn to creating work within series and collections, exploring ideas of repetition and examining 

the way each piece interacts with others within a space. By learning, thinking and making through the 

handmade process, none of my pieces are exactly the same and therefore not perfect. I see these slight 

imperfections as a mark of the maker, embracing the essence of the handmade. 

http:/ / helloemilie.com 

http://instagram.com/helloemilie 

30 THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

Dog in the Trees 

The three of us, standing on the bank 

and counting leaves: one red. Four yellow. 

Below us the autumn offerings 

wash into a swollen creek, litter rocks 

mossy and tumbled. The cherries turn 

where chainsaws have severed the trunks 

of eighty unwanted willows. Counting leaves, 

counting hours. You bend to the meadow 

and loop a skein of bark around neat fingers, 

poking one through a hollow shrug. 

My telescope. Th is eye sees right to the heart 

of the moon. Eighteen nineteen thirty thousand 

leaves skittering like flames and our boy 

busy with pinecones. Donkeys bellow 

a warning from the hill as a van 

scrapes to a halt by the concealed spring. 

Flagons jostle like muddy drums. 

You drop the bark as nine yellow-tailed 

black cockatoos bobble and vault 

over the spruce. Look' One, two, three 

four. five, six, seven. I am a blackbird and these 

are my feathers. The sun sinks behind 

the gully palisade. Without it things feel 

damp and low. I haul the baby snug into me, 

pivot to go. Wood smoke, confiding hand. 

Suddenly stars and a dog floating 

above the blazing trees like a lullaby. 

Kate Fagan


All work by Alexandra Standen 201312014 

Photo: Kern Hendricks 

Alexandra j. three forms immediately reminded 

me of myself with my 1wo young children; the 

perjpeclive in thaI image suggests one large 

and two small chairs. Her pieces seem highly 

oJ/uned 10 natllral ecologies. And I )vas lhinking 

a/so about counting and repetition, which are 

strong Ihemes in many of Alexandra s other 

works (such as the wunderful repealing bluepainted 

dashes; J love thul piece). 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMI CS JULY 2 0 14 33

Fo cus: Emerging 

Some advice from those 

who've been around a while ••• 

After exh ibiting in Primavera at the MeA 

and at GAG Projects, Greenaway Art Gallery, 

Adelaide, from 25 June to 25 July, with two 

shows coming up in Dubai and Singapore, I 

couldn't agree more with this "stop thinking, 

worrying ... doubting" statement. Of course you 

have to work for it every day and it won't come 

easily, but keep at it, apply for funding to pursue 

those large projects, apply for artist residencies 

(nationally and internationally) and art pri2es to 

expose your work to a broad audience. 

www.mca.com.au/exhibition/primavera- 

2013-young-australian-artists 

Juz Kitson, Changing Skin, 2013 

JUZ KITSON 

I came across this quote the other day in a letter 

between Sol Lewitt and Eva Hesse. Sol advises 

Eva that we must ... "stop thinking, worrying, 

looking over ... [our] shoulder wondering, 

doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy 

way out, struggling, grasping ... Stop it and just 

DO ... " 

This resonated with me on so many levels. 

I believe it's as simple as that: Just DO! I've 

always told myself: Keep dedicated by 

making, experimenting, refining, drawing, 

researching every day; stay focused on the 

long and windy path ahead and continue 

pushing and developing the medium, 

ultimately challenging yourself along the 

way. Over the past five years I've seen my 

practice as a creative journey, with constant 

evolution. Most importantly, I follow my gut 

instinct and intuition, allowing my work to 

evolve. 

Tania Rollond, Dawn Song, 2014 

TANIA ROLLOND 

I don't think one ever feels ready to exhibit. 

still don't seem to feel ready! If I waited for that, 

nobody would ever see my work. It does take a 

while to find your feet after study, but don't let 

it drag on too long - it can easily turn into an 

excuse that comes from, and contributes to, a 

lack of confidence. Lack of confidence has often 

been my worst enemy and it's a downward spiral. 

Lack of confidence prevents you putting your 

work out for people to see, and yet the only cure 



for it, in my experience, is good, constructive 

criticism from people you respect, not just a 

"That's amazing!" from friends. It's important 

to seek out a good mentor and ask for critique. 

If you don't get your work out there it's easy to 

end up making no work at all, and the lack of 

confidence just gets worse. 

It's a constant battle to establish a routine, yet 

it is crucial to your practice, so try to find a job 

with regular days and hours if you can. 

A network or community of like-minded 

artists is important It sometimes/often feels like 

everybody else thinks you're crazy, and it's very 

hard to be crazy on your own!! 

Merran Esson, Pod Stacks 1 & 2, 2014 

Always just work, even when you're not 

feeling inspired; it's the only way to get to the 

better stuff. You can (and should) judge or 

analyse the work afterwards, but not before 

or during the making. It's the crucial steppingstone, 

but you don't have to keep it; discard the 

uninspired later. Tchaikovsky said, "We must be 

patient, and believe that inspiration will come to 

those who can master their disinclination." 

www.taniarollond.com.au 

MERRAN ESSON 

Being an artist is not so much a calling, rather it's 

something that develops over time, and then one 

day you realise that you are an artist. You are 

living the life, but it's tough. Leaving college and 

emerging onto the art scene is full of pitfalls and 

speed bumps, but you are lucky as the ceramics 

world is full of conferences and festivals that 

you can, and should, attend. Start networking 

with others in the same situation. Form a 

collective or rent a shared studio space. Share 

the cost of a kiln (or two). Build a kiln. Ceramics 

has always had a community atmosphere, so 

sharing facilities as you begin your professional 

life is a good idea. If you want this to be your 

profession, don't make excuses about it being 

too hard or too expensive to set up. I am renting 

a studio space from Claypool in Sydney and I am 

fascinated to watch this business grow and 

expand. It's a great launching pad for recent 

graduates. The costs might be less than your 

current institutional fees. Also look around at 

gaps in the market for something that you can 

provide. It will pay your rent and assist you to 

improve your skills. Submit applications for group 

and award exhibitions; you may not always be 

selected, but it's a necessary process that we 

have all gone through. TAKE GOOD IMAGES! It's 

how the world sees what you do online. 

http://merranesson.com 

SUSIE MCMEEKIN 

Firstly let me say that I was lucky to have a 

surname that helped to open doors for me but I 

still had to produce work to a quality that would 

sell in the galleries I approached. 

I didn't have my first solo exhibition until I was 

43, and I had been potting since I was 24. My 

father Ivan McMeekin would not have a joint 

show with me because he felt that il we showed 

together, when he died, interest would wane in 

my work and the prices I was getting would I all. 

So I was on my own on that Iront 

I had always had Christmas sales at home and 

sold to shops in the suburbs. After his death 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IULY 2014 

3S


OWEN RYE 

I have a policy of not giving advice that is 

unasked for, but I was asked so here goes ... 

For a new artist, taking on the art world and 

attempting to conquer it is like taking on the 

whole crew from Jimmy Sharman's boxing tent. 

The art world reminds me of a flock of seagulls 

with a bucket of chips. To join the flock, become 

friendly with a large seagull if possible. 

Susie McMeekin, Hartley Village 

Celadon, 2011 

I started to approach galleries and organise 

exhibitions. I was involved in group shows in my 

local area and I also took part in markets. My 

experience is that my work does not sell well 

at markets because I want too much money 

for them but it is a great place to unload your 

seconds at cheap prices. 

Don't take any notice of people who tell you 

how to go about getting recognised. They can 

only tell you what worked for them. You are 

different so you need to work out your way. The 

more astute among you will see the contradiction 

here - advising someone to ignore advice. Sorry. 

Alan Peascod gave me a lot of wise and useful 

advice. He said that no matter what is happening 

in your life, keep working. 

I would like to say with full force that 

you should not show until you have work 

of exhibition quality. You do your name and 

reputation no good putting up work that is 

under-developed and not quite there - it is not 

just a matter of 'getting yourself out there'. Start 

with group shows and ease into it. 

Be reliable. When you deliver your work 

anywhere, have it priced on the base, with sizes 

recorded and invoiced. Don't make extra work 

for the gallery or shop. Be prepared to work with 

the gallery people you are involved with. It can 

be a very intense relationship so you need to be 

able to get on. Also be realistic about pricing. If 

you are fresh out of art school you should not 

be charging equal prices to the masters of your 

craft. This also gives people a chance to get in on 

the ground floor and follow your career, buying 

pieces as the quality and the value of the pots 

goes up and gives them an ongoing interest in 

your work and development. 

www.5u5iemcmeekin.com 

Getting there involves doing things you think 

you cannot do - the cliche is 'getting out of your 

comfort zone'. If you don't, then you will stay 

where you are. If you want to go international, 

then go international. Go and visit the people 

who interest you, face to face. Forget about 

reading about them, it's a waste of time. Talk 

to them. Remember the old saying about 'the 

company you keep'. 

www.owenrye.com 

Owen Rye, Two Vases, 2013 


• 

[1, rg 1i"ij' rg ~ '[j' @ '[j' INl rg {f (J)) '[j' (J)) fK{ rg 

!FIlOi\ll IlAC~AIH i\IlCCALIl.UM

This is about you> The future. 

The far and wide Emerging 

Contemporary Australia. 

I can feel it, and maybe you can 

too, 

It's like there is about to be some 

kind of gentle uprising that will 

sweep away the confusion. I feel 

it about Ceramics, here, now, in 

Australia. 

, Andit is so,exciting. 

'The , past several, months have; from 

a government level, begun the 

stranglulation of art and craft. TAFE 

cuts and Biennale boycotts prove 

that 'the money trail ' determines 

our Australian art representatives if 

we, the observing involved, don't 

make a conscious effort to 

comment. 

Independently, the skills of noble 

crafts are still to be found. 

This very journal's history is proof 

that from a humble source, a 

supportive and influential energy 

can emerge. 

In Ceramics, the significance 

and role of 'Ceramic tradition' is 

changing into something more 

exclusive than ever before. 

Department stores and their 

cheap wares have changed the 

game for many practitioners. 

'Artist' and 'Master' are becoming 

titles, interchangeable. The 

humble goal of handmaking 

articles for function is more and 

more often blending with the Art 

realm, until the 'function' is a visual 

one. It's a fascinating bridge to 

cross, a path that's been evolving 

for years. This is probably not news 

to the readers of ceramics journals.

WHEN 

IN STRIFE 

"MAK E GOOD ART" 

N£ll b~lK~N - COKK£NC£K£Nl SP££CH. 

(WORTH THE WATCH ON YOUTUBE, URL ON NEXT PAGE) 

Art is a battlefield, so why am I so excited! (?) 

»> It is because this is an opportunity to I hit refresh I. 

" What will happen to the Arts?" We Will . 

• • • 

But the pressure is on, to new graduates and those lucky enough to 

have financial support for their art, to show the world the true value of 

our skills. This is a passive method of protest against the undervaluing of 

our cultural contribution.

Ruth Ju-Shih Li 

Crystall ine glaze on 

Emerging Artists - we have the 

power to steer our future into the 

next phase of culture! We can 

make the items that write the 

history. We can influence opinion. 

We can change understanding of 

this throw-away society into 

something healthier for us all! 

Sometimes it might not seem 

like our work can touch as many 

hearts as we wish, or in the ways 

we intend, but that's the magic 

of humanity and unpredictability. 

Don't be disheartened, because 

one thing is for sure, your objects 

- as obscure or as functional as 

you decide - will always be odd to 

the many ... until the powerful few 

inform their opinion. 

SO Dear, fresh-faced and 

struggling artists, let us, together 

make our journey into the pixel 

eyed public and refresh their 

memory of a time when 

possessions were few, unique 

and eternal. 

Let's get excited! 

Kindest regards, 

Rachael McCollum 

enthusiastic fool 

PS: Thank you to Holly, Ruth and Anne 

Marie for being the future with me! 

You can comment in The Future Forum 

http://www.rachae lmccallum.com/the-futureforum.html# 

Anne-Marie Jackson 

http://amcjackson.com 

Ruth Ju-Shih Li 

http://goldfishli.wordpress.com 

Neil Gaiman Commencement Speech 

https:llwww.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb 

NYksel 

Holly Macdonald has no website yet, but 

exhibited in May 2014 in Home@735, 

Surry Hills, Sydney. 

https:l/rachaelmccallum.com


Pippin Drysdale, Penumbra - Tanam; 

Mapping III, 201 4, installation, porcelain 

incised with coloured glazes, tallest h.3Ocm 

Photo: Sue Warrington 

Four 

artists 

• 

review' 

one 

exhibition 

Pippin Drysdale's Tanami Mapping //1 was held 

at Sabbia Gallery, Paddington NSW, from 14 

May to 7 June 2014. The third instalment of 

the Tanami Mapping Series explores the unique 

desert landscapes of the north-west of Australia . 

Four artists, each from different disciplines, 

were asked to view the exh ibition and respond 

using words or images . Beginning as an 

experiment to discover how their backgrounds 

influence their viewing of ceramics, what 

emerged was possibly even more profound: the 

similarities in response are proof of art's pow er to 

transmit emotion and transcend the individua l to 

speak to all, to the human condition.

HUGO MUECKE 

The exhibition was like walking through an Australian landscape. Each bowl was marked with li nes and 

shapes depicting a brightly-coloured landscape. Imagining that each of Pippin's ceramic bowls could be 

flattened, I replicated the lines and shapes in drawing form (see above image), to create a 20 landscape 

that mimics both her minimal aesthetic and appreciation for the Australian landscape. 

http://hugomuecke.com 

MICHelE MORCOS 

Sunburnt. Hot. Intense. Light-filled. These were some of my immediate reactions as I walked into the 

latest solo exhibition by Western Australian ceramic artist Pippin Drysdale. As my eyes slowly adjusted 

to the vivid colours and the many plinths that were beautifully placed around the first floor of Sabbia 

Gallery, I could see that this large collection of new work was grouped into vignettes, each displaying 

a panoply of intense colour and light variations that abstractly described the body and soul of the 

Australian Outback - where ancient forms and land masses grace the wide open spaces of remote hot 

places. 

One of the more dramatic groupings in the show was Green Swamp Hills, Tanami Mapping III, 

2014, an installation of eight ceramic forms that bounced and sang on a dark charcoal plinth at the 

back of the exhibition space. In citrus hues of lemon and lime, these soft, smooth, conical forms asked 

to be devoured like scoops of sorbet at the end of a meal. It was as if each colourful form was quietly 

and poetically speaking to its neighbour in a secret language, requiring the viewer to lean in and 

intensely listen for each poetic verse. 

