I developed my first collection of ceramics in London and Copenhagen in the summer of 2019. The development of this work led to having an installation piece, "Banquet", selected by Australian ceramicist, Merran Esson, as one of the finalists for the 2019 Portage Ceramic Awards - New Zealand's most important ceramics award. The piece was also the award catalogue cover and is on show at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Auckland. 

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By consolidating hand building, firing and glazing skills and producing a cohesive collection of ceramic works, I was able to expand on my painting practice. In parallel to this, I developed the installation piece, "Banquet", in which I examined the potential of clay in relation to built surfaces and imagined narratives which prompt visceral engagement.

 

Simplicity, texture, contrast and block-like features characterise each work. My intention was to also have a strong focus on physicality via surface while pulling on aesthetic referencing from the Brutalist architecture seen around London. Silhouette and mass remaining key to the aesthetic of each piece.

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Glazed entirely in a simple gloss white - In keeping with some of the aesthetic rules of Brutalism, the bare building materials are exposed and you can see the colour of the original clay each piece is constructed from along the base of each piece.

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Together the ceramic works stand as a tiny city-scape – a suggested brutalist skyline on a domestic-scale. Their functionality is also key so each performs the role of vessel also – sealed inside and out through the vitrification of the glaze, they hold water and are impervious.