White Purists, Weavers & Organic Growers
The ANZ Context Exhibition
The diverse exhibition of mostly Australian and some New Zealand ceramics leaves one surprised at the breadth of expression in the ceramic art community. It successfully encompasses the range of experience, the traditional and the avant-garde, depth and shallowness of expression, the trivial and the serious work of ceramists of all ages. Given this breadth, there is no way of approaching the exhibition thematically. Robert Reason, curator of the exhibition, speaks, in his curatorial essay of the trend towards ‘grouping,’ though this is no more than part of the continuum from single object in space to installation. The single factor that influenced my perception in this exhibition was not grouping versus singularity but the use of Perspex boxes surrounding some pieces. While designed to protect fragile and unstable pieces, the impact of this on the understanding of the works is regrettable. Two things happen when Perspex is placed around the object – it creates a hard rectilinear defining edge by the intersection of the sides and it introduces a reflective plane between you and the object. The result is a distancing of the piece from the observer and a flattening of the surface of the object. The effect of light reflecting and refracting in the crystalline glaze surface makes ceramics the unique medium it is. Perspex destroys this. The association with museums and the unavoidable sense that the work is more precious and therefore more important is unfortunate.
The three artists who commented on their work at the opening of the exhibition: Titania Henderson, Moraig McKenna and Jenny Orchard, provided a useful springboard to the other works. It is a natural tendency of humans to want to categorise and group objects, a sort of seeking-out of commonality. The basis for categorising is, of course, wide open to challenge because it is simply a device to help us come to grips with too much stimulation. By bundling things together we are able to comprehend them more easily.
Despite the risk of oversimplification many of the works could be said to fall into broad categories or trends. Michael Keighery spoke at the opening of ‘new trajectories’ which is an interesting phrase to use in relation to any art development because most trajectories on earth begin at ground level and end up there. A way of thinking about the works is to consider the similar paths or journeys they follow.
The three broad paths could be metaphorically titled: The ways of the White Purists, the Weavers and the Organic Growers.
The White Purists
There are numerous examples of this ranging from Jeanette Becklar’s Solace series to Nicole Lister’s A Big Wrap folded white plate. Mainly stoneware and porcelain, these pieces have a purity common to modernist thinking. Being white removes the critical factor of colour and leaves one with surface and form alone. The lure of translucency dominates much of this work. Unfortunately the setting fails to highlight this, resulting in most of the porcelain work appearing solid. Titania Henderson identified some key physical properties common to this work – purity, weightlessness, translucency and texture. To this could be added edge. The use of fine clays enables fine edges to be taken to the extreme. Henderson’s own desire to capture the essence of clouds and the arching beauty of Southern Ocean whales is perhaps rather ambitious, particular in an earth-based medium. Was it just coincidence that she uses Southern Ice porcelain slip? The beauty of her work lies more in the exquisite forming of edges than in the corduroyed zeppelin like forms which, whether black of white, had a possibly unintended static serenity. One has the sense that much of the work in this category has all been done before. There is a certain sameness that gives a feeling of security but not excitement. The beauty of these works, rather like classical Greek temples, lies more in the refinement than in the innovation.
The Weavers
Moraig McKenna represents the weavers and knot-tiers in a literal sense. McKenna is, of course, a wood-firer and displays all the well known characteristics of the woodfire addict. I live with one and should know. Process and product are inseparable to these artists. As McKenna commented, the process is so physical, so sensory – the acrid smell of reduction, the sound of the flame roaring, the feeling of heat, the vision of the temperature. While the conceptual framework of her Embroided Surface draws on the analogy of the human skin as a document of experience, the general consensus was that the work is essentially a garment. The placing of the work is critical and, in this case, is unfortunately defined by a large white square over the car-pet. This defines the edges of the piece and tends to create a sense of the loose ‘platelets’ being drawn into the fabric rather than being shed and discarded.
Each of the 4000 ‘buttons’ or discs has the fingerprint of the maker – a somewhat theological concept. It is unlikely anyone would observe this fact and we only know by being told. This secret knowledge invests meaning but possibly only to the maker. How would this meaning change if for instance each disc was imprinted by different individuals (an approach used to great effect by Antony Gormley)?
