Kate Fitzharris, Good Egg #2, Ceramic, 2024, 145 x 165 x 110mm
Kate Fitzharris is our October laurel for delicate ceramic works that poignantly care for our fragile world.
The Good Egg works came about after the invitation from Cheryl Lucas to participate in a project where she gave out ceramic eggs to other artists to see what might emerge. The resulting exhibition is Free Range curated by Cheryl Lucas and Caroline Billing at The National, Christchurch until the 28th of September.
“In Free Range, 16 contemporary artists plunder the associations of the egg. At the invitation of Cheryl Lucas, each artist in the exhibition was given 12 ceramic eggs (made by Lucas). In a concept that is equal parts delight and curiosity, she called upon friends and makers to see how they would answer the creative challenge.
“Rich with potential, eggs serve as symbols of rustic abundance, of new life, the continuation of cycles, or caretaking, and of sustenance. Inherently fragile, the neat organic capsule yet protects a hidden bounty. The assembled artists take these cues and run”. ~ Tessa McPhee
When making my “Good Eggs” I was thinking about care and responsibility, and how best to look after these eggs entrusted to me, considering both the eggs’ fragility and their huge potential. I relish this kind of opportunity: to be given an object as a starting point, to be trusted to head off somewhere of my choosing. And to come back again and mingle with the rest of the community of makers in the resulting exhibition of work. My practice is predominantly concerned with clay and ceramics and the relationship we have developed with these materials across time.
Kate Fitzharris, Good Egg #1, Ceramic, 2024. 210 x 100 x 140mm
Clay is part of our earthy geological family tree: simultaneously complex hydrated aluminophylosillicates, mountains and rocks worn down to the tiniest pieces and mother earth. In many cultures, stories tell of the first people being formed from clay. Clay is also very much entwined with our domestic lives, as functional ceramic objects and porcelain figurines on our mantelpieces. Clay carries all these geological and cultural histories, and I am interested in how this wild earthy substance has become part of our domestic routines.
Clay objects are very useful in our day-to-day lives, as vessels to contain or carry physical things, like tea and biscuits, but also stories and meaning. My current body of work considers clay’s physical materiality and the way that objects that we live with partake in our lives, as they witness our most private moments and store our memories whilst providing us with companionship and somehow helping reveal us to ourselves.
I work out of my home studio in Waitati, just north of Ōtepoti Dunedin. Out of my studio window, I can see the estuary where the Waitati and Orokonui rivers converge and head out to the sea. I use a mix of commercial blends of clay and foraged materials (clays, sands, gravels) that I find mostly on walks around my extended neighbourhood. Spring is particularly beautiful right now! There is lots of new growth and blossom around the garden. And the hens have started laying again.
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Free Range 28 August – 28 September, The National
