GRAINS OF SAND IN THE SUN
Article of the Frankfurter Rundschau, February 11, 2003
By Pamela Doerhoerfer
The Australian ceramic artist Pippin Drysdale says her works are
as "sophisticated" as she herself would like to be. Her
ceramics radiate quiet and nobility, and yet conceal surprises,
as their surfaces change with the perspective from which they are
viewed. What from a distance often appears to be monochromatic,
reveals fine nuances on close viewing, a play of subtle light and
color effects, attributes with which it would also be possible
to describe a desert. And there are further parallels between the
works of art and apparently barren nature. The generally fine lines
winding around the form of these vessels are sometimes even, other
times broken, and in some places are even coarse, evoking traces
in the sand that the wind has blown away. The objects are a response
to an excursion over the Tanami desert in an airplane. In her most
recent works Drysdale has captured her impressions of the lonely
landscapes in the northwestern section of the continent from a
bird's perspective. 26 examples of this series are currently on
view in an exhibition entitled "Red Earth" by Heidelberg
gallery owner Marianne Heller that is being held in the Museum
of Applied Arts in Frankfurt.
The approximately 50 centimeter tall vessels are the essence of
emotional experience and aesthetic reflection and the result of
month-long experiments, at the end of which Pippin Drysdale found
an elaborate technique that expresses her mental images. The procedure
is far from reliable: some 40 percent of the output is lost when
fired. However, when everything goes well, form and décor
merge into a unity of the greatest harmony.
While the form impresses with its refined simplicity (and by virtue
of its sheer existence), the shaping of the surface fascinates
with its extraordinary structure, iridescent and multilayered like
coarsely woven natural silk. Drysdale achieves this effect through
many layers of colored glaze, in which she subsequently cuts horizontal
grooves, which are then brushed out and filled with thickly applied
color. Because it dries quickly, the artist can work only on one
small section at a time.
But the surface glitters in an infinite number of facets when
finished, like a grain of sand in the sun. On one object the surface
gleams irritatingly in rainbow colors, while on a different object
warm nature tones contrast with a cool turquoise (for Drysdale,
a memory of water in the desert). The lips of other objects glow
in a flowing orange, as though they were the horizon behind which
the sun were setting.
The landscape in her homeland has inspired the aborigines in a
similar way. The linear decoration typical to Drysdale's works
is found with them as well: in body painting and as patterns in
baskets, which in their cocoon-like form correspond with the objects
on display here.
Pippin Drysdale is, like many contemporary Australian artists,
affected by the culture of the aborigines. Her most recent works
demonstrate, however, that she has found her own unmistakable language,
one that incorporates tradition and yet gives birth to something
fascinatingly new.
(translated by Richard Mills)
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