The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 54 No 1 April 2015

The Function of Art. The Art of Function
Opposite page:
Shannon Garson, 2015, porcelain, glaze
underglaze, terra sigillata
Selow: Shannon in her studio. Maleny. OLD
Right: Shannon Garson, 2015, rope detail. porcelain
glaze, undergJaze. terra sigillata
Photos: artist
upstairs and making pots in the studio downstairs.
The function of art performs this gentle swing
within my life as a maker. The upstairs pots that
I touch and use and pass from hand to hand
enrich the food I put into them, endowing
physical nurturing with psychological and cultural
resonance. The downstairs pots, formed into vessels from a slippery lump of clay and then sent out
into the world, are a way of contributing to society, punctuating everyday life and saying "look closer",
emphasising connection.
Domestic rituals around food vessels comfort and nurture us in small but powerful ways every day.
Handmade pots in the home become talismanic objects, gathering meaning as they move between
shelves and hands throughout the years. I use functional forms as a ground f or drawing about the
environment - ropes, birds, the ocean, and geology - because the familiarity of a teapot or a soup bowl
acts as a keyhole to the abstract concepts that I am engaging with in the drawings. I know that when a
piece of successful art is encountered it has a resonance that chimes like a bell and the vibrations are felt
through your whole body. Like falling in love, encountering art that pulls at you powerfully is a matter
of timing. This is where bowls, cups, vessels, vases and the flotsam of the domestic sphere are perfectly
placed. A chance encounter with a pure white porcelain teacup, a drip coming off the rim of a bowl, or
a speckled brown glaze when making dinner or laying a table can transport, whisking you away from
the domestic sphere into a world of abstract ideas.
Using handmade ware is an act of communication; from the first touch of the hand to the pot a
narrative begins. Through texture, weight and form, handmade domestic ware draws the user into its
history as an object, and through this objective history there is a connection to the subjective history of
the maker.
The Platonic ideal of an unchanging idea behind the gritty reality is evoked by handmade tableware:
ideas about art and creation, a life lived in pursuit of functional beauty, a web of connection
radiating out from a handmade plate or cup. As artists we see this when we meet someone who has
incorporated our pots into their lives, Last year someone came up to me at a market and told me they
used one of my cups every Saturday morning for their coffee. A cup serving its purpose out in the world
gives a stranger joy through a ritual they have constructed around its function, as months before that in
the studio, it gave me joy as a blob of clay smelling of soil, unformed. full of potential.
http://shannongarsonporcelain.com.au
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRil 2015 33