Adrienne Richards
About the work
Commit it then to the flames, 2024
stoneware with underglaze, stains, oxides, various glazes
$2200
The title of this work is a quote by David Hume, the 18th Century Scottish philosopher, whose ideas about humans and the world rejected those that went before. Reminiscent of a view from the Enlightenment, Lithgow’s Blast Furnace stands abandoned on a hill, high above the wetland of Lake Pillans. Is this a sign of ideas being rejected yet again, to think about a different world where humans are not always at the centre of existence?
This collection of tile fragments, arranged like an offering under glass, is a scene made in blue and white, a technique highly sought after in 17th and 18th Century Europe and still favoured today, sits amongst other fragments inspired by nature.
Like metal ore in the blast furnace, in the ceramic process, clay and minerals, dug from the Earth, are committed to fire each time the door closes and the kiln goes on.
Often when you paint on ceramic with oxides and underglaze colours, the liquid soaks into the raw or bisqued clay surface and the layers are rendered invisible or just a clump of matt shapes. Raw cobalt is a dusty lilac colour so you don’t see the transparent brushwork until it’s fired. You have to paint without really seeing and then wait patiently for the kiln to cool and offer up its gift of bright deep blue in all its shades. So, for the ceramic maker, test tiles are very important.
About Adrienne Richards
A graduate in Fine Art, Canberra School of Art, Adrienne lives in Springwood, Blue Mountains and has a studio at kil.n.it Experimental Ceramics Studio in Glebe, Sydney.
Adrienne makes hand-built ceramic forms, with applied drawings, surface decoration and glazing techniques, exploring issues around the environment and humans’ place on Earth.
Her work has a direct link with science through her past experiences in the museum sector, including the Australian and Powerhouse Museums, the State Library of NSW, and her many return visits to museum collections.
Top image: Adrienne Richards, Commit it then to the flames (detail), 2024. Photo: @fatografi.