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Journal archive
Pioneer Potter | Karen Weiss
H
ow is a man remembered – for his achievements, for his actions, for his character? There will be many of you reading these words who never met Ivan, who may not even have heard of him, but this is a man who made a difference to Australian ceramics. You might not know his name because he was not one to put himself forward. However, if you look back at the early copies of Pottery in Australia, the covers may be faded but inside them there is such energy, such curiosity about the possibilities of clay and glaze, such a frenzy of experimentation. And right in the midst of this you will find, in almost every issue, the name of Ivan Englund.
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The work of Ian Jones
author: ian jones | photographer: stuart hay
I t’s thirty three years since I first started studying pottery, and I am intrigued to find myself still as interested in making functional pottery as I was in 1974. Functional work doesn’t seem particularly sexy in this world of post-modern ceramics so for the last few years, whilst exploring my fascination with casseroles and teapots, baking dishes and coffee cups, I have had time to think about what it is that has sustained me making these pieces for so long.
I keep coming back to a question which has some personal meaning for me: Where is the art of pottery to be found?
In these times of university-based ceramic training, it seems that
ceramics is commonly viewed through the eye of related arts. If the
decorated surface works in terms of painting, then it is successful
art. If the form works in sculptural terms, again it is art. If the
ceramic object makes a statement on the war in Iraq, or comments on the
human condition, or is witty or cutting about modern times, it is art.
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author: marilyn walters | photographer: richard weinstein
A defining link between the processes
of making and the aesthetic power generated by these processes is immediately
obvious and arresting in the body of work entitled Manifesto Animale
by Walter Auer, exhibited at Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown in July, 2007.
Of these processes, firing is of paramount importance. Through a rigorous
firing method, discarded soft toys soaked in clay slips, are transformed
into quite confronting symbols of vulnerability and pathos. Sealed within
metal drums, lids weighted down to ensure no oxygen enters or smoke escapes,
the pieces undergo a petrifying process similar to that produced in smoke
firing. It can take four to five such firings, to temperatures ranging
from 999 - 1060°C, for the artist to achieve the desired result.
Terracotta terra sigillata, copper oxide and copper carbonate increase
the physical strength of the works, but the surfaces achieved through
this punishing firing sequence appear as fragile and as delicate as newspaper
ash.
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author: gary healey | photographer: terence bogue
L ike many people, I read lots of ceramic and art magazines. This helps in deciding whether the next crazy idea you have come up may be worth pursuing, or whether what you have just made is likely to find a market, but I often wonder whether I am in another business. There are lots of learned articles about the meaning behind what someone is doing or making. Detailed narratives are produced on objects which, to me, have little intrinsic value as forms; constructs are used which I have never seen; and wading through source material referenced in footnotes makes me giddy!
There is a role for intellectual commentary, particularly when it can
help educate on an important social, political or environmental issue.
It is important that people who choose this path not be judged;
however, there is a big difference between this kind of commentary and
something which is completely meaningless or, even worse, deliberately
meaningless. I often do not understand what is being said in these
articles, or necessarily how it contributes to the overall experience
of a piece. It is almost as if the public cannot appreciate the work
without this additional, quite specific, intellectual input
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