Steve Harrison – Precious Little

by Carole Epp | May 24, 2011 | Uncategorized

Opens: 6–8pm Wednesday 1 June 2011
Closes: 5pm Saturday 18 June 2011

I’m including some of Steve’s text on the works as I find it very interesting and relevant to the understanding of his incredible work.

@font-face { font-family: “ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.Body, li.Body, div.Body { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; color: black; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } “These works that I have created for this show are very small and intimate. They are like little gems – jewels from my kiln, from my life. They are created as part of an attempt to live an honest life of commitment to art, creativity, and compassion, while being environmentally aware and caring. My bowls are as perfect as I can make them, but they are not perfect, they are just what they are. They represent me at this time and place and in this way they are deeply flawed. They are also as perfectly beautiful as I can make them, however it is a strange beauty of imperfection, such that they have to be accepted as they are, with all their beautiful faults and flaws. So here am I and this is my work. These bowls are neither perfect nor imperfect, not beautiful or ugly, they represent neither success nor failure, they are just what they are.
@font-face { font-family: “ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.Body, li.Body, div.Body { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; color: black; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } They are not complete until they are handled, held gently, cupped in your hands, used and really explored through the intimacy of the mundane rituals of sharing food. That is when they come alive, in your hands, when you sense their weight and balance, the feel of lip on lip. Each one has a story embedded in its form and surface. It’s not obvious, it takes time to explore, but it is a rewarding tale to be discovered by the patient pilgrim. They are most complete when they enter another’s story and start to share what they embody. These few objects are all that there is to show for my year’s work. Precious little return for my year’s efforts. For this show I have concentrated on working with the naturally occurring native porcelain stone that I discovered locally just over one hundred moons ago. All the work was fired in my hand-made potters kiln constructed from my own firebricks that I fashioned myself from local clay. They were then fired with wood grown locally and glazed with my luscious, soft melted and slowly fused glazes that I created from the same porcelain stone as the pots and then mixed with other ground up stones and ashes, collected and prepared from within my immediate locality. Working with these specially selected materials has allowed me to create these tiny, light and delicately pale objects that glow in the sun. They are a direct product of me in my environment. I have been thinking about how I can live more gently, causing as little damage as possible, while living a creative life. Creating objects like these is part of my answer. Nothing in life is ever certain, although I sometimes wish that it was. The use of locally collected rocks and stones adds extra layers of uncertainty to any perceived outcome. There is a natural variability inherent in the use of small lenses of clay and tiny volcanic dykes and sills. Added to this the variations in collecting methods, and the natural seasonal variability of such fickle and capricious materials as wood ash makes replication of any bowl virtually impossible. This choice of method and material suits my quixotic ways. It is this particular combination of approach and circumstances that make these works mine and I rejoice in their singularity. These are the last bowls to be fired in my old kiln. This old kiln has given good service over the past decade or so but the effects of the continual exposure to the flying wood ash at such very high temperatures has dissolved a lot of the surface of my inferior hand made firebricks causing them to spall and degrade to the point where they were crumbling away. I enjoyed working with that old kiln, it allowed me to create work of great charm and subtlety. I am never sure how my efforts will reward me. I try not to think about it too much and just accept the consequences of my actions. However, I do keep careful notes, and in this case I apparently made good choices and this specific ‘flame lens’ design was very productive in facilitating some lovely wood fired ceramic qualities. This beautiful old kiln having served me well, has recently been demolished and a new hand-made kiln of a different character has replaced it. I also built this new kiln from self-made fire bricks fashioned from my local refractory bauxite clay, this new design will inevitably create works of a slightly different nature, so these bowls are the last of their kind. Creating works like these is one of the ways in which I am attempting to make sense of my life. These bowls are some of the way-markers of that life. They represent me and my work, here and now. They are part of my artistic language with which I describe and share this precious little part of my existence.” WATTERS GALLERY
109 Riley Street,
East Sydney NSW 2010
Tel: (02) 9331 2556
Fax: (02) 9361 6871
www.wattersgallery.com
[email protected]
Hours: 10am–5pm Tues & Sat, 10am–7pm Wed to Fri

The work in this exhibition can be viewed at www.wattersgallery.com
Find out more about Steve Harrison on his website www.hotnsticky.com.au