Clay Gulgong 2016
Clay Gulgong 2016
Stepping back in time into the future: Gulgong, NSW, Australia
Sunday April the 17th to Sunday April the 23rd of April 2016.
In 1870 gold was discoveredat Red Hill,Gulgong in NSW and suddenly the town became the centre of the universe with more than 20,000 people flocking to the area.
Legendary Australian bush poet and storyteller, Henry Lawson (1867 – 1922) immortalised the history of this town in his work and as such was honoured by being featured on Australia’s $10 note with Gulgong’s buildings in the background. Today 130 of those historic buildings are listed for preservation with the National Trust.
Fast forward 146 years into the future, and once again historic Gulgong, also famous for its clay deposits, became the centre of the universe for the Ceramics community worldwide when Clay Gulgong opened its doors to 500 International and National Masters and delegates on Sunday the 17th of April 2016.
Iconic Australian ceramicist Janet Mansfield had inaugurated the first event in 1989 with Woodfire Gulgong at her Morning View property and this was to be the 10th event to have been held over the last 27 years.
After Janet’s death in 2013, Clay Gulgong’s future suddenly until her family stepped in to keep her legacy alive. Janet’s son, Neil Mansfield and his wife Bernadette made the powerful decision two years previously to continue Janet’s legacy with the full support and involvement of the Mansfield family. Bernadette is creative director, daughter Siobhan looks after planning and administration and son Joshua works at the Gallery Mansfield Ceramics, opened in December 2014 in Sydney, NSW. Yarrobil magazine came to life in 2015 with Neil and Bernadette as editors, Josh as business manager and Siobhan as editorial support. Sons Charlie and Max have a role as administration assistants.
Ultimately Clay Gulgong opened its doors bigger and better and incredibly well organised in 2016 thanks to the Mansfield family’s dedication and passion!
The official opening and many other presentations were held at the Prince of Wales Opera house, which prides itself to be the oldest continuously running performing Arts theatre in Australia.
A street party on Mayne with live music from the band ‘The Button Collective’ kicked off the
event which got everyone dancing in the streets.
Not only did we step back in time but we also took a leap into the future when we embarked on an eye opening and action packed 7 day Master program, including AKIRA SATAKE (JPN,USA) ALLESSANDRO GALLO (Italy/USA) ALEXANDRA ENGELFRIET (NLD) BETH CAVENER (USA),JACK TROY (USA), IAN JONES (AUS), JOHN NEELY (USA), KEITH BRYMER-JONES (UK), MERRAN ESSON (AUS) PAUL DAVIS (AUS) PETER CALLAS (USA),RAFA PEREZ (Spain), SIMON REECE (AUS), TORBJORN KVASBO (NORWAY).
All of the above mentioned Masters took to the stage under marquees simultaneously in various locations around Red Hill for demonstrations daily, with delegates having the opportunity to watch closely and at their leisure and be intimately involved in conversation with the artists.
Six New Zealand artists (Jim Cooper, Matt Mclean, Brendan Adams, Chuck Joseph, Steve Fullmer, Lauren Winstone) commenced a collaborative work. The group was led by Moyra Elliot.
Shop front trails were set up throughout the town as well as a myriad of various exhibitions.
Early morning yoga for potters with Hillary Kane was a daily routine to get the day started.
Veteran ceramicist and wood firer Jack Troy (USA) was the first to present at the opera house, wherehe exclaimed “One pot can change a person’s life and encountering things that you don’t expect will keep life fresh”. Paul Davis (Aus) felt that our geographical distance and isolation is an advantage whether it concerns our development with ceramics or our lives, being fortunate enough to live in peace. Norwegian Torbjorn Kvasbo , who extrudes like no other, looked at his own culture for inspiration – chest forms, houses, troughs and now large extruded stacks, which represent ritual and repetition in life.
One of the most exhilarating and unusual performances came from the Netherland’s artist, Alexandra Engelfriet’s with her “clay performance art”. Alexandra did not ask what she could do with clay, but what clay could do for her, which became apparent in her films which she shared with us.
Alexandra immersed herself whole heartedly into the clay with her body – pushing, punching, prodding and sliding. Watching her work is mesmerizing as it is totally unexpected, unusual and surprising, while being energetic, powerful and sensual at the same time.She merged with the material in a trance like state caused by body movements. She engaged in a dance with clay where the knowledge how to work the clay comes from her body and is not preconceived, as such achieving patterns and textures over large areas. Amongst other films and projects, Alexandra showed herself working 20 tonnes of clay in a 50 meter long trench in France, which was left to dry for 5 days and then fired in situ to achieve permanence and beautiful colouring. Her latest large projects are created outside, then separated, fired and re-assembled in indoor spaces.
Day one and Clay Gulgong had already delivered a mind-blowing program!
The most powerful drawcard however proofed to be sculptor Beth Cavener, closely matched by her husband Allessandro Gallo. This sensational power couple had completed 2 successful collaborations while their 3rdand most precious collaboration was their beautiful 2 year old son Nico.
Beth Cavener, who holds a science degree, freely sharedthe process of the making of her large
sculpture of two goats embraced in a passionate kiss complete with erections, aptly titled “a rush of blood to the heads”. The audience was allowed to follow her journey from conception of the idea to
the process of sculpting the large piece on an armature, then separating and dismantling the piece, hollowing it, drying it and firing it. Parts of the piece were slipped and joined together, while others
were glued with epoxy after firing. The finish is a cold finish using acrylic colours. Beth then prepared a small maquette of a hare and proceeded to sculpt it in big scale throughout the week.
