Steve Harrison
Dirty Little Secrets
26 September - 14 October, 2006
In this age where everything is a cheap import from China and nothing has any real value anymore, where every foreigner coming here is a potential terrorist, our politicians have terrorised us into sacrificing some of our hard fought for rights and freedoms, and we seem happy to meekly sign them away as long as interest rates stay low and we can have lots of cheap plastic junk. I believe that we are entering the new dark ages where humanism, education and the rule of science are being eroded, to be replaced with the new voodoo, ignorance and superstition.
Jellore 2006 $550 sold
Green guan, ignimbrite glaze, on matt black magic dirt body
I have been interested for some time with aspects of the real, the tangible, the hand made, a sense of place, the 'terroir' of a locality. I have no interest in the fast track and the cheap throwaway. I want real things around me, things that will stay around me and develop a patina of age and a meaning born of context and familiarity.
The work in this current exhibition is the result of this approach and the last two years research. It follows my last show here of local porcelains. This new work is not made from clay in the normal sense. The material is an interesting mixture of decomposing basic igneous rock fragments and dirt that I collect locally. This 'clay-like' unusual stuff does not respond to normal clay working procedures. It tested me and defeated me for some time., but as Giacometti once said, "every failure is one step closer to success".
Coura 2006 $750 sold
Pale blue/green guan glaze over pale cream grey body
I found some similarities with the ancient Song dynasty Ge ware. As this has been an interest of mine for many years, I found the opportunity irresistible. Ge ware was produced exclusively for royalty. And uncannily, the first piece of this work that I produced was as a gift for a king. Here the similarities end and the romantic associations begin. The Song dynasty potters spent centuries developing and perfecting this very difficult technique. I have the benefit of modern technology to speed the process and have condensed the exercise down to two years. Some of the subtle quality of the Ge wares was dure to the use of a friable black clay body and the application of an unrelated pale felspathic glaze fluxed with slaked quick lime.
This strange dirt is composed almost entirely of equal parts of Silica, alumina and iron oxide. I have taken the Chinese references above (and these are the only Chinese imports in the show) and developed a series of works that reflect this venerable and ancient tradition. There are references to the traditions of the tenmoku bowl, which has been an enduring preoccupation of mine, the Song Guan bowl, Longguan celadons as well as the work of the late Ivan McMeekin.
Mandemar 2006 $550 sold
Soft red/pink guan glaze over matt black magic dirt body
In the Pacific region there is a term 'Mana' with some currency that describes a power that can reside in objects. This power is created in the object at the time of its creation by the maker, sometimes it is bestowed on the object by an observer, and at other times it is passed into the object by association. Not all makers create objects with mana and not all objects made by a particular maker are imbued with mana, but when these two circumstances coincide the result is powerful. When an object charged with mana by its maker and is passed to another, the mana is passed along with it and empowers the receiver. I don't believe that this power in an object is so much like magic, as I am of the post industrial age, but rather, it is more akin to a sense of wonder in the beauty of some particularly special object that enriches the lives of those that are able to appreciate it both in its making and in its use. These works are the dirty little secrets of the Southern Highlands and I believe that I have imbued some degree of mana into them.
Flora 2006 $650
Silver blue/black and brown oil
spot tenmoko with slight fattening
of the glaze
towards the foot over buff ground. basalt glaze
Burragorang 2006 $550 sold
Brown /black oil spot tenmoku on buff ground.
Tugalong 2006 $550
Brown /black oil spot tenmoku on buff ground. syenite glaze
Bangadilly 2006 $550
Black/brown 'hares fur' tenmoku with slight fattening of the glaze towards the foot over
buff ground. trachyte glaze
Sugar loaf 2006 $550 sold
Blue green Longuan glaze over high iron body
crystal view 2006 $650 sold
Cream/grey felspathic glaze with metallic rim
Cutaway 2006 $750 sold
Pink, grey/whitefelspathic
tenmoku bowl with some kiln distortion and carbon inclusion on a dense brown
ground,
glaze has developed some fish scale crackle
Bullio 2006 $550 sold
Blond felspathic glaze over a dark grey gravel body, natural ash deposit
Ginginbullin 2006 $550 sold
Grey felspathic glaze, gold metallic rim and lustre, over a dark grey gravel body
Penang 2006 $750 sold
Felspathic glazed tenmoku bowl, frosty white crystals and some carbon inclusion
Wanganderry 2006 $550 sold
Creamy longuan glaze showing traditional "dark lip,purple foot" over high iron dirt body.
Nundialla 2006 $550
Blue grey longuan, "dark lip,purple foot" over sandy high iron dirt body
Columba 2006 $650
Cream longuan bowl on ginger iron body
Nandi 2006 $550
Blue green duck egg longuan with fat glaze roll on sandy high iron dirt body
Joadja 2006 $650
Pale blue 'Jun" opalescent glaze with slight glaze roll on sandy high iron dirt body
