Unexpected, uncanny ceramics

Highlighting four emerging Dunedin ceramicists pushing the limit of what ceramics can do is the aim of exhibition ‘‘Holding Space’’ at one of Dunedin’s newest galleries, Hutch. Rebecca Fox talks to the artists about their  work.

A woman holds out her own head as blood pours down. A St Lucy figure holds her eyes in a bowl. Another woman has a hand through her head.

Lucy Hunter describes her ceramic figures as ‘‘supernatural’’ or ‘‘uncanny’’.

Her love of the supernatural or horror has always been present in her creative practices. Hunter is an accomplished musician and her song writing has often had a horror theme.

‘‘It’s always been an aesthetic interest I suppose.’’

She is curious to see how her hand-sculpted figures will sit beside the work of fellow Dunedin ceramicists Jess Nicholson, Locke Jean-Luc Unhold and Mary (Mollie) Schollum, whose works will be exhibited together as ‘‘Holding Space’’ at Hutch.

‘‘I’m really excited to be doing a show here with three really cool artists.’’

The ideas for Hunter’s work just come to her and then she tries to make them work within the constraints of the clay.

‘‘So they don’t turn out exactly how you picture them. Like the one holding up her own head, I wanted it to be just like that but then you can’t get clay to work against gravity, so I did the column of blood — it’s like painting a picture but with clay.’’

Another was inspired by previous work illustrating a game made by her friends featuring 50 Catholic saints, including St Lucy, whose eyes were pulled out.

‘‘It’s been really, really fun. I try and kind of think of a new one each day.’’

The pieces are then under glazed with a clear glaze and fired.

It is a departure from Hunter’s previous work, which has been large decorative or sculptural vases which she started making after taking a ceramics class.

‘‘I’ve always loved art, but music and writing were my main things for a long time.’’

She got into drawing after dropping out of health sciences.

‘‘I was really sad about it and felt like I was wasting my life and then I just started drawing obsessively to cope with that and then I realised that I really, really loved it.’’

After a friend asked her do an ink drawing of her pet, her portraits became quite popular and she was soon painting them on to pet bowls and mugs. It has become a steady income for her.

‘‘I was just sharing stuff on Instagram and I got a lot of good feedback and then Pea Sea Art at Port Chalmers have been incredibly supportive and they ended up letting me have an exhibition. It was amazing.’’

But once she tried ceramics and a friend gave her a wheel, she became obsessed. Even though ceramics can have its challenges, such as the unknown of firing work, it has not deterred her.

‘‘It’s the best bit and the worst bit. You know, when it’s good, it’s so exciting and everything’s all, like, shiny and clean. But when it’s bad, it’s devastating. Devastating.’’

Two years ago she entered the Rick Rudd Foundation Emerging Practitioner in Clay award, receiving the first month-long residency at the Glasgow Street Arts Centre in Whanganui for her ‘‘expressive vessel with vibrant colour, attractive texture and an intriguing depiction of long-armed alien figures emerging from it’’.

The experience of having time to just make solidly reinforced it was what Hunter wanted to do. So this year she has given up her part-time job to go full-time making.

‘‘It’s really exciting. I can’t believe my luck, really.’’

A residency has also inspired Jess Nicholson’s latest work. The 2025 Te Uru Portage Ceramic Awards merit award winner, who strives to avoid mined or imported materials in their practice, has used local clay, reclaimed ceramics and glass from Te Awa Ōtākou (Otago Harbour) in their latest work for the exhibition.

The works are an extension of pieces they began while taking part in their Caselberg Creative Connections residency last year.

‘‘I am combining indigenous and introduced materials using the mosaic process I’ve developed, and embracing the ways these materials accept and reject one another.’’

Unlike their previous work, which has been generally high-fired in a reduction atmosphere with real fire and rock glazes, the new work is made with a low-fired local terracotta and all the glaze comes from reclaimed ceramic and glass gathered from Whaka Oho Rahi (Broad Bay).