At times she and Alessandro Gallo shared the workspace. Alessandro had made a beautiful connection with Gulgong, when he used Siobhan Mansfield as a model, as she was carrying her baby in a sling on her chest. A very endearing and intimate sculpturedeveloped, when he combined this image with the Australian trademark, the kangaroo. Alessandro often uses animals and gives them human traits in his work, be it photographic, computer generated, painted, drawn or sculptural.
Rafa Perez from Spain likes to push the material to the edge and the clay to its limit, achieving wondrous sculptural forms. When he took a water hose to his piece the crowd watching were holding their breath! He also likes slicing his pieces apart before the final firing or combining clay with metal, anything to achieve an unexpected reaction. While most ceramicists prefer to keep things safe to achieve a certain outcome, Rafa always likes to live dangerously!
Akira Satake (JPN/USA) who was a successful musician and was running a record company is with 15 years experience a relative newcomer to the ceramic scene. He entertained us using methods like cutting clay into small squares and throwing the pieces into boxes to create work. He finds beauty in imperfection and loves the collaboration of clay, fire and himself.
Merran Esson (Australia) felt at home in Gulgong’s rural environment as she did grow up on a farm in Tumbarumba, NSW. Her inspiration comes from broken, corrugated water tanks and farm rubbish, so often found in rural areas. She felt she was in corrugated heaven while working in Gulgong.
Keith Brymer -Jones (UK) demonstrated, what became the solid foundation of his empire. A trainee at 18 he became a production thrower. He started to produce his “word range” which was cleverly advertised in a humorous TV campaign. His advice was to always be honest and true to your craft. The creative process was trial and error and if you did come by a good idea stick to it and market it in a clever way to achieve success, possibly by a professional.
Ian Jones (AUS), Paul Davis (AUS), Simon Reece (AUS) Jack Troy (USA) and Peter Callas (USA) demonstrated daily the wonderful ruggedness of making work for wood firing.
Ian Jones commented on the humble yet so intimate and personal connection between a person and their favourite coffee mug, as someone will hold and kiss it every day!
He spoke about the use of production work and tableware in our daily life and its importance because of its intimacy of contact and connection between the user, the work and the maker.
In his work Ian strives to achieve the understated beauty in ceramics like Wabi, a simple unpretentious beauty,or Haga, an irregular imperfect beauty and of Koshiro, a stark and austere beauty.
The Queensland Quixotica crew, Rowley Drysdale, Ray Cavill, Isaac Patmore, Kari, Andrew Bryant, Renton Bishopric, Grant Hodges and Angus McDiarmid opened their
4
well-received woodfire exhibition at 8 in the morning. They also staged
Potwiz at the Opera House,a skilfully orchestrated quiz by the multitalented Andrew Bryant.
After 6 inspiring and exhausting days at Red Hill it was time to move on to Janet Mansfield’s property at Morning View, aworking 1,000 acre farm that is bordering national park and
surrounded by fields of gold.This was a day to pay homage and tribute to Australian icon Janet Mansfield, to remember her and the many outstanding events held here at the property, which would have been without a doubt for many a day of enormous nostalgia.
To stand in Janet’s workshop, to view her kilns, her library, her gallery, the views, the sculptural forms scattered around the property was bittersweet. She organised the best ceramicists in the world to come and create here, to build kilns, to do experimental firings and at the end of the day to celebrate, tasting some fine local wine.
It was time to walk on to watch Simon Reece (AUS)and helpers and heavy machinerypush togetheran earth mound of clay and debris. Standing five feet cubed, this steep sided “Tumulus” reflected stony escarpments of the surrounding landscape and was to hollowed and eventually fired.
Alexandra Engelfriet (NED)transformed a slice
of the landscape nearby using her own body as her tool of
choice, slipping, sliding and manipulating the water
soaked clay formation around her.
Cameron Williams (AUS) performance almost seemed tame in comparison, however he amazed all of us in masterly wheel throwing gigantic, man- size pots.
John Neely (USA) was ready to fire up the train kiln, which he had built in the past.
A kiln building competition was under way with Gyan Daniel Wall, called the ‘cone benders’ kiln building competition (objective – build kiln from scratch and get the cones down as quickly as possible).
But one event was eagerly awaited and on top of everyone’s list, the clay fashion extravaganza, conceived by Neil Hoffman, MC by Michael Keighery.
As the 5 revered judges took their place on top of a hay wagon, Robert Barron, Garth Clark, Mark De Veechio, Beth Cavener and Georgi Milln the highly anticipated proceedings unfolded.
MC Michael Keighery looked the part, dressed as a tart, complete with, as Bill Powell commented, a Shirley Bassey meets Tutankhamen headdress. He introduced us to various groups and their
models covered in copious layers of clay, which would strut their stuff to music of their choice on the catwalk, invariably loosing parts of their adornments, only to end up on unsuspecting viewers. The performance would then be judged and what was to follow was a most memorable and hilarious event,with Angus McDiarmid being the first contestant representing Jesus of Nephaline , dipped in slip and his bare shoulders covered with a large soft clay platter flipped over his head.
Resembling the splitting image of Jesus, he inevitably won first prize.
What a wonderful finish to a most joyful and memorable event, Clay Gulgong 2016 and we all felt Janet watched over us with a joyful smile on her face!