budding & blossoming

Last year with the assistance of an Australia Council New Works Grant I began documenting a local magnolia garden.

The process of documenting a garden through the seasons is profoundly moving. The leaves yellowing and falling leaving twisted branches, growing tiny, furry buds and finally one day, bursts of magnificent, extravagant blossom. It made me laugh out loud. This is what nature is for, the blossoms are meant to be suprizing and delightful to attract the pollinators. Watching the slow growth and blossoming of the magnolia’s, knowing that the small shrubs will one day grow to be tall trees, branches twining overhead to create a dappled wood expresses the powerful cycles of life and death that move through the world.



“The Magnolia Project” follows the ancient magnolia tree through the seasons expressing the power and fragility of the blossoms through a series porcelain vessels. The solo exhibition is opening on March the 8th at Salmon Galleries in Sydney.

I'd love to see any ceramicists or readers of "Strange Fragments" who live in Sydney there.



Photos by collector modernist scholar and culture vulture Chris Osbourne.

pastizi and pots in Sydney

I went to Sydney on the weekend.
We packed the kids and descended on my marvellous brother and his one bedroom flat for four days. It was a huge trip but when you are an exhausted parent- artist it is really worth making the effort to do these things. It affirms the fact that there is more to life than toilet training and paying bills.

My favourite parts were pastizi with brother and sister at the Maltese Cafe in Surry Hills.


Wandering around the Harbour in Birchgrove playing our favourite game of "I could live there!" with the stone convict cottages and wooden houses overlooking the water. And ........
seeing the pots of Jane Sawyer and Andrew Halford at Freeland Gallery.


I've written about Jane Sawyer's wonderful thrown terracotta and slip vessels before. In this latest work Sawyer has captured movement in clay. The terracotta slab pots epitomize what it is to be a potter. They are thrown then cut off the base and flattened out. The firing process causes the pots to curl up again at the edges with the memory of their old shape. The finger holes in these pots create an almost violent punctuation, but when you put your fingers through them your whole hand is drawn into the vessel, through the soft, smooth texture of the slip and glaze. This drawing of the hands into the pot then creates an impetus to lift it up. These pots are so clever and funny and beautiful . An abstract drawing of tensions - pulling the wall of the pot up, flattening it out to make a platter, the drawing together of the hands through the finger holes and the final impulsive lift this creates.

The other Sawyer vessels I was very attracted to were the double walled, pillow bowls. I love the use of the hard medium of clay to create something so soft. Once again these pots seem to contain a gentle humor , playing with the viewer/user, inviting them to touch and consider the nature of the material and the relationship of this shape to the human body.

chaos

So I went to Sydney, and got off the plane into a roaring torrent of liquid air. Crossing the road was like wading across rivers and there is always someone who takes special delight in driving through the puddles close to the curb and drenching the hapless pedestrians.

I waded my way through the park to Sussex St as promised and dried off with a comforting bowl of Pho. I love sitting in this Food Court as it is two storeys above street level. The window looks down on layer after layer of signs in clashing colours advertising everything from car rental to "unique quality gifts". The street level is crammed with shops selling dumplings ,groceries, jewellery, and unique quality gifts, and people are constantly walking across the road carrying strange things like huge piles of mosaic plates, or durian fruits. It reminded me that in our world of craft and design you can sometimes forget how vibrant and joyous chaos can be.