As a mark-maker I am always fascinated to take a closer look at the surface treatment of Pippin's 

ceramic forms, and on this occasion she did not disappoint. Each form was eloquently enveloped with 

soft lines and marks that, for me, evoked deeply held memories of looking out of small car and plane 

windows while studying land formations and farmlands as they qu ickly zoomed by. It is as if Pippin 

never wants your eye to trip up or lose concentration. And mine never did as I spent a lovely morning 

with this beautiful exhibition. 

www.michelemorcos.com 


CATERINA LEONE 

If I had one word, instead of three hundred, to describe Pippin Drysdale's latest exhibition Tanami 

Mapping III, it would be 'overwhelming'. The technical brilliance of the work overwhelms; the vibrancy 

of colour overwhelms; the dynamism of the surface decoration overwhelms; and the artist herself 

overwhelms. Inspired by the desert landscape of Tanami in the Northern Territory, the works are more 

than a reference to that land - they visually, energetically and emotionally encapsulate it. 

The vessels surge upward exuberantly from tiny bases, before drawing the eye down into the endless 

womb of colour wit hin - a funnel to capture the world. This single colour is the inner intensity of the 

world when peeled back, layer by layer. The exteriors too, are expressions of the landscape, reduced to 

the essence, the essential. The lines dancing across the exterior are scratches by the artist-as-shaman: in 

Penumbra , the usually crisp lines are wounds whose bleeding edges allow us a glimpse into a further 

layer of the earth, its blood and muscle, usually hidden. Yet the obviously hand-drawn quality of the 

lines, in contrast to the airbrush smooth perfection of the glazes, cements the works in human reality 

and makes Tanami Mapping III a celebration of creative accomplishment and vision as well as of the 

land that is their inspiration. 

Startling contrasts of colour are typical of the body of work as a whole; Drysdale is as unafraid of bold 

contrasts and colours as is the Australian landscape. Walking through the exhibition is to see the Tanami 

landscape from ground and air at once, to simultaneously see sunrise and sunset, w ith eyes that have 

escaped a physical body. The works speak to that part of us that knows itself to be one with nature, 

not above or apart from it, and because they are ceramic - a composition of the elements - they are 

all the more powerful at their evocation of the land. Their very material assists the subject matter, and 

their form - circular, unending - evokes both the spatial endlessness and symbolic timelessness of the 

Australian landscape. In a time of increasing risk to our natural environment, Drysdale's vision of the 

landscape is a celebration and a defence of nature. 

http://caterinaleone.com 


Left: Pippin Drysdale, Lone Rock - Sunburst 

- Tanami Mapping 111,2014, porcelain incised 

with coloured glazes h.17em, w.17.5cm 

Below left: Pippin Drysdale, Moonlight Bore 

- Tanami Mapping III, 2014, porcelain incised 

with coloured glazes, h.27ern, w.1Scm 

Photos: Sue Warrington 

LEAH FRASER 

I had not encountered Pippin Drysdale's work 

before, having only seen pictures, and was 

blown away in the presence of the work. The 

room is filled with glowing orbs that resonate 

light. like tiny worlds delicately etched with song 

lines. Even before reading more about Drysdale's 

work, one can feel the sense of geography, an 

intimate understanding of earth and light. 

Each piece seems to carry its own sense of 

place and the vibrating colours, though vivid 

and dynamic, feel natural, like sunsets and far 

horizons and the exotic red of the desert. The 

names of the pieces, like Moonlight Bore and 

Lone Rock - Sunburst, are similarly suggestive 

and moving in their revelation of Drysdale's 

connectedness with place. She is showing me 

the moonlight and the thunderstorms and the 

hills that she has seen, si nging a story. 

The quali ty and workmanship of the bowls is 

masterful. They are so fine and delicate and yet 

they have a powerful presence, especially en 

masse. They are almost like prayer bowls, having 

a feeling of sacredness. It is as though they 

might emanate some resonant sound if touched. 

They teeter on thei r small point of contact 

with this world and grow up and out like living 

things. 

Tanami Mapping III left me with a feeling of 

having gone on a journey through some new 

universe, one filled with planets of great beauty, 

newly mapped and charted. 

www.arthousegallery.com.au/artists/ 

fraserJeah

Focus: Emergi ng 

Lindsey Wherrett, plate 

Photo: Jonathan Wherrett 

In Context 

by Lindsey Wherrett 

I am an emerging ceramic artist; adually I'm a 

potter. My work is made to be used. I, like other 

ceramicists, work with my hands on my material 

every day, striving to produce beautiful, tactile 

and textural objem that people will use, touch 

and include in their daily rituals. 

I feel lucky to be on this path at a time when 

there is an upsurge of interest and resped for 

handcrafted products. However, I'm also aware 

of the physical disconned created by our digital 

age between the consumer and the object. 

The pieces that we create as potters are 

meant to be held, touched and used but are 

often encountered for the first time through the 

detached medium of the Internet. The Internet 

is glorious in its ability to allow us to reach an 

audience which is no longer just local or national, 

but this also means that the market place is 

crowded with makers' voices competing to be 

heard. 

How then do we express the true nature of our craft, all the subtleties of surface, form and fundional 

value to our wider audience? A large part of the answer lies in the imagery that we release into the 

ether. Photography is the means by which many clients experience our work for the first time, and 

perhaps the only time before committing to a purchase. A cleanly lit studio photo of a pot is no longer 

sufficient to capture the attention of potential customers. An audience bombarded by perfedly styled 

images of an idealistic lifestyle exped to be tantalised and excited. Our clients are not necessarily 

creative, may not immediately see the potential of a piece or may not perceive the subtle nuances of a 

glaze su rface which seem striking to the trained eye. 

Images of work in context tell the story of how a piece may be used and valued. The images 

presented must speak to the lives and desires of the target audience. The photographs must help them 

to visualise how their life would be better with this objed in it, how our work can bring them closer to 

the lifestyle they aspire to. 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CE RAMICS JULY 2014 4S


Above and opposite page: lindsey Wherrett. ceramics; photos: Jonathan Wherrett 

The tactile element of the relationship with a functional ceramic object is essential to a full 

understanding and experience. but perhaps there are some benefits in presenting work in a visual 

forum. The viewer is not simply holding an object out of context and trying to imagine it in their world; 

we are able to show them how great it would look stacked on their kitchen bench or sitting on that 

linen tablecloth filled with gorgeous spring vegetables. 

I am fortunate that my partner is a photographer who is passionate about my work. but much of the 

imagery I present I create myself using nothing more than a smart phone and a well selected backdrop. 

Instagram and Facebook are a constant and essential point of contact w ith my audience. where a 

consistent and simple style hits the right note. 

A well composed and styled image can express texture. tactility. and potential in an object and will 

capture your audience. Inspiration rather than manipulation is my goal. I want to help people to see 

my vision and my desire to place objects in their lives that will bring them small moments of joy and 

satisfaction each day. 

www.lindseywherrett.com 


Focus: Eme rgin g 

A Search for Answers 

Caterina Leone: From my small experience of writing about ceramics, there have already arisen many 

questions born from the particularities of this medium that I desired to have answered by those with 

experience and knowledge surpassing mine. So, from an emerging writer to two established writers, 

Moyra Elliott and Peter Wilson, a request for answers and advice. 

Caterina Leone: Back in 1991, Peter Schjeldahl described ceramics as "a field where suspicion of 

intellect is a given, anti-intellectualism being the shadow of certain positive values embodied in most 

craft movements"'. Do you think that this is valid to contemporary ceramics, and if so, do you believe it 

to be a negative trait? 

Moyra Elliott: It's still there, this anti-intellectualism, but increasingly debilitated. Philosophies through 

to the 'BOs celebrated and emulated nostalgia and were sceptical of rationale that compromised this. It 

bore relevance for a post-war world but was essentially deeply conservative - our hessian-skirt moment. 

Then we swung in an opposite direction with a quixotic lust for academic theory and the fit was like 

Cinderella'S slipper; only bits were eligible. Conceivably, vestiges at both ends provide balance rather 

than embarrassment. 

CL: Do you feel that the only way to disconnect ceramics from the craft (as opposed to art) 

categorisation is to sever all links with function? 

Peter Wilson: It's unfortunate that for many, ceramics is seen as linked to utilitarianism and therefore 

lacks fine art status. The argument implies that anything useful is not art. 

Pablo Neruda talks of the objects of simple beauty that we use and brush past in our dai ly lives and how 

they define our existence. For me, creating objects for people to use is a rare privilege. A simple bowl 

for example, is held as it is used. Deep consideration needs to be given to the nuances of its design 

according to its purpose, form, balance, weight and proportion, how it fits in the hand, its glazed finish 

and its durability. Is this not an artwork? 

Yanagi Soetsu, in Leach's A Potter's Book (1940) states: "'Utility is the first principle of beauty."' 

CL: What is your opinion on the place of negative judgement in critical writing about ceramics? 

ME: Working in ceramics, we link to long-standing networks of alternative cultural movements imbued 

with va lues that favour cooperation and support ra ther than competition and judgement. Also, a 

dominant idea within our culture is that the work created is a bringing forth of the maker's inner self. 

When an object is understood this way it becomes difficult to distinguish between work and maker. 

Therefore criticism of the work becomes personal. And we don't do that in our corner of the art world. 

Or we haven't. But now that so many desire acceptance in the broader arena called fine art, maybe we 

must become used to more rigorous scrutiny, as fine artists must. 

CL: What is you r objective when writing about ceramics? 

ME: To ignore any promotional press release sent to me and to scrutinise the artist's statement with 

great care . Then, look at the work and see how that work fits with that statement. As Roberta Smith, 

arts critic for the New York Times, once wrote, "'I thought I was on the artist's side explaining what 

they were trying to get across .... Then I realised I was on the opposite side. It was very liberating. Your 



readers become very real and your obligation to them supersedes all others." Then for this particular 

work, exhibition, event or circumstance, I wonder what it is that the reader should be made aware of. 

PW: Critical writing should engage an audience with informed text that transcends the often 

impenetrable jargon associated with art criticism. The critic is a person who has a nuanced awareness 

of the field and brings a range of views and experiences to bear. It is their ro le to elucidate what the 

artist is aiming for and assess their level of success. Their expressed opinion should be supported by 

well-developed argument. Adam Welch (NCECA 2011 ) believes criticism forms part of a conversation 

between the work and its audience with the critic as the intermediary. 

CL: Is writing about ceramics different to other mediums' 

ME: Writing on any subject in art requires the same criteria, and that is an understanding of the 

medium/subject from the point of view of history, traditions, methods, current thinking and trends, 

and materiality, and how all that fits into a broader context. On top of that I think experience and 

knowledge of the field in general and in particular is surely necessary. Opinion is, I think, a crucial 

adjunct. And it is opinion that we, in our field, have been reticent with. Opinion stirs the reader's brain 

cells. In ceramics we get far too many articles that read as though they were written by the maker's best 

friend . 

CL: Do you think there is excessive emphasis on technique, historical orientation, and/or sensory 

experience in critical writing about ceramics? Should theoretical criticism be more important? 

ME: Each of these can take on varying importance depending upon the subject at hand. We need 

to remember that ceramic practices don't have a long tradition of critical discourse as this term 

specifically refers to a way of thinking about, and valuing, fine art. To apply fine art theory to ceramics 

is to misunderstand the medium. Ceramics is concerned with a very sophisticated understanding of 

material and high levels of skill, and is driven by issues such as function and production, history and 

tradition. These aspects make craft media distinctive and powerful and for these reasons craft cannot 

sustain and doesn't deserve the same kind of theorising or critical discourse that fine art can. However 

we are no longer our own specialised, isolated patch. Ceramics today operates in an expanded field 

that encompasses other, formerly unexplored, areas of expression. There are also encroachments into 

our medium by artists from other disciplines and training. The medium is trendier and the waters are 

muddier. No one in the wider field takes seriously j-cosy supportive article that has a scattering of 

academic birdseed or reads like it's written by your mother. T.here is that old saying, "Be careful what. 

you wish for. _.--- c: --- 

._, 

/. / 

,-

Fo cus: Emerging 

Elisa Bartels, North Curl Curl Pool 

2014, stained porcelain tiles, anodised 

metal rings, h.l6Ocm, w.190cm, d.l em 

Photo: Greg Piper 

Elisa Bartels' 'floating mosaic' sits at the razor's 

edge of fragility and strength. Small porcelain 

tiles have been stained using various oxides and 

commercial stains. These tiles are then joined 

together using black metallic rings and the image 

this creates is suspended within an anodised 

aluminium frame where it seems to float and 

flutter allowing the scene to come to life. 

This was a commissioned piece: "My client 

and I decided to base the work on an aerial 

view of her favourite sea pool where she swims 

frequently and I wanted her to feel connected to 

this special place, especially when her busy life 

doesn't allow her time to dive into its comforting 

waters. " 

PROFILE: 

Elisa Bartels 

There is a sublime duality to Bartels' work - 

not only do the tiles make up a complete picture 

but each tile is a miniature landscape in its own 

right. This results in a piece that encourages 

viewers to constantly discover new images hiding 

in the midst of the finished work. 

"Bringing this piece to fruition has taken a 

long time, but along the way I have created a 

technique which is intriguing and multifunctional. 

I'm excited to commence working on a new 

series of floating mosaics using many of the skills 

I have learnt for this commission." 

www.elisabartels.com 

so . THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014


Bokeh Gallery is located in the heart of Daylesford, just 90 minutes from Melbourne. As a 

contemporary art space, Bokeh is dedicated to promoting the work of Australian artists. The 

gallery represents a range of media with a strong regional focus and hosts a changing program of 

exhibitions and events. Although we showcase a range of artwork, photography continues to be the 

mainstay of the gallery. 

Bokeh Gallery also stocks a range of unique, handmade items by contemporary ceramic artists such as 

Bridget Bodenham, Megan Puis. Sarah Hudson and Yoko Ozawa. These exquisite, individual pieces not 

only stand out from the mass-produced but also contain their own underlying story and intention. Some 

of Megan Puis' vessels currently at the gallery are inspired by the wetlands of North Queensland and 

show tidal watermarks and mangrove roots. Similarly, Bridget Bodenham's Birdy series is inspired by the 

surrounding bushland near her studio. 

