Claire Bridge

Vessels
Melbourne Now 2023
NGV Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
24 March - 20 August 2023

we are multitudes, 2023

Things are not always as they appear. What might from a distance seem to be an heroic vertical column, or ode to triumphant individualism, is rather a chorus of polyphonous voices, rising. From a more intimate orbit, we are multitudes ruptures the notion of a discrete, distinct individual self. 

These are ecologies of exchange. Matter drips, appearing to move from one piece to the next, or like fungal growth, spreading invisibly through some earthy hyphal root system and fruiting in what may seem to be individual and distinct bodies. But like mycelial webs, these surface manifestations of juicy matter are momentary eruptions of much larger interconnected organisms, mercurially exchanging messages between sky beings and chthonic ones.

we are multitudes riffs on the line (I am large, I contain multitudes) from Song of Myself by poet Walt Whitman. Questioning notions of the intact and defined, we are multitudes forms a collective body which forgoes anthropocentric concepts of the human vessel as contained, individual or singular.

Chimeric ceramic forms enmesh the monstrous, visceral, and psychological with exuberant excess and colour. Informed by concepts of entanglement and emergence by Karan Barad, Sophie Strand and Bayo Akomolafe, I explore the body as kaleidoscopic, porous vessels in symbiotic relationality with multitudes of fungi, sponges, coral, reptiles, bacteria, viruses, and all manner of organisms.

Ruptured forms queer notions of the human and more-than-human. A wound becomes a generative opening, “a literal and metaphysical crack in the familiar”(Akomolafe), where aberrations alter trajectories, porousness enables passage, and scarification entangles intimacies. Drawing on my Anglo-Indian-Australian heritages, I incorporate personal biographies and cross-cultural mythologies of death, decay, ritual and regeneration, into sculptural conglomerations of hybrid beings and hyphenated becomings.

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“A collaboration between the NGV and Craft Victoria, Vessels showcases the work of fifteen artists, craftspeople and designers who expand the parameters of that useful, enduring and familiar object – the vessel.

Vessels are deeply embedded in craft and design traditions. Prescribed as functional objects for holding things such as water, perfume, wine and food, or for carrying goods, vessels are more than purely utilitarian. When designed for social or cultural contexts, vessels can facilitate elaborate dining rituals, the labour of laundry and the pageantry of the liturgy. The stylistic and technological evolution of vessel design and manufacture reflects wider cultural and social change – vessels are often considered important historic objects that provide layers of anthropological information.

For Melbourne Now, the NGV and Craft Victoria have identified artists, craftspeople and designers whose creative practices have been informed by their exploration of the vessel in contemporary culture, with each practitioner producing an ambitious new work that is emblematic of their conceptual focus and skill.

Informed by a deep understanding of cultural traditions, form- making, symbolism and technical and material knowledge, the collection presented in Vessels reflects the themes and innovation of contemporary vessel design in Melbourne.

Constructed from a range of materials, from ceramics and fibre to mixed media and experimental biomaterials, these works – including an amorphous hand-built vessel made of clay, a system of vases that interlock to form a single composition, a bright blue-and-gold work adorned with ceramic feathers, and a bowl made from the burl of a fallen eucalypt – are an intimate expression of each maker, which reflects the city’s diverse design culture and thinking.

Vessels presents a snapshot of contemporary craft and making in Melbourne – the presentation hints at the breadth of material research that is being refined and shared by Melbourne’s creative community. Including ambitious handmade work and industrial production, Vessels offers visitors an opportunity to engage with well-used everyday objects re-imagined through contemporary craft and design.”

~ Gemma Savio, Curator, Contemporary Design and Architecture, NGV

Vessels, Melbourne Now 2023, NGV A