Pottery In Australia Vol 35 No 1 Autumn 1996

Harp from Gabon. Terracotta, leather.
Cohen has used terrasigillata as a surface covering
for the pieces and they glow with a rich golden
colour, that recalls the warm glass of the wood
of stringed instruments. "I want the viewer to
stretch out, to want to touch my
pieces ... stroke them. If I create that response,
I believe I have conveyed something of the
joy I have known through my work. There
is no comparable feeling to the one I
experience every time I open the kiln and
there, glowing and radiant are the
pieces ... It is a special moment."
Vivian Cohen arrived in Australia from
South Africa in 1978. She later enrolled in
Brookvale Technical College and was
awarded an Associate Diploma in
Ceramics in 1992. She pays tribute to the
College, whose teachers cultivated and
endorsed diversity and individuality in
their students and who gave Cohen the
confidence to pursue her passion.
An interesting aspect of her work
derives from the influence of her South
African background - Cohen has subtly
synthesised her early South African life
with that of African women, full and
rounded and of African calabashes circular
and glossy. "It was wonderful to use brown
and terracottas, bronzes and sepias. These are
familiar Australian colours and the ones I
remember from rural Africa."
Vivian Cohen has been offered a grant to exhibit her
musical instruments at the Queensland Performing Arts
Complex in Brisbane from January 10 to April 6, 19%. Her
work describes and reflects upon the evolution of musical
instruments, their essential character and their enduring appeal.
I asked her how she obtained that beautiful glow on the
surface of her pieces and her reply was that the ancient
Greeks knew more about how to make a surface glow
2000 years ago than many potters centuries later. She
describes her technique as follows:
When the pieces are completed, They are either
burnished with a stone until they are absolutely smooth,
then polished again with soft plastic, or they are textured
with a sur form, so the surface is textured instead of smooth.
The pots are now ready for the final surface treatment.
'I wanted a surface that looked like the glowing smface of
a wooden cello or violin with the light playing over it.
And the obvious choice seemed to be a terrasigillata.
This is a type of engobe rather than a glaze. It is
the burnished surface seen on the surface of
ancient Greek and Roman pots and also on
the pottery of many primitive peoples. It is a
colloidal slip of clay which seals the surface of
the ware.' oo
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46 POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA + ISSUE 35/ I AUTUMN 1996