Gallery Director Sonja Rolton aims to offer a space where people can engage with the work as well as 

acquire these considered and well-crafted pieces . The collections range from stunning sculptural pieces 

to functional objects that can be enjoyed and used every day. 

www.bokehdaylesford.com 

PROFILE: Bokeh Gallery 

1 Yoko Ozawa 

2 Bridget Bodenham 

3 Sarah Hudson 

3 



PROFILE: Leah Fraser 

My current practice is a combination of painting and ceramics, and depicts spirits and shamans, 

ancestors or gods who are in communication with other worlds. Imagery from dreams and my own 

imagination are interwoven with ideas from many different religions and philosophies. 

My ceramic objects are part of expanding the sense of the world that this tribe inhabits, and often the 

objects find their way into my paintings. Inspiration comes from the totems and icons found in many 

religions (especially those that uphold animist beliefs) such as indigenous artefacts and objects made to 

venerate ancestral deities and spirits of nature and to accompany ritual practices. 

My work also includes votive figures with wide-open eyes, such as were used in many cultures to 

represent gods or people in shrines of worship, and highly decorated 'magic bottles', which can be 

understood as being the kinds of objects that might fill a magician's apothecary or be the property of a 

medicine man or perhaps a part of a shrine. Each bottle represents a piece of nature in some way. Their 

shapes are organic and they are decorated with shells and crystals or combined with found objects to 

create a feeling of handmade crudeness, as though they are artefacts dug out of the ground. 

leah Fraser, Shaman O re/e, 2014, earthenware 

with assorted shells and crystals, each approx. 

h.2Ocm, w.12cm, d.18cm; photo; courtesy artist

Focus: Eme rging 

21 Reasons to Repeat Myself is a 21-piece ceramic installation 

inspired by tribal artefacts and imbued with magical and 

otherworldly qualities that contain a life force or 'soul' of their own. 

The work explores how each of us embody the physical and mental 

legacy of all those who came before us. 

From inception, these sculptures were always about the collective 

- 21 individuals belonging to 1 tribe. At 21 we cross the threshold 

into adult maturity and the human soul is said to weigh 21 grams. 

Repetition has strong links w ith superstition and the compulsive 

need to repeat can be both comforting and disturbing. Like the 

generational use of patterns that convey the identity and beliefs of 

tribal people, my patterns explore how the notions of individuality 

and free will are inextricably linked to familial connection. 

In this private and intuitive act of making I build elaborate, time-consuming sculptures that I hope 

will engage people in a moment of wonderment. I hand-coil each sculpture with porcelain paperclay 

and use a variety of small tools to create surface patterns, intuitively and without sketching. Fired to 

stoneware temperatures and left unglazed, each piece is sanded to enhance the bone-like quality of the 

porcelaneous clay body. 

www.lorraineguddemi.com 

PROFILE: 

Lorraine Guddemi 

Lorraine Guddemi, 21 Reasons to Repeat Myself, 2013, porcelain paperc1ay, hand built, unglazed, h.17-M.5cm, w.8.5- 

38cm. d.4.5-22cm; phOl0S: Greg Piper 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 53


Stephanie Hammill, Untitled, 2014, Southern Ice, WA black beach sand and copper carbonate grog, 1270 0 ( 

h7 .Scm, w12cm; photo: Kevin Gordon 

oxidation, 

PROFILE: Stephanie Hammill 

I have always sought to make sense of my surroundings through the exploration of landscape and place. 

For me, travel is an important way of discovering my place in the world. I like to collect samples of 

rocks, sand and dirt as souvenirs of visits. My collections of stones and glass jars of sand stand lined up 

on my shelves as reminders of memories and locations. 

My ceramic practice reflects a desire to combine and contrast two separate identities: the found 

unprocessed locational materials and the pristine, untouched nature of porcelain. I embed material into 

the clay body and then throw. Every piece of work begins in the same manner, yet the finished object is 

unique. 

I am intrigued by the possibilities offered by the movement of the embedded materials during the 

motion of throwing, and the semi-random yet ordered nature of pattern created through the action of 

making. For me, throwing is integral to my practice; it creates an interstitial space, a pause, where the 

movement of the clay and the embedment of the materials take on a life of their own. 

I hope to develop this relationsh ip between line and movement and purity and imperfection by 

pursuing investigations into the relationsh ip of glazes and firing methods on the found, embedded 

materials. Reaction, alchemy and contrast are my future lines of enquiry. 

www.stephaniehammillceramics.wordpress.com 


Focus: Eme rging 

PROFILE: 

Home@735 Gallery 

Home@735 is one of Sydney's newest 

contemporary art galleries, located in a terrace 

house at 735 Bourke Street, Redfern in inner city 

Sydney. One of our main objectives is to create a 

comfortable and inviting space that bridges the 

gap between the audience and the artist's work. 

The domestic context is an ideal backdrop for 

exhibiting ceramics. We show ceramics in two 

bespoke cabinets and throughout the gallery. 

Our motivation is to show engaging work from 

artists, in particular ceramic artists who often 

don't have as many opportunities to exhibit as 

practitioners from other disciplines. This seems to 

be especially true in group exhibitions with artists 

from other disciplines. 

Ceramics are often shown in galleries 

dedicated to ceramics, whereas Home@735 

exhibits ceramics in context with other art 

forms. By exhibiting ceramics in this way we 

hope to extend the audience's understanding of 

ceramics by including installation and conceptual 

practices as well as sculptural forms and painted 

surfaces. 

We hope to build ongoing relationships with 

the artists we have shown and continue to 

exhibit ceramics that are challenging. We have 

some exciting exhibitions planned for the near 

future, including, in September 2014 as part of 

the Sydney Fringe Festival, a solo installation and 

interactive artwork by Dan Elborne, an emerging 

Queensland ceramic artist. 

www.homeat735.com.au 

, Anne-Marie Jackson 

2 Sarah O'Sullivan 

3 Georgina Bonner 



PROFILE: Jacob Ogden Smith 

www.jacobogdensmith.com 



PROFILE: 

Thomas Quayle 

My work seeks to delve into human experience 

and emotion and examine not only what it 

means to be human but also how we see the 

humanity of others. I often explore the idea of 

the human as an objed, an idea that is best 

suited to three-dimensional work. Utilising the 

gaze, I attempt to play on the empathy of the 

audience by reconstructing scenarios, often 

violent or sad, to evoke an emotional response 

for the human-looking object. The reason 

for this is to create feelings of concern and a 

need for adion that contrast with a feeling of 

powerlessness and an inability to ad. 

Inspiration for my work stems from my 

experiences as an openly homosexual teen . My 

work represents my experiences of ostracism, 

confusion, depression and fear. I use my art to 

conned to the audience not only through the 

familiarity of the human form but also through 

the common emotional experience. Although 

my works are not cheerful renditions of happy 

figures, they are made to stand as a comforting 

reminder that we are all connected through the 

pain of feeling alone. 

www.thomasquayle.com 

Thomas Quayle, In Desperate Need, 20 14 

h.80cm, w.35cm, d.26cm; photo: courtesy artist 



PROFILE: Tessa Wallis 

The triptych Human Hands in Reproduction, Adaptation and Evolution illustrates my concern 

with scientific developments that could cause the demise of human health and the environment. It 

was influenced by the surrealistic paintings of Max Ernst and the ceramics of Janet Beckhouse. 

The contraceptive pill, plastics and chemicals have introduced so much oestrogen into the 

environment that there have been negative effects on sperm counts and cancer rates. We may 

eventually revere the toad and the rat for their reproductive powers! 

The highly adapted cane toad has decimated native Australian fauna and is spreading quickly. Crows 

have learnt to avoid their poison sacks by attacking the underbelly! Reptiles and amphibians represent 

evolutionary links with humans and are included in all three works. 

Nuclear meltdowns are spreading radioactivity around the world, causing toxicity, mutations and the 

possibility of the evolution of strange new forms. Imaginary mutations are included in the triptych as 

well as a dominant 'machine' monster that gobbles up all in its path. Humans look on, horrified at the 

havoc caused by scientific 'developments'. 

The lure of ceramics for me is taking a tiny chunk of planet earth, re-shaping it and firing it hard so 

it could last for centuries. 

Tessa Wallis, 

Human Hands in 

Reproduction, 

Adaptation and 

Evolution, 2014 

ceramic triptych, 

earthenware with 

underglaze. oxide 

tallest, h.50cm 

Photo: Ric Wallis


From Paint to Clay 

Caterina Leone talks with Ben Quilty about his recen t cerami c work 

Caterina Leone: Why did you choose to work in ceram ics? 

Ben Ouilty: Clay and paint are probably the first mediums you play around with as a child; clay is a 

fundamental medium for an artist. I've always mucked around w ith clay though I've never actually fired 

anything. Well, that's not entirely true, as I have used clay to then cast and pour bronze moulds. The 

Encouragement Award (bronze, 2010) was made from oil-based modelling clay and cast in bronze, so 

this project was an extension of that. Obviously, the finished artwork has come about through other's 

expertise, not mine, but I knew that I wanted the object to be in porcelain rather than bronze, to mimic 

the original object. 

CL: So it seems as though these works could only have been realised in clay ... 

SO: The material is integral to the original object and idea. It is a very material-specific project and 

working in ceramics, with porcelain, was the only way that the idea could have even been formed, let 

alone realised . The original objects weren 't porcelain; they were quite cheap, stoneware I think, so I 

wanted to actually make them more culturally important, more refined, more expensive, but actually 

destroy the functionality of the object at the same time, turning them into art. That raises a funny, 

fundamental question about the nature of art - you actually have to destroy the functionality of 

something and use more expensive materials to make it and then it becomes art. But I think that's the 

thing ... it still does have a function; its function is as a messenger, a storyteller; so it really has a far 

more important function than it had before. 

CL: Your work then really makes that functional/non-functional idea ... 

BO: Dumb! 

CL: Well it certainly eliminates it. 

SO: It's not true at all. The function is to inform and create debate, and these works, I hope, do exactly 

that. 

CL: Is it strange to work with so many other people and processes not entirely in your control? That 

must be different to painting. 

BO: Good question. Alexandra (Alex) Standen really facilitated the whole thing, as well as being an 

inspiration . Seeing and appreciating her work prompted me to start thinking of a project I could do that 

involved porcelain. The way she uses porcelain, in a way treats it with such irreverence, giving it a whole 

new life ... made me think, " I want to use porcelain " . And so then Alex said that she wanted to be 

involved, and from there it got out of control! That amazing Somchai Charoen got involved, the most 

humble and clever man, to make the moulds and then finally Louise Martiensen ended up doing the 

final firings and decals. So it was certa inly a big group effort, a real collaboration. My idea was the start 

of the project, then all I really did was model the first object with modelling clay, and then it was swept 

out of my hands and those very clever people basically remade the original object into what it is now. 

CL: How is working in clay different to painting? 

SO: I very much knew what they were going to look like as completed works, and I started with an 


Ben Quilty, Scream after Leonardo, 2014, porcelain, slipeasl, h.18cm, w.20cm, d.17cm; photo: Andre de Borde 



original object. With a painting, quite often what happens is it takes so many different directions, and 

often the ones that work the best - the image that you have in your head in the beginning - is how it 

finishes. The ones that go off in different directions usually don't work, but are still really important to 

making a good painting, whereas with the ceramics, I knew exactly what I was making. I knew what I 

wanted, and what the final product would be like. 

Cl: What are the works about? 

BQ: They were inspired by Leonardo da Vinci drawings of these grotesque, over-the-top historical 

figures. The subjects of these drawings almost seem more than human, characterisations of humanity, of 

human traits. I wanted to play with that, with the fact that they were based on drawings of very absurd 

looking real people, and therefore, I don't know, explore our humanity, explore the crazy boundaries of 

what humans are, what appearances can convey. 

That is how the portrait of Phi l Butler fits into the body of work. He is a da Vinci subject. He 's such an 

extraordinary figure; he's got a huge block of a head and he has a lifestyle and life story like none I've 

ever heard before. He served in Vietnam, conscripted as a 20-year-old kid. He was basically threatened 

that if he didn't go to war he would spend the rest of the war period in Long Bay prison. He lost so 

many of his mates in the war. I was born the year after the Vietnam War finished so I'm interested in 

that history, in his story. As well as that, he's this really extraordinarily out-there-Iooking human being; 

he's a big, solid, very friendly, softly spoken human being. 

Cl: Did you know that you were going to use him as a subject when you started? 

BQ: Yes, that's actually where it started. I made the painting, the portrait of Phil, and the first jug came 

directly from that, and really the painting just acted as a vehicle to explore the ideas that I then wanted 

to turn into clay. And then, it went from there, and I started finding more and more images, and when 

I'm looking for things like that, they just seem to come up before me. My seven-year-old son opened a 

da Vinci book and said, " Dad, turn that - this incredible drawing - into porcelain ." I said, "Joe, you're a 

genius!" So the collaboration's just getting broader and broader! The da Vinci drawings crystallised the 

ideas we've already discussed, that began with Phil Butler. 

Cl: Will the painting be exhibited alongside his porcelain jug7 

BQ: It will eventually, but not in Hong Kong. 

Cl: Has working with clay taught you anything? 

BQ: Look, it's about form, real form; you're dealing with a 3D object. Part of my practice as a painter 

is being influenced by visual things, but then making up a lot of the material so that it becomes, in a 

way, a collaboration between imagination and truth. And with ceramics, with what I've done with these 

works, it's a 2D image and I'm giving it 3D form, so I've had to make up more than half of the object, 

so it's now an even greater collaboration, between imagination, truth, sculpture, form. And then there's 

the magic of actually using your hands to create an object, that immediacy and physicality, leaving your 

fingerprints! 

Cl: Do you think there is a connection between what these works look like and your paintings? 

BQ: I don't know, you'll have to tell me that l Look, they're a beautiful, shiny, smooth, blended form 

of what my paintings are. And if you look at that one of Phil Butler, it's directly from the original idea 

explored in the painting, and I just gave that form. I gave the idea form, so in a way the painting is just 

a work in progress, and the final ceramic object is the artwork. 



Ben Quilty in his studio working 

on Conscript (Private Phil Butler) 

Photo: Andre de Borde 

Cl: I think that your characteristic expressive, gestural style is still evident in the ceramic works, and that 

contrasts so strikingly with the refined, traditional decals and finish of the rest of the jugs. Is there any 

meaning to this disparity? 

