Urn with Nature Pot

Urn with Nature Pot 2018

BRENNAN, Angela

Registration number

1739285

Artist/maker

BRENNAN, Angela

Title

Urn with Nature Pot

Production date

2018

Medium

earthenware

Dimensions (H x W x D)

77 x 40 x 40 cm

Inscriptions

swamp paperbark / Eastern quoll, yellow box, / growling grass frog, silurian / sediments, tussock grass, stubble / quail, kororoit creek, mulloway, / wetland wallaby grass, minox strana (powerful owl) / brush turkey, candlebark / merri creek, black wattle, red / river gum, lava plains, kookaburra, / spotted, galaxias, busaria spinosa, / mannagum, Eastern pygmy possum, / black wallaby, glass creek, / eucalyptus macrorhyncha / short finned eel, pleistorene / tafted honey eaters, Platypus / Pink swamp-heath, yabby / allocasaurina /

Credit line

Commissioned by the City of Melbourne, 2018
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
© Courtesy of the artist

Keywords

Angela Brennan, Urn with Nature Pot, ceramics, Sevres vase (1880), Emblazon: Melbourne's coat of arms, City Gallery, 2018

Summary

Artist statement In March 2018, the City of Melbourne invited me to respond to its Sèvres vase. My work is an earthenware vessel with a separate top. I have worked with the original form but ‘played’ with its features. Instead of two squarish handles I have placed four curved handles towards the base. The four smaller vessels at the top of the pot echo the original vase, a kind of self-referential play on vase-making. The sculptural kangaroo on the lid mirrors the painted kangaroo on the Sèvres vase. Inspired by German lava-ware pottery, I have chosen colours that in the kiln create an effect of ‘running into each other’. This effect also reflects the geology of Melbourne’s west, with its immense volcanic lava plains. I have also used quite a lot of gold/metallic glaze, inspired by the gold on the original urn. Lastly, the text on my pot captures and honours the environment of Melbourne before Melbourne existed. Angela Brennan June 2018