'A tribute to Janet Mansfield OAM (1934-2013)', MossGreen, Melbourne
Slipcast porcelain with under and overglaze ceramic media, powder coated turned aluminium saucers
Photography: Brenton McGeachie.
http://www.mossgreen.com.au/content/artists/important-exhibition-of-australian-ceramics-a-tribute-to-janet-mansfield/
For this group exhibition celebrating Janet's life, I wanted to make pieces referencing wood firing in recognition of her work in this area. I wasn't attempting to reference a wood fired 'look' - but an aspect of the process itself, when tension between the planned and unplanned is revealed on the surface. Experienced woodfirers know by experience how to encourage certain effects, for instance by packing a work in a particular place in the kiln, but random or accidental effects can still occur. I turned the process back to front; in wood firing the random/accidental is only evident at the end of the process after the work has come from the kiln whereas I began with a random event, a loose pour of underglaze that I had little control over, and worked from there....