The exhibition featured a number of pieces with very specifically
Swedish connections especially the fence series plates.
The Widowmaker Tree bowl, features a dead Australian Gum tree.
The piece was made whilst I was on a residency at the University
of South Australia and the Jam
Factory in Adelaide. In my research
into landscape patterns on ceramics I have realized that whilst
there are many patterns of European, North American and more
exotic locations, there appear to be none of Australia. I started
to re-dress
the balance. This particular bowl was bought from an Antique
shop in Adelaide, but it was actually made in Gustavsberg Sweden.
I
thought it appropriate to bring it back to Sweden when I had
my show at blas&knada. I was delighted then when the Museum
at Gustavsberg bought the bowl for its collection. This artefact has
journeyed around the world, perhaps with Swedish émigrés
to Australia in the 1930’s … then in my use of the
surface to fuse a depiction of an element of the Australian landscape,
it has been given evidence of its journey and time away from Europe.
Now its back in same building where it was originally made…
At the preview I met Jan
Fieldsend from the University of Sydney
who ha been doing some research in Europe. In a remarkable conversation
(an Australian artist researching over-glaze painting on china,
who chanced upon my exhibition whilst briefly in Stockholm) she
told me that the tree used to be called a widow-maker. The first
European settlers ring barked trees to clear the land. Gum trees
soon become very brittle when dead, and branches broke off very
easily. When an axe hit the trunk – it proved fatal for a
number of unfortunate settlers after good firewood.... hence the ‘Widow-maker’ tag.
