Pottery In Australia Vol 38 No 3 September 1999

River Reflections
A river can hide its secrets, its sorrows and its joys.
But a river can also reveal the richness of its heritage, filled with memories of its peoples and its past.
A Community Arts project described by BONNIE ENGLISH.
The people of Innisfail, in
frame within a 90 degree
northern Queensland
regular grid. The 'Cesco white'
worked together with
earthenware standardised tiles
ceramic artist and project
allowed for the series
designer, Sam Di Mauro, to
create a visual record of their
life and the history of their
region in a ceramic mural that
runs horizontally along a
coping wall by the North
Johnstone river. It enriches the
production of these pieces. The
river was dotted with fish
shapes made from laser cut
brass, in which an inserted blue
venetian glass tube was placed
in the eye hole, along with
dazzling terrazzo and pieces of
landscape and is flanked by the
multi-faceted glass which
proud statue of the 'Canecutter',
commissioned in the 1950s by
the Italian community to
celebrate their contribution to
the rural community.
heightened the luminosity of
the work. These materials
create a surface flicker which
plays as a reflection on the
water.
Di Mauro, a lecturer at the
In this very precisely
Queensland College of Art,
Griffith University, was born
and bred in Innisfail. Having a
sense of 'belonging' to the
region, made it 'a greater and
richer experience' for him to be
involved in the project. The
Top: 'River reflections' lnnisfail Qld. One
panel of 8 in foreground.
Each panel 2 x 4m.
Above: Sam Di Mauro in his studio loading
rendered design plan, Di Mauro
argues, it is the process and not
the technique that is most
important. The process draws
upon a number of people in
the community who have the
necessary skills to bring the
mural, he said, was created in
tiles for bisque firing. · mural successfully to its
the true spirit of community
completion and this develops a
collaboration, where local professional craftspeople,
artists and members of the manufacturing industry
worked together and the local people were 'asked to
remember and speak about their past'.
Innisfail is a town rich in the cultural diversity of its
peoples. There are 47 languages spoken in this area and
this agricultural community is surrounded by cane farms
and sugar mills. The mural, 'River Reflections' references
and records its original inhabitants, the early migrations
to the region, local flora and fauna, natural and human
disasters, personal histories, business and commerce in
the area and entertainment, celebrations and food.
The mural consists of eight panels of finely detailed
ceramic tiles, terrazzo, glass and brass. The central motif
of the mural is the free flowing shape of the river, with
110mm carved square tiles fitting the rectangular outer
sense of ownership of the art work. Vital assistance was
provided by Mate Buljubasich (Tiler and builder), Rob
Hart (boat builder), Lily Hart (Aboriginal/ South Sea
Islander Community), Lorraine Viegel, who fired 750 tiles
herself (Broken Nose Pottery), Rebecca Sweeney (a1tist)
and the Johnstone Shire Council Works Department.
The citizens of Innisfail have expressed the happiness
that their contributions to the project have given them.
Their stories, often passed down from previous
generations, have been visually actualised in the illustrative
narratives painted on the individual tablets. One women,
Connie Bataska, related a story during the war when so
many Italians in the area were interred and, often, moved
away. Times, she said, were hard for the women and
children left to run the farms and yet she remembered with
fondness the time that one young boy got into the pantry
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50 POTTERY IN AUSTRALIA + 38/3 SEPTEMBER 1999