1 - 19 May 2008
about the exhibition
Marianne Huhn creates her Limoges porcelain pieces by hand through a long process which commences with throwing the form on the wheel. Once the works are leather hard, she draws, scratches and paints directly onto the surface of each piece. The layers are then worked back to reveal tones and shadow, with the pots then ready to fire after some internal glazing. The simple, functional forms that she uses illustrates often historical architecture such as houses, castles, walls and forts that appear on much of her early work. Marianne is fascinated with the division and balance of internal and external spaces, how private spaces are created and how humans develop their sense of privacy. This exhibition concentrates on the maps in our lives and the boundaries we create through land and cultures. Building on her past themes of architectural and domestic spaces, Marianne explores how populations divide and mark territories by the creation of homes, streetscapes and cities and how we conceal or reveal ourselves as we construct our confines. Marianne intentionally leaves the mark of her hand, either on the inside or outside of the pot’s surface to place emphasis on the individuality of the work and the importance of the human touch.
Marianne Huhn received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Ceramics from RMIT University in 1993, and a Masters Degree in 1998. She has participated in over two dozen group exhibitions since 1988, and she received the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery National Ceramic Acquisition Award in 1997. Her work is represented in the collections of Newcastle Regional Gallery, NSW, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and numerous private collections in Hong Kong, Germany, South Africa and USA.
