denkyu forest
2010
Denkyu Forest, 2010
Porcelain wheel-thrown and manipulated vessels, fluorescent lighting, wires
Size varies.
Concrete jungles, thriving gardens in the city and electricity poles in rural landscapes: Denkyu (Japanese-‘light bulb’) Forest reflects on the tensions of the manmade intruding on nature and the handmade found alongside the mass produced. A series of hand thrown ceramic vessels are illuminated with the glow of factory-grade fluorescent lighting creating an impossible landscape; a copse of ghostly trees rendered in porcelain. Here leaves and branches are replaced by wires and conduits, trunks by fluorescent tubes and roots by skin-like translucent ceramics. The porcelain vessels are organic in shape with sensuous folds, while the unexpected lighting brings out both the warm and cold tones of the ceramic medium.
The result is a strange and eccentric beauty which, while not completely alien, still remains dark and untrustworthy. The relationships built up in the work reflect the interaction between the industrial with the handmade and unique – not only in ceramic practice but in a broader context also. Through the creation of an electronic forest the work seeks to raise questions about whether nature is any longer relevant and if symbiosis is possible between nature and technological progress.
Exhibited at
2010 [Competition] Pat Emery Emerging Ceramic Artist Award, Post Office Gallery, Ballarat (won second prize)
2010 [Competition] ICMEA, Emerging Ceramic Artist Awards, Fuping China
2010 [Solo] Denkyu Forest, First Site Gallery
2010 [Group] Of Snowflakes and Space time - Toyota CSG Sculpture Exhibition
2010 [Public Art] MOREARTS, Moreland Council public art show
2010 [Competition] Clunes Ceramic Art Award, Union Bank Gallery
Porcelain wheel-thrown and manipulated vessels, fluorescent lighting, wires
Size varies.
Concrete jungles, thriving gardens in the city and electricity poles in rural landscapes: Denkyu (Japanese-‘light bulb’) Forest reflects on the tensions of the manmade intruding on nature and the handmade found alongside the mass produced. A series of hand thrown ceramic vessels are illuminated with the glow of factory-grade fluorescent lighting creating an impossible landscape; a copse of ghostly trees rendered in porcelain. Here leaves and branches are replaced by wires and conduits, trunks by fluorescent tubes and roots by skin-like translucent ceramics. The porcelain vessels are organic in shape with sensuous folds, while the unexpected lighting brings out both the warm and cold tones of the ceramic medium.
The result is a strange and eccentric beauty which, while not completely alien, still remains dark and untrustworthy. The relationships built up in the work reflect the interaction between the industrial with the handmade and unique – not only in ceramic practice but in a broader context also. Through the creation of an electronic forest the work seeks to raise questions about whether nature is any longer relevant and if symbiosis is possible between nature and technological progress.
Exhibited at
2010 [Competition] Pat Emery Emerging Ceramic Artist Award, Post Office Gallery, Ballarat (won second prize)
2010 [Competition] ICMEA, Emerging Ceramic Artist Awards, Fuping China
2010 [Solo] Denkyu Forest, First Site Gallery
2010 [Group] Of Snowflakes and Space time - Toyota CSG Sculpture Exhibition
2010 [Public Art] MOREARTS, Moreland Council public art show
2010 [Competition] Clunes Ceramic Art Award, Union Bank Gallery