Changes

Opening event 6pm Thursday 13 July with Helen Maxwell, former Canberra gallery owner and curator

Artists floor talk 2.30om Saturday 15 July

 

From poetry to pottery; from paint, strings and glass to clay.

Gather a painter, a guitarist, a curator and illustrator, a glass artist and a poet together and you’ll find yourself with a ceramics exhibition.

The Changes show was initially the brainchild of painter Steve Roper and glass artist Robyn Campbell. They invited poet Lesley Lebkowicz, illustrator and curator Anne Langridge and musician Georgie Bryant to join them. Most of the artists were already well established in their first field. And all had come to work with clay.

DH Lawrence believed that what characterized an artist was the factor of creativity, and that an artist could work in many forms. He was a painter as well as a novelist and poet. So it’s not surprising that some artists diversify their work. What is interesting is the relationship between the different forms. How does a poet make a pot? How does a musician? What happens when a painter or an illustrator steps outside the frame on the wall or the page of a book? What difference does a change in material make to the work? These questions are the implicit theme of the show.

The ceramic styles of the five artists vary enormously: Roper works with sometimes whimsical, sometimes caricature-like figures most of which are designed for display outdoors as are Langridge’s large sculptural pots. Lebkowicz’s bowls are coloured with free-flowing patterns. Campbell’s work focuses on texture and a precision of form and Bryant incorporates wood in her work. The variety of the work promises an interesting experience.