BQ: I've suggested them for the Saatchi show in London, titled Straight White Males. The jugs 

definitely have a meaning that relates to that title. Belonging to the group in society that holds the 

highest privilege and power is something that I've always been keenly aware of and had a certain sense 

of guilt about. The jugs work on multiple levels: they're reminiscent of Toby jugs, and so echo the fastliving, 

hard-drinking culture that marks so much of the early life of Australian men, something that I've 

explored a lot in my past work. They depict this almost sordid, disorientated state of masculinity while at 

the same time, through their conversion into porcelain and fine art, they depict the dominance of this 

social category. 

Cl: What is best about using clay to realise your ideas? 

BQ: Well I only used oil-based modelling clay, and it doesn't crack, it doesn't dry out, so it's the most 

amazing material for playing with, and there was no other way I could have made these works without 

62 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMI CS JULY 2014

Ben Quilty, from left to right, Scream after Leonardo, Jug (nose), Conscript (Private Phil Butler), Jug (Lloydy) and 

Jug (Leonardo), 2014, porcelain, slipcast, tallest h.26cm; photo: Andre de Borde 

clay. Clay was central to the idea. I've always felt that there's this really amazing thing about using 

porcelain. Light travels through it. It's been around for such a long time and has a history of being the 

exclusive finery of wealthy people, but I'm sort of subverting that and using it to mimic the original, 

cheap object. That subversion has allowed me to create the meanings we've discussed in relation to the 

Saatchi show. 

CL: Are you happy with them? 

BQ: Yes! 

CL: Will you continue to work in ceramics? 

BQ: Yes, definitely. When I first did bronze, I continued to work in bronze. I've made three or four or 

them, and I'm sure I'll do the same with ceramics. I have really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed the collaborative 

aspect, and I'm intrigued by ceramics: how they do it is still completely abstract to me, that they can 

take my piece of work and essentially destroy it and then remake it. It's a lovely process to be involved 

in. 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 6}


Ben Quilty, Conscript (Private Phi/Butler), 2014, porcelain slipcast, h.26cm, w.19cm, d.27cm; photo: Andre de Borde 

Ben Quilty was declared the overall winner of the inaugural Prudential Eye Award for 

Contemporary Art in Singapore in January 2014. As a result of winning his category of 

painting, from more than 500 nominees, Ben will stage an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery 

london in July 2014. The award celebrates and supports emerging artistic talent across greater 

Asia. Ben's exciting first london exhibition will showcase his works from predominantly public 

galleries in Australia and precedes an extended painting residency in Paris in 2014. 

www.benquilty.com 

64 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 20'4

National Education 

Pictorial Survey 2014 

Note: Due to a lack of space. 

full captioning of Images is not 

pos~ble . Please contact the 

editor if you would hke more 

information on any Image 

featured In this survey. 

ADELAIDE COLLEGE OF 

THE ARTS, TAFESA 

www.tafesa .edu.au/ 

adelaide-college-of-the-arts 

1 David Moseley 

2 Wakana Takahashi 

2 

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL 

UNIVERSITY 

SCHOOL OF ART, ACT 

http://soa.anu.edu.au 

1 Shaun Hayes 

2 Fran Romano 

3 Jenny Harris 

4 David Leake 

5 Verney Nurness 

6 Julie Barnett

National Education: Pictorial Survey 2014 

CENTRAL INSTITIUTE 

OF TECHNOLOGY 

PERTH, WA 

www.central .wa.edu.au 

1 Marian Giles 

2 Holly Courtney 

3 Karen Millar 

CHISHOLM INSTITUTE 

DANDENONG, VIC 

http://chisholm.edu.au 

1 Irris Szoeke 

2 Heather King 

3 Sharyn Dingeldei


FEDERATION UNIVERSITY, VIC 

http://federation.edu.au 

Work by Alexandra McKim 

2 

HOLMESGLEN INSTITUTE, VIC 

wwvv.holmesglen.edu.au 

1 Michal Anela 

2 Karen Steenbergen 

3 Susannah Larritt 

3 

THE JOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 67


NATIONAL ART 

SCHOOL. NSW 

www.nas.edu.au 

1 Zachary Harold 

2 Ruth Ju-Shih Li 

3 Joseph Purtle 

4 Gaye Stevens 

1 Natalie Levy 

2 Peter Coles 

3 Cathe Stack 

4 Judy Lane 

5 Margaret Paradysz 

3 

NORTHERN SYDNEY INSTITUTE 

BROOKVALE CAMPUS, TAFENSW 

www.nsi.tafensw.edu.au 



----------------------------- 

NORTHERN SYDNEY INSTITUTE 

HORNSBY CAMPUS, TAFENSW 

www.nsi .tafensw.edu.au 

1 Clare Unger 

2 Jann Craw 

3 Kit Fong Wong 

4 Kylie Rose Mclean 

5 Izette Felthun 

6 Hilary Jones 

7 Kimie Kitamura 

7 

RMIT UNIVERSITY, 

SCHOOL OF ART, 

VIC 

www.rmit.edu.au 

1 Varuni 

Kanagasundara 

2 Wen Shobrook 

3 Kate Jones 

..... 

.. , 

,,:..-~ ... 

. 

........ - . 

2 

3 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS IULY 2014 69


--- 

1 Kayleen Kerr 

2 Briony Law 

3 Helle Cook 

4 Kathy Mack 

5 Tully Boundry 

Collis 

-- 5 ~ 

- --- 

SOUTHBANK INSTITUTE OF 

TECHNOLOGY, QlD 

http://tafebrisbane.edu.au 

• - I 

SOUTHERN CROSS UNIVERSITY 

LISMORE, NSW 

http://scu.edu.au 

Work by Sharon Thompson 


SUNSHINE COAST 

INSTITUTE, QLD 

http://tafeeastcoast.edu.au 

1 Maree Heard 

2 Pam Taylor 

3 Lisa Brummel 

3 

SYDNEY INSTITUTE 

SUTHERLAND, NSW 

http://sydneytafe.edu.au 

1 Susan Smith 

2 Robert Jeffers 

3 Nicky Parras 

4 Frances Wilson 

5 Kerrie Watson 

6 Terry Mitchell 

THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 7'


UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE, NSW 

www.newcastle.edu.au 

1 Vicki Hamilton 

2 Gabriella Sharp 

UNIVERSITY OF NSW, COFA 

www.cofa .unsw.edu.au 

1 Alice Couttoupes 

2 Min Shin Song 

3 Milly Dent 

4 Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran 

5 Ion Fukazawa 


UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA 

SCHOOL OF ART, ARCHITECTURE & 

DESIGN 

www.unisa.edu.au 

1 Emily Clinton 

2 Sophia Nuske 

2 

1 Dan Elborne 

2 Aleesha Degan 

3 Lynette Larson 

4 Jess Hennan 

3 

UNIVERSITY OF 

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND 

www.usq.edu.au


1 Cecilia Castro 

2 Clarissa Regan 

3 Sarah Humphrey 

4 Nicola Coady 

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY 

SYDNEY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, NSW 

http://sydney.edu.aulsca 

1 Jessica Roach 

2 Shelly-Rae Haines 

3 Erica Greenhill 

WESTERN SYDNEY INSTITUTE 

NEPEAN, NSW 

htlp:/lwsi. tafensw. edu .au 

3 


Promotion 

Three Experiences of our 

National Pottery Competition 

There are many reasons to enter competitions - to win a prize, to enhance your CV or to expose your 

work to the public and gallery owners. All can provide a great boost to your career. 

In 2014, the Port Hacking Potters Group is offering this opportunity to emerging artists and, for 

the first time, to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We are excited about our Inaugural Indigenous 

Encouragement Award and encourage potters to submit entries. The submitted works will be shown in 

the prestigious Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre in Gymea NSW, with Patsy Hely as the judge. 

Below we share experiences of three past winners. 

In 2012 Kathryn Mitchell won the Open Wheel-Thrown Section. 

Judge: Greg Daly 

It was an honour fo have my work assessed by the esteemed judge, Greg Daly, let alone 10 

be awarded first prize for the whee/thrown section. The award was a great privilege for 

a young polley like me. To have support and recognition from established l:eramicisls in 

my fledging career is precious. The bonus of a financial prize was Significantly helpful. I 

was barely two years inlo my studio practice and passionate about my work but unsure of 

direction. Winning this award boosted my confidence and provided some financial relief 

aI/owing me fa focus creatively on my first solo show 

Kathryn Mitchell 

Miro Feather, 2012 

Detail (one of three 

bowls) 


Promotion 

In 2001 Amanda Shelsher won the HandbuiltlSculpture Section. 

Judge: Mitsuo Shoji 

Amanda Shelsher 

lioyager. 2001 

Photo: Bewley Shaylor 

In my early years as an emerging artisl! really enjoyed entering competitions. J was so 

appreciative of the opportunity to show my work to a wider audience outside Penh. The Port 

Hacking Pollers Award was one of these jantastic opportunities. 

Submitting an entry then looking forward to the results kepI me going as an artist. Working 

in isolation I needed to sel goals. juggle to keep up with orders, and find lime to make pieces 

for award shows. It was hard work and long hours. bill it payed off. 

It must be a huge job for 'he organisers of these art awards and so encouraging that 

they cominue to raise the awareness of the jantastic ceramic works thai are produced in 

Australia. 

My 200 I Port Hacking Award was a great acknowledgement and a huge corifidence boost 

for me.[rom the other side of Australia. It helped me grow my profile on a national level. 

Awards like this encourage us 10 do our best. We all need lillIe affirmations Ihroughout life 

and moments where we can sit, enjoy, breathe and know we are on the righi/rack! 


Promotion 

In 1985 Gail Nichols Won the Student Wheel-Thrown section. 

Gail Nichols 

Bowl. 1985. salt glaze 

diam.39cm; student at St George 

TAFE 

Looking back on my ceramic student days at St George TAFE in Kogarah NSW (J983-fJ5), 

I recall Ihe PorI Hacking Potters Competition as an integral parI of the academic year. 

and in 1985 I was awarded lSI in the Student Wheel Thrown section/or a large salt glaze 

bowl. In subsequent years I received awards for my professional soda-glazed work: 2nd in 

Open Wheel Thrown and Decorative Techniques (1992), Winning Entry in Theme Section- 

Colours of Australia (1997), Winning Entry in Open Wheel Thrown and the CESCO Award 

(2001). These formed the beginning of the Awards section in early versions of my CV That 

list has grown over the years, expanding 10 other national and international compe/ilions, 

however the Port Hacking POllers prizes appear at the start, and continue to hold a special 

place in my memory. 

In 2006 I was invited /0 judge the competition. This was an honour and an 

acknowledgement of my career development. It was a pleasure and a challenge to view the 

works and to select the winners. I 'd like to think I gave encouragement, especially to the 

student enlries, as I had received 21 years before. [ 'm grateful to the dedicated volunteers 

in the Pori Hacking Pollers Group who cOnlinue 10 nm a biennial nalioffal competition 

and exhibition, promote ceramics in their communi/y, and encourage the endeavours of 

emerging artists. 

Whether you are a student, an emerging artist, or already experienced If' your 

craft, there IS much to be gained by partiCipating in thiS competition. 

Entry forms are available by emalling pottersgroup@hotmail.com or call 

0407 229 151 . See images of Ihe 2012 COmpeliTlon on our blog, 

www.porthackingpotters.blogspot.com.au/ or follow us on Facebook at 

https:ll www.facebook.com/porthackingpottersnationalcompetition. 

* 


Port Hacking 

Potters Group 

A Division of Cronulla School of Arts Inc. 

48th National Pottery 

Competition and 

Exhibition 2014 

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery 

and Arts Centre 

GymeaNSW 

20 September to 1 October 

Judged by Patsy Hely 

Port Hacking Potters Group 

PO Box 71 Miranda NSW 1490 

Phone 0407 229 151 

Email pottersgrouP@hotmail.com 

Entry forms due 8 September 2014

Vi ew 1 

HERE&NOW14: 

The state of ceramics in WA 

Curator Emma Mahanay Bitmead introduces this upcoming exhibition 

HERE&NOW is an annual exhibition, initiated in 2012 by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the 

University of Western Australia, with the aim to provide opportunities for emerging artists and showcase 

the most exciting and innovative new work being produced in Western Australia. This year the theme 

is 'Contemporary Ceramics', with work from both emerging and established Western Australian 

artists, encompassing materials and techniques ranging from fine porcelain forms and rustic stoneware 

installations through to large-scale sculptural work. The exhibition is open from 25 July to 27 September 

2014. 

Selected artists include Luke Aleksandrow, Sandra Black, Greg Crowe, Ian Dowling, Pippin Drysdale, 

Stephanie Hammill, Graham Hay, Andrew Nicholls, Jacob Ogden Smith, Warrick Palmateer, Bevan 

Thompson and Andrea Vinkovic. Each has been challenged to produce new work, extending their 

artistic practice by experimenting with innovative technical and conceptual approaches. 

Sourcing 'emerging' ceramic artists was one of the challenges faced in curating this exhibition. It 

became apparent that due to the closure of tertiary ceramic courses in WA, emerging ceramicists have 

been forced to seek alternative pathways to acquire the skills, training and intellectual development 

required but no longer on offer through dedicated specialist courses. 

I became interested in exploring how the selected emerging artists have come to work with clay and 

the challenges they have faced to further their careers. Some visual arts graduates have naturally paired 

Below: Sandra Black and Andrew Nicholls. Wrap. 2014, porcelain, clear glaze. black decal, h.1Scm 

Below right: Andrea Vinkovic. Shape of Thought, detail. 2014, stoneware, porcelain. metal; photos: Kevin Gordon 


Above: Warrick Palmateer, Form I, 2014, h.1SOcm 

Above right: Stephanie Hammill, Drift Line, 2014, porcelain, h.1Ocm; photos: Kevin Gordon 

up with highly experienced ceramicists, forging informal mentorships that enable them to learn the 

physical and technical skills not taught in academic visual arts courses. 

Jacob Ogden Smith is one such example. He graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Arts from 

Curtin University after completing an Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts at the WA School of Art and 

Design. In 2011 Jacob began working informally with Greg Crowe, mostly focusing on kiln building 

and woodfiring. Jacob's conceptual exhibition work incorporates found ceramic objects and video 

installation, in part the result of his lack of access to studio facilities. Greg, who teaches at his pottery 

studio in Hovea in the Perth Hills, also has work in the exhibition. 

