(Pea Sea Art)
On show at Pea Sea Art in Port Chalmers is a selection of soda-fired pottery by the Otago Potters Group. The soda-firing process is a technique where soda ash (sodium carbonate) is sprayed into the kiln at close to peak temperatures: in this case, around 1250°C. It is a form of atmospheric firing where vapour and fire work together to create visual results unforeseen by the potter.
For the Otago Potters Group, this form of firing "allows for a rich and varied surface on the pots, with the vagaries of the soda vapour generating unpredictable and aesthetically wild effects".
Members of the Otago Potters Group in this exhibition are Ben Cole, Liz Rowe, Mollie (Mary) Schollum, Dinah Cameron, Marion Familton, Julia Marie, Jess Nicholson, Phoebe Ryder, Erin Jones and Locke Jean-Luc Uphold. Some of these members have been potting for decades, while others are relatively new to the practice.
On show is a diverse collection of work and a range of approaches to shaping, glazing and decorating, including function and utility.
The soda-firing technique broadly dictates an earthy flame-kissed aesthetic to the finish of the
work, and the unique effects need to be seen in person to appreciate the rich detail and gradients of colour.
(Olga Gallery )
From a ferocious black cat, to a fighting bull, to a drooling Komodo dragon, Holly Aitchison’s charcoal drawings of animals have a palpable collective energy. The depicted animals hail from a range of geographies, and cohere as a body of work about human and animal language and behaviour.
The title of the exhibition, "Telos" (to mean the end goal or purpose of a thing) refers to an Aristotelian premise that the artist endorses: "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance." Working from found imagery or photographs, Aitchison has spent the past two years building up this collection of drawings that involve both emotional engagement with animalistic expression and a process of catharsis.
The title of each work references the name of the animal depicted and a more human experience, response, or malevolence, even. One of the works, pictured here, is titled Target Panic\Don’t Eat Me (shoebill) and alludes to a sense of panic associated with documented symptoms of anxiety or fear of failure experienced when aiming an arrow at a target. This work is also an image of a species of stork found in tropical East Africa, known for stalking its prey very slowly or even motionlessly and using only its vision.
(New Lands Gallery and Project Space)
"The Last Night I Died and the Day I Was Born Again" occupies multiple off-site and online locations in addition to New Lands. Thematically, Fourie’s project begins at the Dunedin School of Art with the myth of Narcissus: in an outside location, a video still/self-portrait in the guise of Narcissus, catches their reflection in a pool of water. Connected by a trail of vinyl stickers, this work extends to New Lands’ new space in lower Stuart St and a wall installation of video-stills greets the viewer in the entrance way. This aspect of the Fourie’s project is drawn from the artist’s HYPERBALLAD (2023-24) video-based series that reference internet culture and pop music through the lens of the artist’s study on narcissism. (These video works are hosted on the CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image website and can be viewed there.)
A collection of ceramic sculptures and textile works with hand-beaten copper frames are shown together in the main gallery space. Both bodies of work reference mythological and cosmic elements of water and together thematically embody a sense of rebirth: ceramic grottos with glossy glazes allude to the threshold of the River of Styx, and the deep indigo blues and warm greens of the embroidery allude to the form and movement of water in abstract interweaving stitches.
By Joanna Osborne
