In late 2011, Tania was selected as one of four finalists in Vitrify: The Alcorso Ceramic Award. This group of ceramic works, titled ‘one thing or another’ was made for the award exhibition, and shown at the Jam Factory in Adelaide, South Australia, from 7th September to 20th October 2012.

Vitrify installation, one thing or another, 2012

The ceramic works in this show developed out of drawings completed late in 2011, as part of Tania’s MFA project ‘between objects and images’.

possibility series, 2011
pencil on paper

possibility (detail), 2011

possibility 1, 2011
pencil on paper, 38 x 28 cm

possibility 2, 2011
pencil on paper, 38 x 28 cm

Vitrify installation one thing or another, 2012

one thing or another 22, 2012
stoneware, ceramic pencil, and acrylic on wire
19 x 16 x 16 cm

one thing or another 12, 2012
stoneware and ceramic pencil
16 x 16 x 4 cm

one thing or another 13, 2012
stoneware, ceramic pencil, and acrylic on wire
19 x 17 x 15 cm

one thing or another 10, 2012
stoneware, ceramic pencil, and acrylic on wire
12 x 27 x 5 cm

one thing or another 9, 2012
stoneware and ceramic pencil
20 x 20 x 4 cm

one thing or another 17, 2012
stoneware and ceramic stains
16 x 13 x 9 cm

one thing or another 7, 2012
stoneware, ceramic stains and pencil
27 x 27 x 3 cm

one thing or another 6, 2012
stoneware and ceramic pencil
20 x 16 x 4 cm

one thing or another 5, 2012
stoneware and acrylic on wire
20 x 20 x 3 cm

one thing or another 4, 2012
stoneware, ceramic pencil and stain
29 x 29 x 4 cm

one thing or another 3, 2012
stoneware
24 x 12 x 4 cm

one thing or another 18, 2012
stoneware and ceramic stain
9 x 12 x11 cm

artist statement
one thing or another

I work between ceramics and drawing to dwell upon questions of recognition and meaning – how do we make sense of the familiar objects that surround us, and how do objects help us make sense of ourselves? I hope that my work offers an opportunity to look slowly and speculate.

The human brain cannot help but attribute meaning to form. Familiar forms can be recognized and dismissed immediately (we tend to look through these objects to their meaning as signs), but unrecognisable forms create a still point of uncertainty, a direct experience outside the mediation of language and culture. These ‘things’ remind us that looking is active and subjective, that what we see arises from what we expect, remember, understand or feel.

Ceramic objects with drawing on them offer a particular opportunity for dialogue between form and surface, a chance to pose questions, and open possibility. What happens to our understanding of objects when they are transformed from three dimensions to two, when they shift between the concrete and the abstract, reality and representation? A known object is abstracted, a drawing becomes an object, the object becomes a drawing, old meanings are lost, and perhaps a new meaning will arise. Silhouettes, false spaces and un-nameable shapes hint at some essential truth, but objective assessment is subverted – ultimately what is disclosed is inadvertent: a projection of the viewers’ own desires.

tania rollond, 2012