In an Ideal World: the 2019 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award at Shepparton Art Museum
Intro: road trip
I almost missed the opening of the 2019 Sidney Myer Fund Australian Ceramic Award. I’d been at the Melbourne Convention Centre for Denfair, Australia’s biggest design trade-fair and also to attend the Friends and Associates/Local Design exhibition Expo 2019, a tightly curated, three day design pop-up, held at what used to be the Meat Market Craft Centre in North Melbourne, now ‘reimagined’ as a venue for hire.
Caught the train back to Bendigo, jumped in the car and called in to work at Bendigo Pottery, Australia’s oldest and largest ceramics manufacturer, before continuing down the highway to Shepparton, arriving just in time for the speeches.
That little journey covered a lot of ground – design, craft, industry and finally art. For what it’s worth, that’s the context for this review.
In an Ideal World
If clay is a wonky mirror made of mud, forever fixed by an attentive fire, then the 2019 Sidney Myer Fund Ceramic Award is a hall of mirrors; at once reflecting the makers, the selectors and the judges; the institution, current fashions and trends; and the experiences that all those who view this exhibition bring to the table, which I guess includes me.
So, in the interests of full disclosure I should state that I’ve never entered this award but I did, in late 2018, exhibit an installation piece at SAM which occupied the same extensive vitrine used by Steven Bird for his work in this exhibition.
The first time I peered into that lobby-sized art aquarium, SAM’s Director, Dr. Rebecca Coates, had filled the space with a riotous and colourful collection of early to mid-twentieth century art pottery – it really was a delight and also something quite close to my heart, as it was exactly the type of pottery made by my current employer, Bendigo Pottery, back in the day. (I’m sure I’ve seen the case-mold for the swan-vase they had displayed somewhere around
