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LaVieEnRose by Holly Morgan. After the ups and downs of the past 60 years, Ceramics New Zealand has been sticking to its position since Dunedin. Rebecca Fox talked with ceramic judge Dr. Emma Bugden about staying the course.
Dr. Emma Bugden, the judge of the exhibition. Sit down for breakfast, Emma Bugden will eat her cereal in a Barry Brickell bowl and drink her coffee in a Katherine Smyth beaker.
She only likes to hold a handmade pottery.
"You process it, feel it, and it gives back this connection to the person who created it."
Therefore, she insists on using it instead of showing it.
"I admit that I lost some during use, but I still believe that it is better to use it and may damage it instead of putting it on a beautiful-looking shelf. I do have a lot of chips."
Bugden's love for ceramics can be traced back to her leaving school when she was a teenager to study ceramics at the Northland Institute of Technology. However, she only did it for two years.
"In any case, I am not a potter. I am a fan."
Instead, she transferred to a degree in fine arts, and her career took her into the curatorial world, especially ceramic exhibitions.
"The core of what I like about ceramics is the idea of making a simple cup, bowl or utensil-you can connect with a manufacturer you may never have seen, just by drinking the cups they make-a love of handmade ."
Royce McGlashan's prairie bowl. She became the senior curator of the Dawes Museum of Art, where she curated many ceramic exhibitions, including "Slip Casting, Moderate Modernism: Roy Cowan and Juliet Peter", "Keep the Hole: Lauren Winston" And the national traveling exhibition, ""Steam of His Own: The Barry Brickell Survey", co-curated with David Craig, and accompanied by a book.
In 2017, Bugden became the first New Zealander to be appointed as a judge of the Portage Ceramics Awards, the country's first survey of contemporary ceramics.
She also served as a judge for the 2016 Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Walters Award and the Singapore Art Museum Signature Art Award.
Mark Hoyle’s difference or I need to change. Her other curators include Artspace Aotearoa in Auckland, City Gallery in Wellington and Te Tuhi Art Center.
Burgden, who lives in Whanganui, also edited an early anthology of New Zealand Porter magazine, part of the archives of New Zealand Porter (1958-1967).
She believes it was this history that prompted New Zealand Ceramics to invite her to serve as a judge for the upcoming National Diamond Jubilee Exhibition in Dunedin as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.
Burgden believes that New Zealand ceramics brought its anniversary celebration to Dunedin. This is the first place to hold a New Zealand ceramic art exhibition. This is something to be proud of.
"This is really important. It recognizes Otago's long history in ceramics."
It was organized by Dunedin potter Oswald Stephens at the Otago Museum and the Visual Arts Association (the predecessor of the Otago Art Association). Therefore, it is appropriate for the Otago Art Association to hold an anniversary exhibition.
The stupa of Yvonne Guillot. He invited 14 national top studio ceramists to participate, including Doreen Blumhardt, Brickell, Len Castle, Peter Stichbury and Dunedin ceramists Helen Dawson and Grete Graetzer.
Its success prompted Stephens and a group of ceramic artists to form a committee to organize the second exhibition and publish a national magazine "New Zealand Potter", which aims to help fund and coordinate national exhibitions.
It has given itself the task of "providing a certain degree of continuity and coordination; guiding, sometimes criticizing, and reflecting the current situation as perceived by us and those we seek advice" (New Zealand Porter, Vol. 6, No. 2 Expect).
The New Zealand Ceramics Association (later New Zealand Ceramics Company) was formally established in 1965 to support the first editorial committee and create a national committee for the ceramics community. The first annual meeting was held in Dunedin.
Since those glorious days, the ceramic industry in New Zealand has experienced ups and downs.
In the 1960s and 1970s, it was feasible for potters to live on the things they made. But in the 1980s, when import laws were changed and the market was opened to cheap imported pottery, many people were forced to withdraw from crafts.
"This is the low point of ceramics in many ways."
But Burgden said that this is not all bad, because it forces some ceramic artists to turn to a new direction-to work in sculpture or installation.
It also forces the ceramist group to face some difficult questions, namely, its direction as a unique art society, or whether it needs to be more open to community producers.
In 1981, with the convening of the first National Ceramics Symposium, the selected membership was cancelled due to the organization's attempts to maintain its vitality.
Bugden said that recently ceramics seems to be "for a while."
''I think this is an interesting moment at the moment. Many young manufacturers have injected new enthusiasm into it, and it has developed in various exciting new directions. But its core is still that simple cup or bowl, you can eat your cereal every morning. "
"Undomesticated Ships" by Nicole Kolig. Social media helps because it provides manufacturers with an opportunity to let people know about their craft and work.
"And I think in this digital age, people are eager to own these handmade objects."
In 2018, the association changed its name to Ceramics NZ as part of its efforts to stay relevant and interact with the ever-changing ceramic community.
''It is an extraordinary achievement to persevere like them. This is really something to celebrate. For many volunteers, this is a caring work. "
It plays an important role for potters and potters, many of whom work alone in the studio because it provides support and publicity.
Recently, the blockade caused by Covid has led to growing interest in crafts and creative industries.
Although many people worry about the impact on artists if people stop buying their works, the opposite is true.
''People spend a lot of time in the house, people want to buy beautiful things to surround themselves. It's really exciting to see this. ''
Almost every ceramist group in the country has a waiting list for those who want to take courses.
"It's a great thing to regain interest."
Bugden said that the various ceramic works being carried out across the country are reflected in the entries for the Jubilee exhibition.
She said that although the entries are all based on ceramics, their presentation methods are quite different.
There are videos and photos focusing on ceramics, and there are even chess made of clay and entries using ceramic 3D printing.
''There is a feeling that new creators have seen what they can do with this material, literally and metaphorically promote and stimulate it, this is a real explosive growth. It is a multifunctional medium.
"There are also many sculptures, many works that break boundaries, and some beautiful simple cups and utensils, a real range."
The themes are different, but many themes focus on the vulnerability of the world’s climate.
"Because the clay actually comes from the ground, it is a very strong connection that the manufacturer is considering."
Therefore, like the rest of the world, New Zealand potters are playing and innovating, "not just throwing wheels".
"There are many new innovations in ceramics."
She found that judging competitions is an interesting job.
''This is a great thing. You will spend a lot of time looking at beautiful objects and thinking about them. "
Without judgment, Bugden, the co-founder and editor of Small Bore Books, is a strategic leader in Whanganui & Partners' creative industries and arts, and a trustee of the Blumhardt Foundation.
When Mrs. Doreen Blumhardt passed away, her house sales income and some of her collections were used to improve craft education.
''This is a lovely legacy. ''
Lecture by Dr. Emma Bugden, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, October 23 at 2 pm; New Zealand Ceramic Association National Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Otago Art Association, October 23 to November 20. Related activities: ceramic walks, meet at The Exchange at 9 am on October 23; various seminars and visits to the ceramic studio at Dunedin College of Art on October 24.
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