The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 53 No 3 November 2014

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The Course of Objects:
the fine lines of inquiry
A review by Jan Guy
It is always a delight to see a shift in the way art is presented to its faithful audience. So often the stock
standard exhibition view we are given is the obligatory line, grid and plinth. And on most occasions, for
ceramic objects, it is difficult to change this familiar format unless the works are large and freestanding.
At times this can be very unfortunate when one stands across the road from a gallery and the view
is a sea of plinths, leaving the artworks appearing as floundering afterthoughts. Therefore it was a
pleasure to see that for The Australian Ceramics Association biennial exhibition for 2014, The Course
of Objects: the fine lines of inquiry, invited curator Susan Ostling had abandoned not only the
traditional white box plinth, but the need to present artworks in isolation.
I wonder though about the rationale of Ostling's deliberate pairings of artists' work and
simultaneously wonder whether the artists shown felt their artistic visionftrajectory was tainted or
enhanced by her curatorial decisions. As artists we can be fragile in terms of what we think we are
communicating, however sometimes we are blind to aspects of our own practice while others see them
with clarity. This interventionist strategy of the curator is not new to contemporary art and in fact now
often operates at a much deeper level, surprisingly from the conception of the artwork. The curator
becomes a co-creator, a generator of unseen ideas for the artist. The roles are blurred, and not everyone
is comfortable with this.
Kate Dorrough, 2012-2014, stoneware, handbuilt, tallest h.SScm; photo: Vicki Grima
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER 2014
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