Wallum Mapping - Diurnal Variation

2011 - Highly Commended

Artist: Shannon Garson | Medium: porcelain, glaze, oxide, terra sigilata, ceramic pencil | Size: 27cm x 40cm x 80cm | Date completed: 2011

Artist Statement

These pots are maps. The marks are intended to draw the viewer over the surface, they map the volume and exterior of the vessel, the journeys I've taken through the wallum and the creative process.  Mapmakers claim that maps should contain a wealth of information and be multivariate. The richness of information in a map generates hypothesis, stimulates ideas and further research. Perhaps the purpose of art and the purpose of mapping intersect.

I am a contemporary ceramicist working in porcelain.  My work is based on drawing and observation with particular emphasis on flora. Last year I investigated the wallum swamp and created a body of porcelain, jewellery and glasswork inspired by the wallum eco-system. Part of this project was visiting and working with Canberra Glassworks.  I worked with glass artist Kirstie Rea and glass blower Annette Blair to create a small body of work with glass.  I was very inspired by the possibilities for working with drawing directly onto both blown glass form and kiln fused tiles. The mysterious, colourful images from the herbarium could be transferred onto multiple layers of kiln –fused glass creating a three dimensional tactile object from the two-dimensional archival image.

There is much to be learned through simply observing the world, being aware of the physical things that surround us. Painter Georgia O’Keefe painted detailed plant structures on a huge scale. Through observation O’Keefe linked the actual world to the metaphorical world. Her detailed plant paintings became an abstract rendering of what flowers are really about- flaunting the reproductive organs and attracting pollinators. O’Keefe’s flowers take the idea and observation of a flower and extract its psychological resonances. In the same way the herbarium specimens can be used to connect the world of research to the world of visual imagery, lyricism and poetry through art.

Judge's Statement

The highly commended award goes to Shannon Garson whose ceramics are gorgeous, delicately decorated objects. Her vision is entirely unique, without parallel or comparison.