Others, including Stephanie Hammill, have pursued short practical courses offered through institutions 

such as the Fremantle Arts Centre and SODA Studios Clay House. Despite postgraduate qualifications in 

anthropology, Stephanie faced incredible obstacles when attempting to enroll in a Diploma at Central 

TAFE, due to a lack of previous fine art qualifications and the absence of any formal structure to 

recognise prior learning and experience. With the support and encouragement of the ceramic tutors, 

she was able to enroll and attend classes without the option to complete an academic certificate. She 

was immensely inspired by the breadth of knowledge, skills and guidance provided by Andrea Vinkovic, 

who is also exhibiting work. 

Luke Aleksandrow is another emerging artist, though he has pursued a purely academic pathway 

to exploring ceramic practice involving digital installations based on ceramics. After completing a 

Bachelor of Arts (Design & Art) with First Class Honours and Master of Applied Design and Art at Curtin 

University of Technology under the tutelage of John Teschendorff, Luke is currently undertaking a sevenmonth 

residency at the Fremantle Arts Centre. He next intends to undertake his PHD at Curtin while 

continuing to pursue his ceramics practice. 

It is the first time in a decade that a public institution in Western Australia has dedicated an exhibition 

to the under-represented practice of ceramics. Given the current collaborative landscape, it seems 

timely to provide an opportunity for emerging ceramic artists to exhibit their work alongside their more 

established and internationally recognised counterparts. HERE&NOWI4 will provide a snapshot of the 

diverse, exciting and innovative developments in the contemporary world of ceramic practice in Western 

Australia. 

80 THE 10URNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

View 2 

Round the Mountain 

Merrie Hamilton reviews Gai l Nichols' recent exhibition at Sabbia Gallery 

I made it to Gail Nichols' Sabbia Show in July 2013 on the second last day. Despite the plethora of red 

stickers, three women huddled in discussion - deciding on a purchase. 

I know Nichols' work (we live in the same community), but have never been in a big room full of her 

pots. There are thirty-five and it's quite an experience. I am unexpectedly gobsmacked. They look more 

colourful than I remember and there is definitely a new wow factor - they sparkle. 

The Sabbia Gallery girls are masters of display. Their podia seem to float, the natural light is gorgeous 

(huge windows allow you to actually see the show as you drive past) and their artificial lighting is precise 

and flattering. And so to the pots themselves ... many are very large and there are several different 

forms. Most stand quietly, modestly, swelling gently from tapered bases into elegant open bowls, 

cylinders and shouldered pot forms. Not all are vertical. There are also rhythmically undulating horizontal 

works, reminiscent of stingrays (which Nichols calls Wave Plates) and solid 'rocks' reminding me of 

Aboriginal grinding stones. 

The surfaces are intoxicating. I resist the urge to put my tongue to them but cannot resist some 

fondling of the baby skin smoothness. What might appear to be bubbling or pocking or foaming is 

cool and sensual to the (illegal) touch . You know that what you are looking at is hand-wrought and 

contrived, but you could be amongst natural forms from our local landscape. Surfaces appear to reflect 

the mineral content of boulders swathed in mist. The feel is ancient and yet, oh so contemporary. 

All work by Gail Nichols; photos: Michel Brauet 

Below left: Flame Round the Mountain, 2012. stoneware, soda-vapour glaze, h.36cm, w.43cm 

Below middle: Spring Rain, 2012, stoneware, soda-vapour glaze, h.27ern, w.18cm, d.16cm 

Below right: Days of Deluge, 2013, stoneware, soda-vapour glaze, h.23cm, w.38cm, d.35cm 

, 

r_ .... ' • _ ~.. ~:!. • .. . ' . 


View 2 

"It's my decorating day", Nichols laughingly says of her kiln packing. She gives herself lots of time 

and no pressure to accomplish this painstaking task, crawling around on her haunches inside the kiln . 

The only glaze applied to the wares is inside the forms. All other effects are gained by the manipulation 

of the kiln atmosphere and the pack. large things perch on their sides, often on oyster shells (providing 

both stability and a subtle fossil-like imprinted focal pOint) - all the better to receive the soda vapour as 

it winds through the corridors of space between pots towards the chimney at the back. Small bowls and 

cups litter the shelves as fillers. The whole thing might appear haphazard. It is anything but. 

Nichols has been experimenting with soda glaze firing since the 1990s and has gradually refined her 

practice so that she can now express things other than technique. Although she builds her own kilns, 

formulates her own clay bodies, throws big pots and raw fires ever so carefully with both gas and wood, 

Nichols' work shows an artistic maturity that is internationally acclaimed and highly sought after. 

I can't help wondering if she chose her bush locale and proximity to Mount Budawang (with its 

spectacular foggy micro climate) to complement her pots or if the work has gradually morphed into 

its environment. As with any art form, the trick is to appear effortless - the hours and decades of hard 

work becoming second nature - so that what the audience receives is seamless, easy; a story told or a 

feeling given solidity. This Nichols certainly achieves but she has had to be 'driven' to get there. Only 

when she talks about her volunteer fire fighting does she light up in the same way as she does when 

discussing the work. What is it about this woman and fire? 

http://sabbiagallery.com/artists/gail-nichols/ 

Below: Gail Nichols. Flowing Mist, 2013, stoneware. soda·vapour glaze. h.llern. w.42cm; photo: Michel Brooet 


Spaces and Places 

------- 

Late Nights and Dusty Clothes 

Amy Kennedy interviews Leah Jackson, Resident Artist at 

Northcote Pottery Supplies in Melbourne 

Amy Kennedy: When and how did you start ceramics? 

Leah Jackson: During high school I had a very supportive ceramics teacher who I had great rapport 

with. She would organise field trips to various potter's studios so that we could experiment with firing 

techniques. The school at the time was science and sports focused but the previous principal had 

supported the art department, so fortunately we had great facilities to use. 

AK: Do you consider yourself an emerging artist? If so, why? 

U : Although I graduated in 2003 I didn't really take up my practice outside of an institution until around 

2008. Having gone straight to university from high school meant that I was pretty starved for some 

greater life experience, so I took the opportunity to relocate a couple of times, travel, and work in the 

arts during the intervening years. I consider myself an emerging artist until I am focused on my practice 

full time. At present I still work part time a couple of days in an unrelated field. I tend to embrace and 

enjoy the challenge of learning and developing, which makes me constantly feel like a novice, so it will 

probably only be in retrospect that I see myself as 'emerged' as opposed to 'emerging'. 

AK: What is your educational background? 

U: I completed a Bachelor of Arts Visual (Honours) with a major in ceramics at the National Institute 

of the Arts (ANU). We had access to exciting artists from around the world thanks to the International 

Artist Program. I came to study at ANU via a flyer that was left on my desk by the aforementioned 

ceramics teacher - a person can have a profound effect on one's life! Otherwise, I would most likely 

have studied closer to home in Melbourne, and my work might look completely different today, for 

better or worse. 

AK: What sort of work do you do? What inspires it? 

U: My work is predominantly functional. The use of the object inspires it, as does material, touch and 

colour. Film and television sets are particularly interesting to me, as the objects used in set dressing 

create a more rounded narrative or character description. Taking in the surrounds of a character fills in 

the blanks for our brains. I am fascinated by this, and often return to it as a reference. My inspiration 

folders are littered with screen grabs from these moments. 

AK: How did you come to be a Resident Artist at Northcote Pottery Supplies? 

U: Previously I had been working from home, in my apartment, packing up every evening into a 

cupboard that I had set aside for ceramics. Although it taught me how to use space very efficiently, 

after a particularly busy year including a solo exhibition and several group exhibitions, on top of trying 

to sustain the more commercial side, I'd had enough and just couldn't stomach making at home any 

longer. I had been using the firing service and coming to the shop at NPS for years (you can 't fire in an 

apartment!) so I took the leap and put my name down for a studiO space. Luckily one became ava ilable 

reasonably quickly. 


Places and Spaces 

Above: Leah Jackson in her Northcote Pottery Supplies stud,o 2014 

Opposite page: Leah Jackson, Spotted Range, 2014, porcelain, tallest, h.l6cm; photo: Jeremy Dillon 

AK: What do you enjoy about having a studio here? 

U : It has made an enormous difference to my work. The freedom of being able to leave everything set 

up overnight, paired with a larger space has resulted in new products and larger, more ambitious pieces . 

It is also an absolute dream being able to fire on-site, particularly fragile pieces. 

AK: Where do you sell and exhibit your work? 

U: I am incredibly fortunate to have excellent stockists all around the country who are interested in my 

work and incredibly supportive and patient. It is an exciting time for craft, and the young 'bricks and 

mortar' shops that support it. In Melbourne I stock Craft Victoria, Mr Kitly, Quince and Edition X; High 

Swan Dive, a lovely new shop in Newcastle NSW; in Perth the wonderful Mr Sparrow; the National 

Portrait Gallery in Canberra; and a few more who are patiently awaiting orders! I have exhibited within 

Australia and internationally in both group and solo exhibitions. 

AK: What do you consider to be your greatest achievement to date? 

U : What drives me is seeing a friend using one of my pieces at home, or a picture on social media that 

a happy customer w ill post of my work in use. It is such a satisfying feeling to know my work is giving 

joy to someone. It makes the late nights, dusty clothes, and dry hands worthwhile! 

AK: What challenges do you face as an emerging artist? 

U : Finding the right balance between various commitments and learning how much can realistically be 

completed each day. 


,./ 

, 

- 

"'- 

, - • • 

" 

\ ;' 

, 

• 

", 

, 

• 

'-

I' 

Above: Leah Jackson, Spotted Range. plates, 2014, porcelain, largest. diam.16cm; photo: Jeremy Dillon 

AK; How do you use social media to connect with people? 

U; Social media is almost essential today. It is a fantastic way to connect with like-minded individuals 

and an easy way to publicise what is happening in the studio, an otherwise private space. I love 

Instagram for its immediacy and ease. 

AK: What do you aspire to in the future? 

U : I have worked very Singularly to date, but look forward to joining forces with other artists and 

makers to collaborate on projects and products. This takes time, but what comes from two minds 

joining forces is exciting and a great way for work to develop. More broadly I am looking forward to 

being completely dedicated to my practice and building a sustainable business for the future. 

www.leahjackson.blogspot.com.au 

www.instagram.com/jackson_leah 

www.leahjackson.net (website under development) 

Currently Northcote Pottery Supplies has seven resident artists and has just launched its 2014 Guest 

Artist in Residence Program. This year two ceramic artists will be selected for a three-month residency. 

This includes being allocated a private studio space. rent-free, in which to develop and produce work, 

experiment, or tackle a new project. With this initiative Northcote Pottery Supplies aims to support 

emerging and established ceramic artists and work with these artists to create unique workshop 

opportunities for the NPS community. The applications for 2015 will open later this year. For more 

details on the Guest Artist in Residence Program or how to become a resident artist, visit www. 

northcotepotterysupplies.com.au. 

Northcote Pottery Supplies, 142-144 Weston Street, Brunswick East, VIC 


Of Layer Cakes and Hokey-Pokey 

It's all in the Cooking 

by Moyra Elliott 

Do I smell an adjustment around ceramic process and its place in communicating ideas? This 

particular component of the transaction is heat - that necessary constituent that actually turns clay 

into ceramic, while taking the process right to the margins of viability. 

Speculating upon this shift, one answer might be that with increasing interest by artists with other 

backgrounds and training, it's the passion and drama of fire and heat that engages. Generally 

outside the realm of 'the visitor', it requires technical knowledge, kiln understanding and control. 

It's opposite to simply requiring the kiln to 'fix' the elaborated surface and runs contrary to the 

coolly conceptual. It also demands a measure of fire in the belly. 

Work evidencing this shift is clearly made in such a way that preliminary processes, meaning and 

thinking are both revealed and enhanced by that final firing. It's deliberate, but utterly reliant upon the 

transformational forces of heat, yet looks cavalier and nonchalant, with results serendipitous. Far from it. 

I recently encountered work from Spain's Gregorio Peno, presenting masterly control in the face 

of extreme kiln conditions. His stylishly simple, elongated porcelain boxes were packed with 

earthenware clay, sealed, then fired to blazes resulting in the volcanically bubbling dark earthenware 

expanding and wreaking pressure from within to its container. The result offered a distorted, yet still 

elegant, smoky brown container spilling with what looked like chocolate hokey pokey ... a simple 

but effective idea that flawlessly manifests and communicates only on ceramic process. 

Another Spaniard who combines clays and allows movement and response under extreme heat 

conditions is Rafa Perez. like Peno he plays with different clays' characteristics by cutting, slicing 

and layering white porcelain and black earthenware to make simply configured but manifestly 

complex works that clarify, under heat stress, ceramic processes. As it is for Peno, it's the 

earthenware that effervesces and erupts while the porcelain resists, and through this tension the 

clay layers shift and open - some expand, and the work twists and transfigures. 

Again, while the final appearance of each work cannot be predicted, or closely repeated, experiment 

and experience offer loose boundaries with which to proceed before committing a work to the 

unpredictable transformational forces applied through firing. Occasionally Perez will colour some 

intermediary layer with stain or emphasise a melt with gold lustre, but his palette stays restricted and results 

resemble, at most, volcanic landscapes, but more simply and usually, abstractions around ceramic process. 

While both artists manipulate the potential, when the kiln is opened results differ and surprise, 

but it is clay and what can happen with heat that is the central, material component. 

Looking around there is ample evidence, beyond my offered examples, that a shift in interest is 

being engaged, away from the cerebral and the conceptual towards highly tuned processes that can 

only be learned over time, building on understanding clay's unique properties, probably with many 

failures on the way. Or maybe it's just being Spanish?

Pocket Ph D 

Objects of Embodied Tension 

Beli nda Wi nkler shares her PhD research 

Warm, silky-smooth plaster ... Soft, dove-grey, dewy forms emerging from their moulds ... A maker by 

nature, j am happiest when covered in plaster and surrounded by an array of fresh warm casts, each 

imbued with the tension and pressure of its creation and loaded with potential. There is an intrinsic 

delight in the act of making, of using hands and mind to create something that has not existed before, 

of bringing life to form. At once challenging and immensely satisfying, the pleasure j receive from the 

act of making was the constant motivation for my practice-based research. 

