Marianne Huhn
Resident.
March to early June 2019.
Marianne Huhn was our artist in residence from mid March to early June 2019. Marianne studied at RMIT University and completed her PhD in 2017. She has lectured and taught Ceramics and Drawing at Universities and schools throughout Australia.
Marianne has held several solo shows in Australia and exhibited in more than 30 group exhibitions in Australia, America, and Hong Kong.
She has been acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and several Regional Galleries in Australia.
Marianne has made functional ceramics that explore and play with architectural themes and text on the surfaces. Since her PhD titled Politics and Porcelain she has developed a visual language that comments and records Australian politics. Marianne aims to recreate a space for our personal lives, through the shapes we use, to engage with the political events and machinations of the world around us.
Artist Statement
For some time now I have been making functional ceramics that explore and play with architectural themes and text on the surfaces.
Initially I drew historical architecture to refer to the similarities houses, castles, town walls, forts, dwellings have with functional ceramics. The fact that they both contain space within their walls was a visual clue to the narrative/conversation I was attempting to establish.
I am also interested in; how internal space within the walls of castles were divided, how private space was discovered and subsequently how humans developed their sense of privacy. The spaces we live in build and construct our confines, we live concealing or revealing ourselves.
The creation of streets, cities, has also been a fascination of mine, exploring how we divide and mark our territories. I embarked on a lifelong journey to connect form and user through referring to the forms own functionality and our own personal human history.
I continue to make functional pieces by hand, though a long process, because I still believe in the relationships we have with our everyday objects. When I hand throw my forms I intentionally leave the mark of my hand while throwing, inside or outside the pots surface.
This indicates to the user that each pot is individually made and invites the sense of touch. Recently I have concentrated on the maps in our lives, the boundaries we create through land and cultures.