exhibitions

ceramics

28 May - 16 June 2009

about the exhibition

In creating her hand crafted vessels, Fiona Hiscock is motivated by a desire to attach joyful artistic expression to elevated functional form. Drawing heavily on the traditions of botanical illustration and colonial histories she harnesses the expressive power of fruit and floral imagery from remnant early settler’s gardens. Fiona views the traditions of utilitarian ceramic vessels within a broader concept of functionalism, relating her forms to pieces that were used in daily domestic rituals of the past. By exaggerating the scale of these forms, Fiona questions their mundane status and suggests the objects of daily life deserve prominence and position as items of beauty. Her vessels, loosely based on early colonial objects such as water pitchers, basins, cups and mixing bowls, are built by hand using the ‘coiling’ technique. Fiona transfers the image, or parts of the image onto the pots by drawing directly onto the bone dry, unfired surface using a lead pencil. Ceramic stains and coloured oxides are then applied in much the same way that watercolours are used, building up layers of soft colour wash. Recently, Fiona has added weeds like the blackberry bush to her vocabulary of quince, figs and pears. The meanings behind these motifs are not given, rather they gain associations for the beholder that are built up over time as they, and the vessels that bear them, are incorporated into the fold of experience and memory. By depicting scenes taken from the life cycle of a chosen plant – bud, flower, spent flower, fruit and occasionally the pollinating insect – Fiona intimates themes of the seasons of life to which everyday objects bear witness.

Born in Melbourne in 1965, Fiona completed her training at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in the early 1990s. In 1999, Fiona received an Australia Council grant to travel to Millennium Ceramics conference in Amsterdam and, in 2002, was the recipient of the Alice Springs Craft Award. She has been exhibiting consistently since 1991 and her work is represented in the collections of Parliament House, Jewish Museum of Australia, Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University, Shepparton Art Gallery, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Gold Coast Regional Art Gallery and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.

exhibition images

  • 1. $880 Quince blossom bowl - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 22 x 23 x 23cm

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  • 2. $1,200 Mariners Falls blackberry pitcher - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed. 36 x 39 x 17cm

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  • 3. $1,320 Merrijig rosehip vase - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 43 x 20 x 20cm

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  • 4. $1,350 Mariners Falls blackberry vase - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 45 x 20 x 20cm

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  • 5. $1,380 Apollo Bay blackberry vase - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 44 x 20 x 20cm

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  • 6. $1,350 Slender Flemington lemon vase - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 46 x 22 x 22cm

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  • 7. $320 Lemon flower cup - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 10 x 14 x 10cm

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  • 8. $320 Small rosehip cup - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 9 x 14 x 9cm

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  • 9. $320 Leaf cup - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 9 x 15 x 10cm

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  • 10. $880 Merrijig rosehip bowl - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 22 x 23 x 23cm

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  • 11. $1,350 Slender Flemington lemon pitcher - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 43 x 35 x 17cm

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  • 12. $880 Merricks blackberry bowl - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 21 x 22 x 22cm

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  • 13. $1,380 Quince vessel - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 46 x 24 x 24cm

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  • 14. $980 Merrijig cake stand - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 8 x 29 x 29cm

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  • 15. $1,100 Quince blossom and bee pitcher - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 30 x 33 x 15cm

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  • 16. $880 Quince bowl - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 22 x 22 x 22cm

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  • 17. $800 Merrijig blackberry jar - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 37 x 12 x 12cm

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  • 18. $600 Merrijig rosehip jar - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 25 x 15 x 15cm

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  • 19. $650 Blackberry jar - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 28 x 16 x 16cm

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  • 20. $1,200 Quince and bee cassoulet - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 12 x 34 x 38cm

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  • 21. $400 Honey jar - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 17 x 13 x 13cm

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  • 22. $980 Honey cake stand - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 8 x 29 x 29cm

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  • 23. $1,100 Flemington lemon pitcher - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 29 x 34 x 15cm

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  • 24. $1,320 Quince blossom vase - high-fired earthenware, hand painted and glazed, 42 x 19 x 19cm

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