‘‘I was inspired by the local red clay of Whaka Oho Rahi and the mass of ceramic and glass shards found along the harbour’s edge.’’

After three months looking at the relationship between a natural, indigenous material interacting with introduced, human-processed materials, Nicholson realised the intertidal species had accepted the shards as perfectly good surfaces for home-making.

‘‘This made me rethink some of my perceptions around material extraction, use and disposal, and what it might say about post-colonial relationships to land.’’

In comparison, Locke Jean-Luc Unhold, who is originally from the United States and is studying his masters in fine arts at Dunedin School of Art, is continuing the same vein of sculptural work he has been making in recent years ‘‘big and pink and wiggly and a little uncomfortable’’.

As a transgender artist, Unhold has been focusing on subverting the cis (people who identify with their assigned gender) gaze.

‘‘It’s really important for me that my work speaks to and connects with other trans people rather than being made to suit cis ideas of what transgender art should be like.

“My ceramic sculptures are reflective of the simultaneous joy and horror of existence within a trans body.’’

For this exhibition, his works play with tension around the question of whether to touch or not at an exhibition, as well as the tension of the trans experience.

‘‘There’s joy and horror, and the desire to reach out and caress but not actually being able to. Their forms are ambiguous — it’s not clear if they are limbs or genitals or organs but they are very definitely fleshy.’’

Unhold feels the works are more refined, technically.

‘‘I’m pushing some of the physical aspects of clay a bit more, especially with regards to how far I can push their centre of balance while keeping them from falling over.’’

To help ensure the large sculptures do not slump or crack, Unhold is having to use a mix of New Zealand and Australian clay. He makes his own glazes and teaches the glaze chemistry course at DSA, as it is his favourite part of making.

‘‘It’s so fascinating because we get to use these amazing minerals from the earth, combine them in different ways, and get gorgeous colours and surfaces. It is equal parts art and science, which is what I love.’’

While Unhold has mostly stuck to the usual blend of pink glossy glazes to achieve the ‘‘fleshy’’ quality of their work, they have also been testing incorporating some purples and blues to further add to the bodily nature of the pieces.

Glazes are also crucial to Mary (Mollie) Schollum’s work, which is an extension of her work last year in the final year of her fine art diploma at the DSA, describing them as predominantly sculptural, with an emphasis on texture, colour and multiple layers of glaze.

‘‘I was testing and developing glazes that would form drips and melt into each other when fired. The form of the piece is purely as a structure to hold the glaze, so these will often have ridges and additions that I am able to layer with glaze to encourage drips and pooling.’’

Schollum, who moved to Dunedin from Auckland to study at the DSA after falling in love with ceramics in 2015, uses mostly white stoneware for the main body of a piece, then layers it with different glaze recipes.

‘‘Each has its own unique melt and texture. Pieces are often fired up to eight times and this pushes both the glazes and the clay to the limit and at times pieces do explode in the firings.’’

She enjoys that unpredictable nature of ceramics and not knowing how a piece is going to look after firing.

‘‘The interactions of the glazes in my works can never be replicated, so each piece is new and exciting. Sometimes not quite what I expected at all, but if something is not quite right then it will have more glaze added and be fired again.’’

The works focus on the idea of excess.

‘‘Nostalgic excess of having too much ice cream as a child or an overload of lollies at a birthday party, memories that are soft and sweet and that we can identify with as adults as being times of joy.

“And, as the counter, the excess that is more negative and vulgar, influenced by the actions of the billionaires in society who rather than helping humanity, focus on self indulgence and ostentatious displays of wealth.’’

While only planning to stay in Dunedin for one year, Schollum has extended her stay to study for a Bachelor of Visual Arts.

‘‘The skills I have gained and the impact that art school has had on my practice was so huge that I have continued with my study.’’

TO SEE
‘‘Holding Space’’, Hutch Gallery (21 Moray Place), April 24-May 20