Winner announced in Clunes Ceramic Award

ANDREA Baker’s, ceramic work Collected Silences, was awarded the biennale Clunes Ceramic Award on Saturday.

The prize, valued at $10,000, celebrates and promotes contemporary Australian artists working in the ceramic medium.

Barker, a ceramic artist and educator who lives in Hobart said she is elated and feels privileged by peer recognition in winning the award.

“It is a validation when a judge of Chris Weaver’s standing has seen my work, understood it and given it value,” she said.

Collected Silences seven pieces are intended to create a space for contemplation and a sense of tranquillity where silence, stillness and restraint abide alongside a notion of simplicity and humility, Barker said.

Each porcelain piece is individual in size and shape with a sense of refinement which gently blurs the boundaries between sculptural form and functional object.

“I am a pretty quiet person and throughout life I am always looking for the silent spaces, quiet moments and reflective places,” she said.

“Having spent a lot of time in Japan, going there for residencies and exhibiting in Tokyo, in a culture where humility really exists is something that I try to put into my work.

“Humility it less and less obvious in the modern western world, quite subtle and simple work is often overlooked in the ceramic space.”

Barker lives on the beach in Tasmania and the sea scape and shells influence her art.

The pieces are fragile with very fine rims and while working on the installation there were quite a few that didn’t make it.

“They are basically pinch pots which is the first thing you learn in ceramics 101,” she said. “Some of them were hung upside down to change their shapes, they are then sanded, scraped, have their surfaces burnished.

“Each shape is fired sometimes up to three times so there is probably 10 or 12 hours of work in each piece.

As an acquisitive prize, the winning work, along with others from the exhibition will be added to the Art Gallery of Ballarat’s collection.

“I am extremely impressed by the quality of the finalists in the Award, which includes some of the most exciting artists working in ceramics in Australia today,” said Louise Tegart, AGB Director.

“The calibre of the finalists is testament to the high standing the Award holds and to its growing reputation in wider art circles.

As well as Collected Silences, the Gallery purchased three works from the Awards by Julie Nash, Kelly Austin and Philippa Taylor to add to it substantial ceramics collection.

“To have peer recognition and the monetary component of the prize but also the bonus of becoming part of Ballarat’s permanent collection is great, what can I say that’s what every artist wants,” Barker said.

Kelly Austin’s Thanksgiving was highly commended and recognition awards went to Yoko Ozawa, Stephen Drew and Jane Sawyer.

Clunes Ceramic Award exhibition is at Union Bank Arts Centre Studio, 22 Fraser Street, Clunes until Sunday, 13 October, open Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm.