CERAMICS HERE AND NOW

The following is a brief preview - the full content of this page is available to premium users only.
Click here to subscribe...

In 2012, Ted Snell started an annual HERE&NOW event at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at the University of Western Australia, to consider the question of the present by mounting an annual exhibition in a specific art form as it is currently practised in Western Australia. In 2014 the subject was ceramics. As intended, it not only brought new work to the attention of audiences but also raised many questions about the past, present and future of ceramics in the State. These were considered by the artists in their work; by curator Emma Mahanay Bitmead in her selection of artists and her discussion of the contexts in which their work was made; and in public programs organised by Janice Lally, which looked at the exhibition from several viewpoints including what is also going on elsewhere in Australia and the rest of the world.

This was, in fact, the first major ceramics exhibition to be mounted in a public institution in the State in ten years. It was a good choice. Twelve artists were represented: Luke Aleksandrow, Sandra Black, Greg Crowe, Ian Dowling, Pippin Drysdale, Stephanie Hammill, Graham Hay, Andrew Nicholls, Jacob Ogden-Smith, Warrick Palmateer, Bevan Thompson and Andrea Vinkovic. In experience they ranged from those who had been working for over thirty years to recent graduates. While not a comprehensive survey (there are other well-known ceramics artists in Western Australia) the exhibition was coherent in its visual presentation, not least because of the substantial space offered by the gallery, enabling presentation of works in installations, groups or assemblages.

It was notable that none of the works were figurative; as well as abstracted sculptural works many were of vessel forms of... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Installation view, 'Here&Now14', Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, showing, front left: Ian Dowling, Worm Farmers, 2014. Cast clay components assembled on frame; rear left: Greg Crowe, 187-A 7 3/4". Woodfired bottles in 28 recycled timber brick-moulds; centre: Andrea Vincovic, Shape of Thought, 2014. Cast stoneware and porcelain, metal; rear right: Bevan Thompson, Scarification, 2014. Vessels, handbuilt and carved stoneware, blackfired. Photograph Lyle Branson.

Installation view, 'Here&Now14', Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, showing, left wall: Stephanie Hammill, Drift line, 2014. Wall installation of 25 small porcelain pots; centre: Warrick Palmateer, West Cape passage, 2014. Five large thrown pots, glazed stoneware; rear: Pippin Drysdale, installation of 125 porcelain vessles from Tanami Traces, Tanami Mapping and Kimberley series, 2000-2014. Photograph Lyle Branson.