POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Prevail' by Kirsten Coelho

Object No. 2019/9/1

'Prevail' was created by Kirsten Coelho, an Adelaide-based ceramic artist who makes monochromatic wheel-thrown porcelain bottle forms and containers often presented as still-life groupings. Believing that ceramics have 'the potential to act as visual metaphors for cultural and historical convergence', her work has been influenced by nineteenth and early twentieth century domestic vessels, particularly white enamel ware and other metal containers found in Australian kitchens and sheds, which show signs of use and decay. Coelho reinterprets everyday vessels of the past using fine white porcelain, a material traditionally associated with luxury. She 'disrupts' their perfect forms with thin brush strokes of iron oxide which when fired, bleed into the glazes simulating rusty edges and stains, thus evoking both the precious and the commonplace. Her carefully orchestrated arrangements of white porcelain containers so unexpectedly corrupted by 'rust', make us think of the passage of time and the values we place on everyday utilitarian objects. Coelho has joined acclaimed Australian ceramicists Gwyn Hanssen Pigott and Prue Venables in the relatively recent tradition of creating meditative porcelain clusters that, like the poetic still-life paintings of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, seek to convey essential stillness. Coelho's 'rust marks' however, as noted by Stephen Bowers, 'remove her work from the realm of unattained classical perfection and place it firmly within the context of real world and mortal decay.' Eva Czernis-Ryl, Curator, 2019 References Stephen Bowers, 'Iron in the Soul' Ceramic Review, May/June 2008,https://www.adriansassoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kirsten-Coelho-ceramic-review.pdf Adrian Sassoon https://www.adriansassoon.com/artists/kirsten-coelho/ Julie Ewington, 'Still: Kirsten Coelho's ceramics' www.garlandmag.com/article/still-kirsten-coelhos-ceramics/