POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Earthenware vase by Nixon Pottery

Object No. 2003/140/1

This earthenware vase was made in the 1950s by the small Sydney pottery, Nixon, which was one of dozens operating in Sydney after the Second World War. Its main rival, the Martin Boyd Pottery, was the most significant pottery in Sydney at this time and was responsible for wares decorated with Aboriginal-style motifs. This vase, part of the Jemba production line made by Nixon Pottery, features similar decorations - hand painted in a stylised manner and representing Aboriginal men hunting in a desert landscape. Its subject and style is notably similar to the contemporary pieces produced at the Martin Boyd Pottery and at other potteries in and around Sydney. Aboriginal-style imagery was immensely popular in Australia after the Second World War when local designers, and Australians at large, were searching for a national cultural identity. Australia's Indigenous heritage provided a rich source of inspiration. Designers and craftspeople alike looked towards Indigenous art, particularly to rock art, to source and modify motifs to suit contemporary fashions. The result was a stylised imagery that often blended the colours of the desert landscape with forms of cross-hatching and references to dot painting, native plants and animals, animal footprints, spears, boomerangs and Aboriginal people themselves. These appeared on the inexhaustible range of domestic wares produced at semi-commercial potteries in Australia in the 1950s. While some of these domestic wares were made from thrown clay, many were moulded or slipcast and were usually decorated with mix-and-match colours and painted designs. The most popular forms of domestic ware included coffee sets, ramekin sets, dinner sets, and ashtrays and savoury dishes shaped like boomerangs. With restrictions on imports continuing after the war, these items proved immensely popular in Australia and featured in home-living journals, like 'Australian Home Beautiful'. Arising from this trend was an overseas market for Australian wares. ‘Aboriginalia’ was popularised during the 1950s, rooted in colonisation, and is imitative of Indigenous artworks and cultural Identities. Examples of Aboriginalia can include boomerangs, didgeridoos, bullroarers, as well as common household items decorated with traditional designs and motifs. While a small proportion of some Aboriginalia is made by First Nations artists, the vast majority of Aboriginalia was made by non-indigenous people appropriating traditional techniques or designs gleaned from ethnographic museum collections. This type of artwork is often sold as souvenirs or decorative items represents an appropriation of local and international audiences’ deep interest for First Nations Aboriginal culture and decorative arts. Bill Onus, a Yorta Yorta man from Melbourne along with the Timbery Family of La Perouse in Sydney, were one of the very few First Nations people on the forefront of the Aboriginalia wave back in the early 1960s. Despite facing challenges of living under assimilationist government policies and government interventions such as the Stolen Generations policies that deeply impacted theirs and their extended families’ lives, the Onus’s and the Timberys turned cottage industries of making authentic cultural artefacts into thriving businesses that supported their families and developed a sense of pride amongst their countrymen. For some First Nations people, these objects hold a sentimental value, often being the first type of representation of First Nations culture they engaged with within family homes. On the other side, this type of decorative arts is a reminder of the post-war market where non-indigenous artists stole and profited from traditional designs while stereotyping and sexualizing First Nations people. Notable contemporary artists working to reclaim this style of art are KuKu and Erub/Mer artist, Destiny Deacon, and Girramay, Yidinji, and Kuku Yalanji artist, Tony Albert. While going forward the Powerhouse seeks to only acquire works that represent First Nations cultures and peoples that are made by First Nations peoples, we recognise the impact these objects had to the Australian design scene, their role in truth telling about our shared history and acknowledge all held sentiments towards these works. Updated by Madeline Poll, Assistant Curator, 2024