| With a map in hand,
visitors explore the gallery... |
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| VIEWS |
at
the work |
from
the work |
| Andrea Hyland's Hard, Soft, Black,
White contains squares of bone china that have been cast to appear like crumbled
sheets of paper. Letters have been impressed into their surface. Though paper was once
considered an ephemeral medium, by contrast with streaming electronic media it had been
granted a monumental heaviness. |
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| Pilar Rojas' Other Memories is a
series of crocheted forms on a thin table. At first glance, these look like glass or
glazed ceramic. At much closer inspection, you can discern the knitted patterns. They are
fragile, useless forms that whisper intimate secrets from the vocabulary of shapes. |
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| Robin Best's Blackcliff and Sugarloaf
are cast plaster works that reflect geological formations of the Hallet Cove, in South
Australia. They share the archaic process of sedimentation, as alluvial clay was deposited
over hard rocks. In the gallery space, these works assert a confident silence. Their oiled
exteriors absorb harsh gallery lights and return a dull glow. |
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| Mary Scott's Vanitas is a series
of five oil paintings on sandblasted glass. They began as scanned image of a Dutch still
life turnip, then manipulated in PhotoShop and printed out. The results were used as
drawings for the paintings. Unsatisfied with the quality of inkjet printers, Scott returns
to the medium of oil, translated onto glass made porous like a canvas. |
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| Kathy Elliot and Ben Edols' Square
Peg, Aqua Spiral and Groove are privileged as the only works in the red spectrum on
the south wall. Their translucent surface, engraved to appear like skin, allows the deep
colours within to absorb the light reflecting off the wall. |
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| Steven Goldate's Ceramic User
Interface translates the contours of three different countries (New Zealand north
island, Vietnam and Arab peninsula) into hollowware. These paper clay forms barely touch
the surface of the plinths, taking a license with gravity. They are what happens to a
ceramist's imagination once exposed to the possibilities of CAD designing. |
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| Nelia Justo's Pursuing Paradise can
be heard faintly from the other end of the gallery. A voice recounting some adventurous
tale, an oriental trill, all suggest some distant landscape. Chinoiserie landscapes have
been woven into a loom - all made from copper wire. This wire forms the circuit which
operates the speakers that emit the sound. There is a gentle association between weaving
and microcircuitry. Strange to 'hear' a landscape. |
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| Karl Millard's ensemble Seafood
Teapot, Anthony Smooth Meets Don Prickle, Kung Fu Pepper Grinder and Wrestle offer an
unfamiliar surface dimension to metal. Surfaces are sleek, prickly, mottled and even
furry. Encased in the cabinets at the end of the small gallery, these works appear like
wild creatures. |
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| Susan Ostling's morello (a bitter
kind of cherry) is a assortment of porcelain forms that hug the west wall, crawling
around the corner. They include negative spaces, like the inside of cups. The visitor
gazes upon a curious range of surfaces, from a salty crackle to royal icing. A little like
a cheese shop, these forms glory in the rich surface language of clay. |
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| Damon Moon's Untitled tempts the
visitor into a salacious interest in unglazed ceramics. The lightbox emits an image of his
work taken for Belle Magazine. The real works are more difficult. There is a triangle of
mugs bearing the work 'MOUTH' and a coffee table of plates with scientific drawings and
handprints. |
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| Gwendolyn Zierdt's Unabomber
Manifesto is a translation of the first few paragraphs of this notorious text into a
code read by a computerised dobby handloom. The work is a neat ironic reflection on the
close association of computing with the history of weaving (through the Jacquard loom). In
the space, there are more sinister overtones. A security alarm in close proximity emits a
beep every several minutes, hinting at the danger of going 'offline'. |
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| Back to Kathy Elliot and Ben Edols' Sunset
Column, Pelt and Batutto Dome which return us to the rich colour of glass, and reward
our eyes now taking pleasure in the subtle variations of surface texture. Their work is
commonly found in the craft shop as you exit the gallery, along with the glass boiled
sweets... |
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| Finally, you return the floor map and take an envelope from the lucky dip
bowl. The envelope is marked 'NOT NEGOTIABLE' and contained a boiled sweet (unavailable
online) and a prophesy. |
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