Through my PhD research I explored the potential that lies within material-based form-finding and 

the physical act of making, exploring the inherent connections of these processes to an embodied 

perception of the object. The path of my research was not one of theoretical extrapolation, but rather 

one of reflective, practice-based research undertaken through the making of, and reflecting upon, 

sculptural forms and designed objects, and contextualised within a broader community of practice 

that includes Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Marie Torbensdatter Hermann, Leicester Cooper, Eva Zeisel and 

Les Blakebrough, to name but a few. The establishment of, and engagement with, the field of creative 

practitioners who form my community of practice has been integral to my research, as has the act of 

reflective practice, bringing about a fundamental shift in understanding that my processes of thinking 

and making are not hierarchically separated - that research and practice are not separate activities but 

are intimately intertwined. 

Reflective practice-based research revealed that, for me, the physical, hands-on, embodied process 

of form-finding using ductile, responsive, elastic materials subjected to tension and compression, 

provides the experimental pathways that give life to form and the possibility of an object - an object 

of embodied tension. Having been generated through the use of tension, the forms j create become 

charged with that tension. These charged objects, when placed in relation to one another, create a 

different kind of tension, one that exists within the space between. Here, where curve almost meets 

curve, nearly but not quite tOUChing, a spatial tension is created. We perceive this tension, as we are 

ourselves objects of embodied tension. Pressure and gravity, tension and compression, torsion and 

stretch, dimple and swell, we have direct, physical experience with these sensations and, as such, when 

we read them in an object they find resonance in our own bodies, in our muscles, our movements, our 

breathing, our memories. We have, within us, memories of moments of tension, of anticipation and 

longing, implicit sensual memories, haptic memories, brought to the fore in a moment of recognition. 

The outcomes of the research provide insights into the interconnected nature of physical and 

perceptual tensions and their role in the activation and apprehension of the object, and, importantly, 

provide insight into the nature of creative practice in the ceramic arts. 

www.belindawinkler.com.au 

Belinda's thesis link: http://researchbank.rmit.edu.aulview/rmit:160666 

Belinda's examination on Vim eo: http://vimeo.com/B6083312 


St udio 

An Overflow of Creativity 

Caterina Leone reports on Cascade Artists' Studios 

For many emerging ceramicists, the problem of finding or setting up a 

studio, especially after the luxuries of art school, is the first major challenge 

in their careers. To equip a space with enough of the necessities to produce 

work is difficult enough, but there is the added anxiety of losing the artistic 

community that comes with art school or shared studios. Of the latter, there 

are very few shared studios that have ceramics facilities. 

Jacqueline Spedding was faced with this problem after graduating from 

Sydney College of the Arts in 2011 with a Masters of fine Arts. Based in the 

beautiful Blue Mountains in NSW, Spedding was keen to continue working 

in a shared studio as she had in the inner city. Yet the nearest was at least an 

hour away, prompting her to start her own instead. After locating a warehouse 

overlooking the bush in the Lawson Industrial Estate, Spedding placed an ad in the local paper seeking 

'like-minded artists to share the space'. Furniture designer Michael Hoffman was drawn by the prospect 

of creative company, and within three months the pair had repurposed recycled materials into internal 

walls and furniture, cost-effectively transforming the industrial shed into a creative work space. Local 

artists Mandy Schoene-Salter and Linda Seiffert also signed up, together creating Cascade Artists' 

Studios. 

The studio is also keen to host artists-in-residence, as well as workshops and events. From January 

to February 2014, Cascade Artists' Studios hosted their first visiting artist, Eun Young Lee from South 

Korea. Eun Young, a ceramic artist studying at Hongik University, spent two weeks working in the studio 

and exploring the local landscape. A second artist, Caitlin Hughes, will be in residence in June. 

Cascade Studios are equipped with three electric kilns - a 13 cubic foot Hildav, a Tetlow K6 test 

kiln, and a Ward SA. All required significant servicing and new elements, and were also fitted with 

Harco controllers which, Spedding points out, .. hurt financially at the time but was well worth the 

investment" . She has found that a good way to find cheaper equipment is from studios that are closing 

down, so far successfully purchasing a ball mill, industrial scales, a compressor, an electric wheel, work 

benches, drying shelves and more. The studio also has an area for plaster work and another for screen 

printing onto clay. They are looking into obtaining a printing press and possibly a slab roller to expand 

the capabilities of the studio even further. There is also a small installation area where work can be 

set up for exhibitions. Another benefit to establishing a shared studio space is the added skills and 

equipment that can be shared by artists in other disciplines. Spedding happily exclaims: "With Michael's 

woodworking machines and metal lathe to add to the list, we pretty much have most aspects of our 

practice covered! .. 

Cascade Artists' Studios, 23- 27 Cascade Street, Lawson NSW 2783; find them on Facebook 

Opposite page: 1 Linda Seiffert; photo: Jennifer leahy, Silversal! 2 Michael Hoffman's workshop; photo: Mandy SchOne 

Salter 3 Eun Young lee 4 Jacqueline Spedding in the studio, 2014; photo: Mandy SchOne-Salter 5 Artists in the studio, 

2013; photo: Mandy Schone-Sa her 6 Jacqueline Spedding, Transcend. 2014; photo: Keith Maxwell 7 Unda Seiffert. 

Undulating Form, 2013; photo: Keith Maxwell 8 Jacqueline Spedding. Passing Time (detail), 2014; photo: Keith Maxwell 


Studio 


Potters Marks 

6 

1 Christine Sail 

2 leah Fraser 

3 leah Jackson 

4 Dan Garretson 

5 Alexandra Standen 

6 lindsey Wherrett 

7 Alana Wilson 

8 Belinda Winkler 


Ceramic Shots 

WINNER 

Photographer: Nicci Parry-Jones, Glen Innes, NSW, April 2014 

The challenge was to "make the word [clay] from clay, paint the word [clay] on a pot, drizzle 

[clay] slip on a surface, paint your body with [clay] ochre. 

whatever your idea, there must be a ceramic link". 

The competition was judged by the recipients of the 2014 Trudie Alfred Bequest 

Ceramic Scholarships - Sharyn Dingeldei, Ebony Heidenreich, Kylie Rose McLean 

Adriana Prasnicki and Inga Svendsen. 


Ceramic Shots 

2 Photographer: 

Kimie Kitamura 

Hokkaido, Japan 

May 2014 

3 Photographer: 

Ingrid Wens (Netherlands) 

Ceramics by Sonja Deckers 

(Belgium), Arendonk 

Belgium, April 2014 

Slipcast cubes on clay 

powder depicting the word 

'clay' in Braille 

4 Photographer: Goergin. Perkins, Prospect, TAS, April 2014 

5 Photographer: Ian Hodgson, Canberra, ACT, May 2014 


Ceramic Shots 

6 Photographer: Alycia Tannou5, ceramics by Tanya Bechara, Enfield, NSW, May 2014 

7 Photographer: c.anbora Bayraktar, Marsfield, NSW, April 2014 

8 Photographer: Annamieke Mulde", Perth, WA, May 2014 

9 Photographer: Nola Taylor, Glen Innes, May 2014 

10 Photographer: Georgia Bell, Acacia Hills, TAS, March 2014 

11 Photographer: Michael Sanders, potters, Sadhana Peterson and Mara Sanders, Hazelbrook, NSW, April 2014 

12 Photographer: Claire Blake, Alfredton, VIC, May 2014 


Artist in Residence 

Time Out 

julie Pennington reports on her Spanish residency 

In 2013 I applied for an artist's residency at Can Serrat. situated within the National Park in the small 

town of EI Bruc near Barcelona. It was exciting to be accepted for a support stipend and in September 

2013 I set off for a month in Spain! I had given careful thought to applying to Can Serrat as this 

residency was open to visual artists and writers and there were no specific facilities or kilns for ceramic 

work. So my intention for this residency was not about making a lot of pots. 

Can Serrat provide accommodation. meals and studio space in a 200-year-old farmhouse set in a 

rambling. somewhat whimsical garden. a short stroll from the village. This setting gave me a perfect 

opportunity to think about my arts practice and gain inspiration for new work. At home in the studio 

I often feel the need to be constantly producing work and I think it is useful at times to step back 

a little to think about new ideas and the direction you want to take. As well as ceramics. my work 

encompasses drawing and printmaking. so one of my aims during this residency was to develop this 

2D work further and consider how best to combine it with my ceramics. Transporting works on paper 

is easier than packing clay. so I was able to bring home many of these drawings and sketches for 

future reference. The residency also provided the opportunity to exchange ideas with artists from other 

disciplines and from other parts of the world. 

In terms of inspiration. Can Serrat seemed to offer the best of both worlds: beautiful natural 

surroundings and the city of Barcelona only 45 km away. From the town of EI Bruc you can walk 

through the olive groves to other small villages. or for the more serious walkers. there are many hiking

1 Can Serrat studio space 

2 Can Serrat courtyard 

3 Julie Pennington 

Terraco tta Bowls 

installation. 2013, Can Serrat 

4 Casa Batllo, Barcelona 

Opposite page: 

local church, EI Bruc 

Photos: Julie Pennington 

trails through the National Park up to the Montserrat Mountains and the monastery. For the most 

amazing cultural fix, head to Barcelona, a truly gorgeous city with so much to offer. Apart from the 

art and ceramics to be researched in the famous museums and galleries, the Gaudi and Modernista 

architecture in Eixample and the ancient Barri Gotic are magnificent, I really enjoyed having the beauty 

of the natural world at my doorstep as well as easy access to the w ealth of material to be found in the 

city. As you might imagine, I have many photos that continue to inspire me! 

For those of you who feel the need for a break from making and some time for thinking, I would 

definitely recommend immersing yourself in a new environment and allowing yourself some time for 

contemplation. I did come across some clay and had a little 'play'; however I found it helpful to turn my 

attention to things other than making pots, and ultimately I expect this experience will inform my work 

more and more over time. 

Before arriving in Spain I researched possible connections I could make with the ceramic community, 

in particular The Ceram ic Hub (www.eltornbarcelona .com). where I could produce andlor fire work if 

need be. Another useful contact was the Associacio de Ceramistes de Catalunya 

(www.ceramistescat.org) and the most amazing collection of Spanish ceramics at Museu de Ceramica 

(www.museudeldisseny.catJen). 

Be inspired; apply for a reSidency! 

www.julie-pennington.net; www.canserrat.org 

THE IOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 97

Gatherings 

On the Edge of the Shelf 

International Woodfire Festival 

Mystery Bay May 2014 


On the Edge of the Shelf International Wood fire Festival was a very successful 3-week event convened 

by Daniel Lafferty and a team of enthusiastic volunteers. The festival brought together ceramicists from 

seven nations with over 500 years of experience collectively - a world-class event for the south coast of 

NSW. 

The festival provided an uninterrupted chance to focus on creating, making and firing work. The 

participants were able to strengthen existing friendships, create new ones, and enjoy each other's 

company. It was inspirational to meet and learn from such renowned and respected artists who 

provided a platform for young students and experienced ceramicists to exchange ideas and interact. 

The passionate woodfirers were able to benefit from and continue to develop their knowledge of this 

traditional art form . Most potters were physically exhausted as well as emotionally rejuvenated by the 

event. 

Mystery Bay is so beautiful; the venue was superb, the weather was gorgeous with plenty of 

swimming, surfing and successful fishing trips, and the food was to die for! The local galleries - Bega 

Valley Regional Gallery, Spiral Gallery, Narek Galleries and Ivy Hill - provided stimulating woodfired 

exhibitions during the festival and the local musicians kept the pottery crowd dancing into the night. 

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in On the Edge of the Shelf and made it what it 

was. Special thanks to our sponsor James Kasper for his generosity; what a wonderful gift he has given 

us all. Big thanks to all the volunteers and helpers who made it possible. We feel grateful and honoured 

to be a part of such an event and delighted it was such a great success. The collective memories of the 

past month will live on ... 

A report by Gabrielle Powell

Canberra has a secret ... 

No. not that irs the centre of government (we ALL know about that!). nor that irs the site of so many 

national cultural icons and institutions which are part of a beautiful planned city (MOST of us know 

about that!); and no, not that it's home to world ranking educational institutions (MANY of us know 

about that), nor even the fad that it is uniquely 'the bush capital ' with easy access to snowfields! 

wilderness!national parks (because SOME of us know about that). It is the fad that there has been 

a cultural rebirth of the city centre with new galleries, shops and cinemas (and not even everyone in 

Canberra knows about THAD. And that's where we are holding the Australian Ceramics Triennale (ACD 

party, to which YOU are invited! 

The Triennale w ill be held in Canberra from 9 July to 11 July 2015, with an associated public program 

commencing Monday 6 July 2015. It w ill host a three-day conference w ith keynote speakers and 

presenters, demonstrations, master classes (pre-conference), a market day, a trade fair, community 

events, film festival and pop-ups, and a huge exhibition program (more than thirty exhibitions booked 

in to date). This is the main event on the Australian Ceramics calendar and it promises to be an 

exciting, challenging and stimulating time. You cannot afford not to be involved and there are ample 

opportunities to get engaged. 


Australian Ceramics Triennale 2015 

The Triennale theme for 2015 is 'Stepping Up ...' reflecting the need for us all to take action on a 

number of fronts - to be active participants in our communities, our futures and our national conference 

as arts lovers, practitioners and educators. And the ideal city for this call to action is Canberra, because 

it is a city of action (even the public bus system is called Action). 

Canberra is the centre of action in national government (it's where the decisions that affect us all are 

actually made), and there is local action in the revitalising of a city through public policy that specifically 

targeted inner city areas for development as cultural and arts precincts (Braddon and New Acton), and 

town centres through the building of new Arts Centres (Bel conn en Town Centre). 

It is a place of action supporting local artists through newly refurbished centres (Watson Art Centre) 

and established residencies (Strathnairn Arts and the Australian National University), access studios and 

artist-run spaces (Australian National Capital Artists and Gorman House), and good, easy to access 

community arts organisations (Craft ACT, Craft and Design Centre, Canberra Potters' Society, Australian 

National Capital Arts), and the list goes on ... 

And all this has happened in a city of under 400,000 people as a result of the Territory Government's 

strategic planning under the previous chief minister, Jon Stanhope and his successor Katy Gallagher, 

both of whom are great supporters of community and arts access. 

The venue for the main conference will be the Canberra Theatre Centre (adjacent to Craft ACT and 

Civic Square), with events also at the Australian National University and the new Nishi/New Acton 

complex. All these venues are within walking distance from each other so they physically represent 

the Triennale partnership between Craft ACT, the Territory Government and the ANU, with the walk 

between each dotted with pop-ups and other amusements (not to forget good coffee!). 

