Pottery In Australia Vol 38 No 3 September 1999

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Above: Gill Treichel. Fired
and unfired clay installation
detail. h1 .5m
Right: Bernard Kerr
'Requiem' 1999. Stoneware,
perspex.
Q What are your influences?
A: We are influenced by abstraction in visual art, music
and poetry, all of which are reflected in our work. 'The
Shock of the New' was our manual and 'Ways of Seeing'
our guidebook. Bob Dylan sang our anthems and
Foucault wrote our postscript. We are ideologically
encapsulated within the brackets of the a~ything-goesvanguard
and the reformation of the postmodern
meddling peddlers.
Q What do you see as your wider cultural responsibility
as mature artists?
A: To pass on our knowledge. We became educators to
teach students to make statements about themselves and
how they view the world, to develop their social
experience and consciousness. We get a similar kick out
of that as we do from making challenging works.
Q What are some of the great themes of our times that
attract and repel simultaneously?
A: Individuality - we reject anonymity because it
collapses the social space around art objects. Ironically,
the cult of personality is a constant terror because the
king is not dead although he has no clothes on. The rise
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36 POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA+ 38/3 SEPTEMBER 1999