Juz Kitson – 'Alteration of Incoming Sensoria', 2022

The traditional vessel form has long held an historical connotation for being a domesticated symbol. After almost a decade of working within the field of ceramics Juz realised she had resisted this form and decided it was time to re-imagine the vessel form and challenge the material in new ways previously un-seen within her practice. By eliminating the use of any tools and using only hand formed techniques invented through years of labour intensive experimentation . These excrescent shapes that form like molescs on a rock or spawning mushrooms of exotic fruiting bodies from re-imagined landscapes - implode on the surface of her works with vitality. Juz Kitson straddles with ideas of sacred objects, yet to be catagorisd and catalogued. Here these almost hybrids of nature exist on their own terms, with a raw surrealist nerve. These forms are ever present - ambiguous in there nature and buzz with pulsating life. Though here her works are seen to be re-imagined - no longer do they represent the vessel.. the urn.. but rather they embody characteristics of the human or animal body and ultimately become ‘beings’ that exist in any given space and on their own terms.

—

Kitson’s talismanic objects – memento mori meets animist fetish – combine the dexterous arts of ceramics, textiles and drawing with a strong sense of materialism and process. Overtly seductive, the works’ tension lies in resisting the conventions of craft such as the throwing wheel and the plinth, both central to ceramic traditions. Bound with mystique and feminine power, Kitson’s suspended chimeras become both captivating and unnerving, touching gently on a raw, surrealist nerve. A wanderer and gatherer, Sydney born Kitson, had until the pandemic divided her time between the South Coast of Australia and Jingdezhen, the ‘porcelain capital’ of China. 

—

Jugs

May 6- June 24

Read about the exhibition.

Jugs is part of Melbourne Design Week 2023, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.

Material: Stoneware, raku, oxide, lustre.

Dimensions: approx. 69 x 40 x 39cm