The structure of the conference will be somewhat different from previous ACTs. Gone are the large 

(and frustrating) panels where no one has the time to expand in depth on their topic, and no one 

gets a chance to ask questions through time overruns. In their place will be a series of moderated 

conversations that will maximise audience involvement through Q&A sessions following short 

presentations. 

The sub-themes will canvas ways in which we deal with change, whether it be by way of new 

technologies, education, or economic world power shifts towards Asia . They will also address ways in 


Australian Ceram ics Triennale 2015 

which various artists have become meaningfully engaged in social responsibility - particularly community 

and the environment. Pre-conference projects will have outcomes that illustrate some of these 

possibilities in action . 

And then there is the changing nature of studio practice - particularly its economic viability. The 

elephant in the room - money - will be tackled head on through examination of the reduced reliance on 

government funding, the rise of crowd-funding possibilities, and the selling of work through websites 

and web-based activity, pop-up events and collaborations with industry. 

And that's not all. 

There will be a program of satellite events from the welcome event at 5trathnairn Arts to the 

conference dinner and film festival, from hide-and-seek (ah, wait and see!) and master classes to 

poster presentations that will enable learning, mixing and networking throughout the time you are in 

Canberra. 

And, of course, there is still the Canberra that everyone 'knows' .. . the lakeside walk from National 

Library to National Gallery via the High Court, and 'up the hill' to Parliament House. The National 

Arboretum (a legacy of the Stanhope Government post 2003 bushfires, which destroyed over 500 

houses) is well worth a visit, as are the National Museum of Australia and the National Botanic Gardens, 

which are adjacent to the university campus. Many of these national sites will have ceramic-specific 

exhibitions on during the Triennale. 

So come - we are looking forward to welcoming you to our city, our community, and to YOUR 

Triennale. 

The ACT 2015 Committee 


STEPrDTNGuP r 1 

CERAMIcs 

TRIENNALE 

9-1 1 J ULY 20 15 CANBERRA , A USTR A LI AN CAPITAL TERRI T ORY 

We are calling for Expressions of Interest for speakers and demonstrators as part of the 2015 

Australian Ceramics Triennale. Take this opportunity to push the boundaries and submit to be 

part of the pr ogram or nominate someone who inspires you to step up and get involved . 

Make this program yours and be part of the biggest event in the Australian ceramics calendar! 

Visit the Stepping Up website fo r further details 

on the themes and the Expression of Interest 

package www.australianceramicstriennale.com 

Expressions of Interest etose : COB Friday 22 August 2014 

Contact: Project Manager. Mel George. Craft ACT: Craft and 

Design Centre projectfacraftact.org.au Ph 02 62629333 

Stepping Up partners: Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre, 

The Australian National University. Canberra Potters' Society. 

Strathnairn Arts Association, The Australian Ceramics Association 

TIIEMES FOR TIlE CONFtaENCE ARE: 

- Stepping Up: The Changing World 

Stepping Up: Your Role in the Future 

Stepping Up : Making Money 

- 

CONFERENCE ' MASTER-CLASSES ' EXHIBITIONS · MARKET · TRADE FAIR · TOURS . SOCIAL EVENTS

The Source of Light 

Two post-graduate students from the Australian 

National University Ceramics Workshop are 

focusing their studies on light. 

Above: Peng Qian (Fiona), The Light, h.18cm 

Photo: Peng Qian 

Below: Jo Victoria. Traces. h.35cm 

Photo: Kelly Austin 

PhD candidate Peng Qian (Fiona) is exploring 

how light can transfer through ceramics and 

create a poetic image to show the nature of the 

ceramic material. Her square forms are made of 

fabric immersed in Dehua porcelain and fired to 

1280·C, The series is displayed in a group with 

no two pieces exactly the same. The firing of 

the work distorts the cube to a more natural 

form. Peng Qian (Fiona) is now exploring other 

possibilities of fabric clay, working with light and 

shadow, and the special quality of fabric clay 

ceramic art. 

Jo Victoria is a Master of Visual Arts student 

whose recent art practice has focused on 

revealing hidden stories in landscapes. She is 

interested in exploring the qualities of a place, 

attempting to find an essence of the place in 

her work. Her stamping and carving into thin 

vessel walls of Southern Ice porcelain allow 

translucent images to come alive under a strong 

light source. These images appear fossil-like 

within the body of the works. In this way, the 

light gives voice to silent histories that are 

embodied in a place and this creates a sense 

of drama and mystery. In this way even the 

smallest stories of place can become illuminated 

against the layers of deep time that have left 

their marks. 

A report by Sue Hewat 


Margo Lewers: 

Mosaics and Related 

Works 

A recent exhibition, in May 2014, celebrated the 

work of one of Australia's most prominent abstract 

artists, Margo Lewers (1908-1978). It was held at 

Orange Regional Gallery and traced the evolution 

of her paintings and mosaics. Through a series 

of photographs, the exhibition also chronicled 

the preparation, installation and restoration of 

Expansion, a mosaic installation commissioned for Canberra's Rex Hotel. Completed in 1960, it was 

one of the largest commissions offered to an Australian artist in that period. The work functions as an 

exterior wall for the hotel and, measuring 12.3 metres long by 2.3 metres high, remains one of the 

largest examples of abstract expressionist public art in Australia. 

The hotel itself was the first large 

construction project in Canberra following 

World War II. Its commissioning architect, 

Alexander Kann, was looking for a lively 

artwork to juxtapose the hotel's 'cool 

international style'. He had seen Lewers' 

mosaics during a visit to her home (now 

Penrith Regional Gallery & Lewers Bequest). 

"The exhibition was a terrific insight into 

her life and work," said Brenda Gray, Assistant 

Director, Orange Regional Gallery. "There's a 

terrific photo of Expansion being installed; it 

really conveys the monumental task at hand." 

Construction of Expansion, Rex Hotel 

Photo: courtesy Orange Regional Gallery 

Construction was at times difficult. The pincers used by Lewers and her assistant could not be used 

with gloves, regularly leaving the two with cut hands. Lewers also miscalculated the mural's size, 

however the developer agreed to extend the wall to ensure her composition was not compromised. 

Expansion is included on the ACT Heritage Register as an 'Object of Significance'. It played a 

significant role in a 2002 campaign to save the Rex Hotel from redevelopment. 

Lewers worked in disciplines including oils, textiles and sculpture, and from 1936 to 1939 she 

designed pottery to sell at her Notanda Gallery, Sydney. 

The Rex Hotel is located at 150 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra. 

A report by Candice Anderson 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2014 105

Exhibition Roundup 

lyndall Bensley resides on the Far North Coast of NSW, after taking up pottery in 2009. Self taught, she 

joined a local pottery group to have contact with like-minded artists, and exhibited her first work in their 

biannual 2010 exhibition. l yndall was invited by the director of the Ballina Art Gallery to exhibit with 

three other artists in 2013, testing the waters with her lifelike sculptures of underwater marine life. 

The recent solo exhibition at Noosa Regional Gallery, Expressions of Love II, in which Kim 

Schoenberger exhibited her new work, will travel to Gallery 159, The Gap, Brisbane, from 14 to 28 

September 20 14. Using hundreds of recycled tea bags and artworks adorned with polished Southern 

Ice porcelain, Kim's exhibition explores the connection between mother and daughter, and grandmother 

and granddaughter, presenting a rationale of generational sisterhood forged through shared experience. 

Check out www.kimschoenberger.com to see more about her journey in mixed media. 

In May 2014, 19KAREN contemporary artspace exhibited the work of 20 Australian and international 

artists at the Sofitel Hotel, Broadbeach, Gold Coast, for the Tribute to Michael Jackson's 70 Best 

Film Clips. Terri lew, gallery director of 19KAREN, has embraced ceramics, inviting ceramicists 

Shirley Battrick, Michaela Kloeckner, leisa Russell, Midge Johansen and Megan Puis into her stable of 

emerging Australian and International artists being displayed in her superior space on the Gold Coast; 

www.19karen.com.au. 

A report by Lyn Rogers 

Below left: Kim Schoenberger, Ladies Fan , Ladies Handkerchief and Evening Purse, 2013, Southern Ice, sewn and spun 

recycled tea bags, purse, h.20cm, w.30cm, d.5cm; photo: Tony Webdale 

Below right: Lyndall Bensley, Port Jackson, h.18cm, w.40crn, Stingray, h.12crn, w.6Ocm, BRS clay, handbuilt. 2013 

Photo: Neil Bensley 

106 THE IOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

The Work of Ulrica Trulsson 

Although Ulrica Trulsson was born in Sweden, lived for years in 

Scotland, and did her Diploma of Cera mics in Melbourne, Adelaide 

is the place that will claim her ... for now. After relocating to SA to 

take part in the two-year Associate program at JamFactory in 2012, 

Trulsson won the 2013 Emerging South Australian Designer Award, 

and this year received an Australia Council of the Arts ArtStart grant 

to kick-start her budding career in ceramics. 

Through her blending of wheelthrowing and handbuilding 

techniques, Trulsson creates vessels that range from flamboyantly 

curvy to distinctly and solidly linear. Carefully arranged in groupings, 

Trulsson's work has a kind of pared back organiCism to it, enhanced 

by her use of textured and coloured clays and richly variable glaze 

surfaces, usually achieved by gas firing in reduction. Although 

much of Trulsson's work is based on utilitarian vessels such as 

the jug, teapot, canister and cup, the forms are almost whimsical 

interpretations of these basic shapes and functions. 

I aim to visually and 

thematically make a connection 

10 forms I observe in the 

nalural world. By closely 

examining objects and details 

of the landocape I am able to 

absorb unique aspects of nature 

and express them in my work. 

I have a strong interest in bolh 

fonc/ional and non-functional 

objects and seek to explore the 

relationships be/ween them. 

Ulrica Trulson 

Trulsson creates a dynamic visual language of form, function 

and subtle metaphor that is thoughtful and restrained in its muted 

beauty. 

http://ulricatrulsson.com 

Report by Sophia Phillips 

Ulrica Trulsson. Patterns of Striae 

THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CE RAMICS JULY 2014 107

Virginia Perkins: emerging artist 

Virginia Perkins lives on the outskirts of Launceston in the north of Tasmania . When 

asked the most important thing learned during her time studying ceramics at TasTAFE, 

Virginia didn't hesitate ... "The beauty of imperfection - allow the material and form 

to inform the finished work; the changing of the seasons, dead trees, smooth stones; 

inspiration is everywhere." 

Virginia's Advanced Diploma Graduate Exhibition (18-25 October 2013) was well 

attended and the work was engaging, contemporary and unique (see images above). 

For many of us who work in clay, woodfired pieces have a special allure. The subtle 

influence of the flame and ash together with the actual process of firing was something 

that Virginia was keen to include in her exhibition work. In collaboration with Jilli 

Spencer, well known Tasmanian potter and basket maker of the Tin Shed in Launceston, 

Virginia fired some work at Jilli's home in Uffey. The woodfired pieces worked beautifully, 

swaddled in long soft hangings of hemp as well as pierced with glowing copper - the 

perfect foil for the more delicate unglazed white clay pieces. 

Report by Jill Eastley 

108 THE IOURNAl OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014

Ann Ferguson 

Vesse/@doc.com, 2013 

This freighter is laden with 

metaphorical possibilities, from 

Australia's reliance on imported 

goods to the MV Tampa rescue 

of Hazara refugees in 2001 

Photo: courtesy Robyn Phelan 

Ceramics Victoria's annual 

exhibition on Herring Island 

Since 2006, Ceramics Victoria has participated in the Herring Island Summer Arts Festival with potter 

Robyn Becker championing the first exhibition. Becker rallied her fellow Box Hill TAFE ceramics students 

and, along with the encouragement of VCG President Sue McFarland, braved this unusual and unique 

venue, the old mud brick Scout Hall in the centre of the island. 

Access to Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park is restricted to riverboats. A small pedestrian 

punt crosses the Yarra River for the general public and is the same 'vessel' by which all work, plinths 

and equipment arrives on the island. Located three kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, the island 

is covered in wild native gardens and is home to many permanent sculptures such as Cairn by Andy 

Goldsworthy. Visiting the exhibition takes on the feeling of a pilgrimage to a secret, secl uded event. 

This year, the aptly entitled exhibition Vessel contained work from thirty-six members and explored 

themes such as the tradition and function of the ceramic container, and also the metaphorical 

possibilities inherent in the vessel as a means of water travel. 

Judge Stephen Benwell said of winner Amanda Christian'S work, Treading Water, "It communicated 

something about the origins of vessels ... the artist alerted me to the fact that vessels began as not 

only things for use, but - from their very beginning - carried information and ideas between groups of 

people. " 

A report by Robyn Phelan 

For more images of Vessel go to: www.lookingwithsofteyes.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/vesselceramics-victoria-exhibition.html 


The porcelain biomorphic forms of Cj Jilek 

In early 2013, I passed the former Perth Galleries building in North Fremantle daily, observing its 

transformation into The Clay House, Fleur Schell's new clay residency centre. In June 2013, two widely 

travelled, experienced US ceramic artists arrived to make it their temporary home - Cj Jilek as Program 

Coordinator, and Tony Wise as Permanent Resident Artist. Both artists soon endeared themselves to 

locals through their children's and adult's classes, and were welcomed into Perth's ceramic community. 

Adjusting to Australian materials was challenging but local support was generous. 

Tony evolved his distinctive retrolfunky thrown functional ware and, in addition to teaching clay skills 

at the school, taught at select Perth venues. His high-spirited, fun approach won over his students, 

especially the more junior ones. Cj studied our wondrous indigenous flora to inform her own plantoriented 

interpretations, culminating in a beautiful body of sculptural work recently exhibited along with 

Fleur's work at The Studio Gallery in Yallingup, WA. Chicago born Cj describes her sculpture as porcelain 

biomorphic forms fired in oxidation with mixed media elements. Her dogged exploration and resourceful 

experimentation strengthen her work through which she questions concepts of beauty, attraction, 

eroticism, adaptation and desire. 

