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Hidemi Tokutake

Hidemi Tokutake

by | 19, Jan, 2015 | Past Resident

Hidemi Tokutake

AIR participant for 2015.

Hidemi (Demi) Tokutake was our first AIR participant for 2015. A Japanese born ceramicist, Demi divides her time between Japan and Australia. She first studied at the Seto Ceramic School in Seto, Japan. In 2013, she studied at the National Art School in Australia where she finished the Master’s course, majoring in Ceramics, and became a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC). When she first came to Australia, the unique shapes and attractive detail of Australian fauna – forms that do not exist in Japan – immediately fascinated her. Her work practice has evolved from a traditional and craft aesthetic in Japan to a more sculptural sensibility today. Australian native plants, including Banksia, various flowers, and seedpods inspire the organic ceramic forms and colourfully dynamic surfaces of her work. In her work, Demi seeks to capture the underlying pulse of the natural Australian environment.
Demi has had solo exhibitions in Australia, Taiwan, Denmark, Scotland, and the USA and participated in group exhibitions in Japan, Australia, the USA, Belgium, Morocco and Korea.
During her residency, Demi presented an artist talk (open to CPS members and non-members) at which she presented a slide-show of works by Japanese master potters and the tradition in which she originally trained. She talked about how she was drawn to more free-form sculptural works with surfaces showing the marks made during the making process. She finished with images from Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney in 2014, in which she was accepted to exhibit.
Demi’s two-day Master Class encouraged her students to “Think Big’ as she took them through the process of her intricate and physically demanding hand-building techniques. Demi’s exhibition in the gallery from the 12-29 March attracted strong interest, including attendance at the opening by a representative from the National Gallery of Australia.
Demi kindly donated one of her ‘tripod’ vessels and also left a number scattered around the grounds, adding to the ceramic artworks that are becoming a permanent feature enhancing Watson Arts Centre.
Anne Masters

Anne Masters

by | 2, Nov, 2012 | Past Resident

Anne Masters

EASS Resident.

2012

n December 2011, after graduating with a Masters of Visual Arts from the Australian National University’s School of Art (now School of Art + Design) (ANUSOAD), Anne was awarded the inaugural EASS Artist in Residence by Canberra Potters Society (CPS).

“I spent six weeks in Studio 3 feeling quite in awe of the space given it was nearly 5 times the space I had been allocated during my studies at the ANUSOAD Ceramics Workshop. 

The residency allowed me to learn new techniques and skills as well as research time to investigate ideas for new work. Fellow graduate Sylvia Marris, who was teaching at the time at CPS, provided me with guidance on slip casting small beakers. I created art deco designs, based on Canberra’s floral emblem – The Royal Bluebell – using shellac techniques to form a pattern on my beakers.

 During my time at CPS, I also took advantage of sourcing ideas from the library. I came across View from the Summit of Mount Ainslie, 1911[i] a rendering of American architect Walter Burley Griffin’s imagined Canberra by his professional partner and wife Marion Mahony Griffin.

I was quite taken by the beautiful watercolour drawing which had influences from Japan and the USA. I decided to tuck this drawing away for a potential body of new work as I knew I didn’t have enough time at CPS to develop it.

Fast forward and in January/February 2013, I was able to use this image as a basis for a six-week International Artist in Residence project which I was awarded by Guldagergaard – International Ceramic Research Centre - located in Denmark. In February 2014, a body of work resulting from this international residency was exhibited as part of a group exhibition, CeraMIX, at FORM Studio and Gallery.”