The woven fabric image is carried through the works of Malina Monks and Junko Asaba. Asaba’s work, Space Within, while eliciting much comment, is a curious piece in that its interest lies more in its impossibility than in anything else. I find the use of ceramic in this piece difficult to understand. The white clay hanging pieces could just as easily be heavy fencing wire spray-painted. Is their appeal simply that of the clever illusionist, the response being of incredulity but little else? The tension of the impossible is perhaps overrated as it simply defies the natural property of the material and pretends to be something else.
In contrast, the most impressive work in the woven category is that of Melina Monk’s Full Moon. Again there is the question about ceramics in this context – the construction could have been wood with similar sculptural impact. Unlike a timber construction which would have to be glued and painted, this piece demonstrates a characteristic that is probably unique to clay – the ability to form breakable structural bonds while in its unfired state which become permanent with firing. The depth and texture using a simple device of horizontality to define the circle in the square is reminiscent of woven-grass matting. The pattern-making makes a wonderful ground for the exploration of texture and surface. Colour and variation from the wood-firing gives a great subtlety to this work.
While some artists in this category are literally weavers, many are metaphorically and conceptually ‘weavers’. The process of making, the action of the hand and the action of the flame are immediately apparent and unashamedly stated. The ceramists working in this way: Sandra Black, Simone Fraser, Barbara Campbell-Allen and Gail Nichols, to name a few, explore the world of form, texture and colour while remaining true to the medium of clay. I suppose ‘truth to materials is an old fashioned concept in our postmodernity and our empty affair with the synthetic world of the virtual. The works of the weavers are the real thing – there to touch, to meditate on and in some instances, even to use.
The Organic Growers
Jenny Orchard began her talk by saying she is a maker not a talker. Despite this she spoke eloquently about her background as an only child growing up in Zimbabwe, the influence of Roman Catholic icons and the surrounding native animistic religions. A totemic and magical influence continues in her work, which exemplifies a searching for connectedness in the natural world. Her brief reference to Demeter (the Greek goddess of agriculture) suggests a connection to the ancient world of mythology. She is not alone in expressing ideas relating to the earth gods of fertility which were prevalent in many cultures prior to the influence of monotheistic Judaeo Christian thinking with its emphasis on the one creator, God.
Do these pieces speak without the explanation, or direction given by the title – Daughter of a rainmaker weeping for kangaroos? Certainly the emotion of the subject is clear – this piece has a disturbing rather surreal quality, emotionally loaded and communicating distress, frustration and resignation. Urban koalacroc is only just humanoid and androgynous with its reptilian torso. Do the pieces assume more meaning when you are told they are cast from yams or other organic sources? This obviously reinforces the earth connection but perhaps the connection is more in the making than in the exhibited object. One is left with the question as to whether ceramic is the right medium for this. Would an assemblage of painted tubers produce the same effect? The answer is probably yes but with one notable exception – quality of surface which only glaze can give.
On reflection there are few works in this exhibition which exhibit the inherent expressive sculptural quality of Jenny Orchard’s work. What distinguishes this approach from that of most of the White Purists and the Weavers is that there is no concern for containment of space. Her work in this instance is simply as an object in space.
While the Weavers are not necessarily vessel-based, they still. however, attempt to envelope space, whether by fabric enclosure or simply by container making. Likewise the majority of White Purists are vessel-based. Somewhere out on a limb are the pop art derivatives with questionable reasons for being in ceramic – coat hangers and caravans at the fun end, photo-montage and slick decal at the commercial end.
So at one extreme the White Purists are seeking connectedness with the atmosphere – a skyward trajectory. At the other, the Organic Growers are casting and assembling vegetables – an underground trajectory. Somewhere between the Weavers are making garments for the humans who walk on the earth and beneath the sky. They long to fly but know they are earthbound and in that understanding place their mark on clay and work the fire. In my own journey from the world of purist modernism, I feel a sense that humanness is found neither with the rarefied aesthetic of the White Purists nor with the animistic and earth god religion of the Organic Growers, but with the Weavers. In their world, connectedness is in the making, the only partly controlled influence of fire, the understanding of the clay, the absence of pretence and the expression of joy in texture, colour, connection and form. They know clay will never fly and never grow but it is the substance out of which we were once made.
Paul Campbell-Allen
TITANIA HENDERSON 