No stone is unturned to find the perfect form, colour and sheen for her fantastic re-imagined 

emulation of nature's pods, seeds and parts. Slipcast, assembled, textured and painted from her 

authentic vision, Cj's sculptures are thrilling to both hold and behold. There are sexy curves on curves, 

tactile surfaces, glowing colours, perfect quiet sheens, springy custom-died fishing line anthers, fluffy 

flocked, pollened tips; some pieces are even 

kinetic and springy - they hum with life. I learnt 

much about designing, slipcasting, joining and 

surfacing porcelain from Cj. Their time here has 

ended and these artists are now off to investigate 

new pastures. 

http://cjjilekartist,wordpress.com 

A report by Elaine Bradley 

Cj Jilek, Perianth 


- - ----------- - - ---- - - ----- - - 

AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS 

OPEN STUDIOS 2014 

16 & 17 AUGUST lOAM - 4PM 

ACT 

Maryke Henderson 

Hillgrove Pottery 

Mawson Gallery 

Spinning Gum Pottery 

The Blue Fence Studios 

NSW 

Elisa Bartels 

Margaret Brown 

Ursula Burgoyne 

Barbara Campbell-Allen 

Belmore ~ch : Somchai Charoen 

Cascade Artists Studio 

Central Coast Potters Society 

Clandulla Potter 

Ashley Fiona 

Hart Ceramics 

Diana Harvey 

Christine Holland 

Hot Dot Designs 

Jeansart: Hartman & Weiss 

Kan Made Ceramics Studio 

Kara's Ceramic Haven 

Katherine Mahoney Ceramics 

Jann Kesby 

Kokoro Studio: Karen Bell 

La Paloma Pottery 

Catherine Lane 

Legend Pottery 

Lilli Pilli Studio 

MacQuarie Hills Potters 

Made Local: Lou McCallum 

Mala Pots: MA Zahra-Newman 

Mango Lane Pottery 

Mark Warren Ceramics Studio 

Suvira McDonald 

Moonrise Studios 

Mu Ceramics Studio Gallery 

Mudslinger Ceramics 

Murwillumbah Potters 

Natalie Velthuyzen Studio 

Newcastle Studio Potters 

Nicky Coady 5 tudio 

Niharika Hukku Ceramics 

Jane Northway 

Maggie Paradysz 

Pebuku Pottery 

Pinky & Maurice Ceramics 

Port Hacking Potters Group 

Purple Ridge Pottery 

Red Door Studio Gallery 

Rosedale Street Gallery 

Tony Schlosser 

Simone's Ceramics 

Jacqueline Spedding 

Jan Downes at Square I Studios 

St George Potters 

John Stewart Ceramics 

Studio 91 Silver Lane 

Studio Boydell 

Studio Enti: Naomi Taplin 

Studio latitude 33 

Cathenne Tate Ceramics 

Deb Taylor at Claypool 

Tooheys Mill Pottery 

Vicky Harrison Ceramics 

Wheel Of Life Studios and Gallery 

Jenny Wiggins 

Steve Williams 

Zani McEnnal1y Art 

QlD 

Ellen Appleby 

Fiona Banner 

Beach Potters Association 

Bundarra Pottery 

Cairns POllers Club 

Clayschool: Ray Cavill 

Carol Forster 

Frantik Designs: Heather McCoy 

Gold Coast Potters Association 

Grakay Pottery: Kaye Stephens 

Jenny Mulcahy's Gustav Creek 

Studio 

Kim Wallace Ceramics 

Kri Pottery: Ken Ison 

Penny MCintyre 

Meeki's Pottery Studio 

Mollie Bosworth Ceramics Studio 

Monte Lupo 

North Queensland Potters Assn 

Quixotica Art Space 

Stephanie Outridge Field 

Isaac Patmore 

Pattie Murray Studio 

Piccabeen Pottery 

Beatrice Prost 

Sam Keane 

Servant Ceramics 

Kim Schoenberger 

Gabi Sturman 

The Nest: Sophy Blake 

Turning Earth Ceramics 

Warwick Potters 

A~~ 

OPEN 

~ 


16 & 17 AUGUS T 

6 Hands Studio 

Adelaide POllers'Club 

Studio Tatty K: Tania Kunze 

Tea Tree Studio: Walford & Couper 

TAS 

Campo de Flori Ceramics 

Studio Zona: Bayer & Faludi 

Tasmanian Ceramics Association 

VIC 

Adriana Christianson 

Bridget Foley Ceramics 

Brixton Street POllery 

Cone I I Ceramics + Design Studio 

Cooked Earth: Christine Mammana 

Glenn England 

Fairweather Studios 

Ellen Hansa-Stanyer 

Gary Healey Pottery 

Jill Symes Ceramics StudiO 

Jack Latti 

Metro Art & Design: Lisa Hass 

Moorleigh Ceramic Co-operative 

Muddy Girl Studio: Claire Johnson 

Owen Rye 

Red Echidna Studios: Barry Wemyss 

Studio Artemis: Kristin Miller 

Slow Clay Centre 

Kim Tarpey 

The Treefern Potters 

Timothy White Ceramics 

Alistair Whyte 

Juliet Widdows 

Yow Yow Studio: Tilley, McCormack, 

Edwards & Mackay 

WA 

Bigbamboo: Belen & J. Berganza 

Dilkes-Hoffman Ceramics 

Sandra Black Porcelain 

The Clay House: Shell & 

Wichtermann 

For a full listing of the open studios visit: 

http://tinyurl,com/openstudios2014

Stockists 

ACT 

canberra potters society 

1 aspinal st watson 

national gallery of australia 

bookshop parkes pi canberra 

walker ceramics 

289 canberra ave fyshwick 

NSW 

art gallery of nsw 

art gallery rd the domain 

sydney 

bathurst regional art gallery 

70-78 keppel st bathurst 

bellingen newsagency 

83 hyde st bellingen 

blackwattle pottery 

20 stennett rd ingleburn 

broken hill regional art gallery 

404-408 argent st broken hill 

brookvale ceramic studio 

11/9 powells rd brookvale 

chinaday 

40 burnie st dovelly 

the wharf locavore 

wharf rd tathra 

gaffa 

281 clarence st sydney cbd 

gleebooks 

131 glebe point rd glebe 

NEW 

goulburn regional art gallery 

cnr church and bourke sis goulburn 

hazelhurst regional gallery 

782 kingsway gymea 

inner city dayworkers gallery 

enr st johns rd & darghan Sl glebe 

keane ceramics 

177 debenham rd south somersby 

kerrie lowe gallery 

49-51 king sl newtown 

lake macquarie art gallery 

1 a first st booragul 

mu ceramics studio gallery NEW 

headland park preCInct mosman 

museum of contemporary art 

140 george st sydney 

northern rivers pottery supplies 

54d terania st north lismore 

nsw pottery supplies 

41/159 arthur sl home bush 

nulladolla potters 

princes hwy milton 

planet 

11 4 commonwealth st surry hills 

powerhouse museum 

500 harris street ultimo 

sabbia gallery 

120 glen more rd paddington 

sturt craft centre 

range rd mittagong 

NT 

jacksons drawing supplies 

7 parap pi parap 

museum and art gallery of the nt 

conacher sl fannie bay 

QLD 

artspace mackay 

61 gordon st mackay 

cairns regional gallery 

em abbott and shields sIS cairns 

gallery + cafe frit 

104 yabba rd imbil 

gold coast city gallery 

135 bundall rd surfers paradise 

pottery supplies 

51 eastlemaine st milton 

queensland art gallery 

stanley pi south bank 

the day shed 

2124 hi-tech dYe kunda park 

SA 

art gallery of south australia 

north terrace adelaide 

bamfurlong gallery 

main SI hahndorf 

the pug mill 

17a rose st mile end 

TAS 

burnie regional art gallery 

77-79wilmotst burnie 

derwent ceramic supplies 

16b sunderland st moonah 

devon port regional gallery 

45-47 stewart st devonport 

VIC 

bendigo art gallery 

42 view st bendigo 

brunswick bound 

361 sydney rd brunswick 

clayworks 

6 johnston crt dandenong 

craft 

31 flinders lane melbourne 

national gallery of victoria 

180 st ki lda rd melbourne 

northcote pottery supplies 

142-144 weston st brunswick east 

potier 

29 mills st albert park 

potters equipment 

13/42 new st ringwood 

readings books 

309 Iygon st carlton 

readings books 

112 aeland st st kilda 

shepparton art gallery 

70 welsford st shepparton 

the brunswick street bookstore 

305 brunswick st fitzroy 

WA 

fremantle arts centre 

1 finnerty sl fremantle 

geraldton regional art gallery 

24 chapman rd geraldton 

graham hay 

robertson park artisls sludio 

northbridge 

jacksons ceramics 

shop 4, 30 erindale rd balcatta 

perth institute of contemporary 

art 

perth cultural centre james st 

northbridge 

potters market 

56 stockdale rd o'connor 

NEW ZEALAND 

lopdell house gallery 

4181itirangi rd waitakere city 

south street gallery 

10 nile sl west nelson 

112 THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMI CS JULY 2014

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The Course of Objects - the fine lines of inquiry 

A DVD about TACA"s 2014 biennial exhibition by filmmaker Carolyn 

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Simone Fraser and Toni Warburton in their studios. The exhibition was 

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We encourage all with an interest in potterylceramic art to 

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OPPORTUNITIES 

INNER CITY CLAYWORKERS GALLERY 

CALL FOR MEMBERS 

We are a member-run cooperative gallery in Glebe NSW 

dedicated to contemporary ceramics. A part of the ceramic 

community for 32 years. we are currently looking for new 

members. Emerging artists are particularly encouraged to 

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Cnr St Johns Rd & Darghan St, Glebe NSW 2037 

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PHOTOGRAPHY 

GREG PIPER IMAGE SOlUTIONS 

Providing ceramic artists with digital and traditional 

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SLOW CLAY CENTRE 

Slow Clay Centre offers an extensive variety of ceramics and 

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13 Keele St, Collingwood VIC 3066; T: 0418106039. 

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AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION DIRECTORY 

CERAMIC DESIGN STUDIO - SYDNEY TAFE 

Sutherland College, Gymea 9 & 1 B week short courses plus 

Certificate, Diploma & Advanced Diploma qualifications in 

ceramics - full and parHime attendance; Cnr The Kingsway 

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CHINACLAY 

Chinaclay, located in Sydney's eastern suburbs, is a space 

dedicated to handmade Australian ceramics. You will find 

work by artist pOllers from all around Australia including 

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KERRIE LOWE GALLERY 

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ware, vessels, sculpture and jewellery by emerging and 

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Upcoming exhibitions: 2-23 August 2014: Progression by 

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26 June - 2 August 2014: Still Firing at 45; Since 2004, 

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THE JOURNAL Of AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS JULY 2014 117

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17th Oct to 16th Nov 

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P.O. Box 1470 Cairns Qld 4870 

E-mail: lone@tpg.com.au 

Ph: 0740537508 

or www.cairnspottersclub.net 


Trudie Alfred (1922 - 

2010)* was a wellknown 

Sydney potter and teacher with a great 

passion for ceramics. She struggled 

financially to sustain a ceramic practice in 

her earLy years as a potter and so, to assist 

others in a similar position. she left a generous 

bequest to The Australian Ceramics 

Association. Trudie specified that the funds be 

used to support the work of students 

preparing to embark on a career in the field 

of ceramics. 

Valued at up to $4000 + 1 year membership of TACA . open 

to students enrolled in their second or subsequent year of a 

ceramic program' selection panel of three Australian ceramic 

artists from different states' must be currently enrolled at time 

of scholarship award . open to Australian citizens or those 

with permanent residency selection c r iteria: academic 

achievement · quality of ceramic work , rationale for funding 

not previously received this scholarship written report 

required at end of scholarship period 

Successful applicants will be notified late November 2014. 

'I: 

see the tribute to Trudie ALfred in The JournaL of Australian Ceramics 

Vol 49/ 3. November 2010. pages 10-11

~CeWHit& 

OPEN 

SW408 


16& 17 AUGUS T 

AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS 

OPEN STUDIOS 2014 

Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 August; lOam - 4pm 

Some of the world's most significant 

moments have included mud. from the 

biblical creation of Ada m to that f amous 

mind altering festival at Woodstock and 

although we find ourselves in an age of 

ra pidly advancing technologies, this 

humble, sticky stuff, continues to inspire 

and obsess thousands of makers throughout 

the world who still call themselves 

·potters'. 

Th is August. hundreds of potters across 

Australia will open their studios to the 

public over a weekend that promise s to 

be a ce lebration of clay. creativity an d 

community. The event is hosted by The 

Australian Ceramics Association (TACA). 

According to Shannon Garson, TACA 

President and an award winning full-time 

potter, the Australian Ceramics Open 

Studios is an exciting event that shines 

a spot light on Australian ceramics and 

Australian artists whose primary medium 

is clay. 

·The open studios weekend is an 

important event for both clay workers 

and the community. It's an event that 

fosters the development. appreciation 

and recognition of potters and pottery 

throughout Australia.· 

Over 130 ce ramics studios around the 

nation have registered for the Australian 

Ceramics Open Studios - from wellknown 

exhibiting artists to lesser known skilled 

artisans. from inner city studios to regional 

pottery groups - so connect w ith your loca l 

studio trail and plan your weekend of mud. 

Many artists will offer practical 

demonstrations and you may even be asked 

to share a pot of tea from a handmade 

teapot. There will also be opportunities 

galore to take home a handmade piece. 

direct from the maker. 

For a fuillisting of the open studios visit: http://tinyurl.com/openstudios2014 

The Australian Ceramics Association 

T: 1300720124, E: mail@australianceramics.com. www.australianceramics.com 


Clay Extruder 

-all stainless steel 

so no rusting 

-supplied with dies 

-simple bayonet lock 

die holder (no tools reqd.) 

- perfect for studio 

or classroom. 

- safe and easy to use 

cP twist-lock die holder 

- stainless steel body~egs 

- optional tray tables 

- very quiet and smooth 

- high torque 

I rev 

- aux. hand speed control 

- can be used as table-top 

smooth and responsive 

- no belts or drive wheels 

Super-twin Pug mill 

- ultimate versatility 

- reclaim dry/wet scrap, extrude, de-air, blend 

- all stainless steel for zero clay contamination 

- clip on extruding nozzles 

- tool-free barrel removal 

- twin auger mixing chamber 

- safe, easy feed , hopper 

the ultimate de-airing pugmill 

Mk2 Series Pugmills 

- 3 sizes available 

- standard and de-airing 

- the world renown workhorse 

venco 

vv\l\lvv.venco.COnl .au 

for I7IORJ details 01 )0/1 

closest distributor, 

ph (08) 9399 5265 

fax (08) 9497 1335 

nco.CXIIll.au

ISSN 1449-275X 

02

The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 53 No 2 July 2014

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