The city of Greater Shepparton has had a long association with ceramics. In the early 1970s the first director Keith Rogers followed by former director Peter Timms, established the Shepparton Art Gallery as the first gallery in Australia to specialise in ceramics. Initiatives such as the Caltex Awards held in the late 1970s and early 1980s attracted a lot of attention from Australian potters, strengthening the gallery’s ceramic collection. With the demise of the Caltex Award the Sidney Myer Fund Australia Day Ceramics Award was established in 1991 focussing on Australian ceramists. This focus has expanded under the criteria of the Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award commencing in 1997, which has seen participants from many different countries. The current exhibition contains works from Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan and the U.S.A.

In 1999 the international aspect was further expanded through La Trobe University sponsoring a judge from overseas. Previous judges include Takeshi Yasuda (UK.) in 1999, John Chalke (Canada) in 2000, Satoru Hoshino (Japan) in 2002. The judge has to be an international ceramic artist who has a significantly high profile within the field and has the sole responsibility in selecting participants as well as judging the four awards associated with the exhibition.

This year’s judge was British ceramic artist, historian, researcher and educator Josie Walter. Josie is an active exhibitor, publisher of ceramics articles and presenter of conference papers. She is currently a senior lecturer in History and Theory of Design, Illustration and Sustainable Design and Practice at the University of Derby and a visiting lecturer at the Glas & Keramikskolen, Pa Bornholme, Denmark. She has curated many exhibitions, most recently an exhibition called Pots in the Kitchen at the Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire. This exhibition, which will also tour France, Denmark and Holland draws its inspiration from her book titled Pots in the Kitchen.

The fifty exhibits selected for the 2004 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award this year, representing fourteen different countries, were selected from two hundred and forty five entries. This was not an easy task particularly with the selection being made from slides rather than from viewing actual works. Slide images rarely give a true indication of scale or reveal the total three-dimensional character of the piece.

When Josie considered her selection of the 2004 exhibition, she felt that the pieces needed to reflect the innate qualities of their materials. For example, if the piece was made from porcelain, then the artist had responded to the qualities of that material. In the final selection of the pieces it was felt that the exhibition should incorporate a broad cross-section of techniques indicative of current pottery trends. As a consequence, the exhibition is extremely diverse in its representation of materials and processes together with makers from a wide range of countries.

Four awards are presented: the $15,000 Sidney Myer Fund Premier Award, the La Trobe University Award of Merit, the Friends of the Shepparton Art Gallery Award of Merit and the Poyntzpass Pioneers Award of Merit. The Sidney Myer Fund Premier Award for 2004 was awarded to Chinese ceramic artist Yanze Jiang for her Teapots on Parade. Speaking about this selection, Josie applauded Yanze Jiang’s reference to the vessel as a starting point for her body of work. The teapots, which reflect kneeling human bodies engaged in the traditional tea ceremony, seem most apt. Slip casting can be a severe technique but not only has Yanze created soft flowing forms in porcelain, she has made each piece individual by impressing as well as adding to the surface to create soft textures, enhanced by some very lyrical brushstrokes. Josie went on to say the pieces work well as a group. Yanze mentions an allusion to soldiers on parade but the teapots also work well as individual pieces.

The La Trobe University Award of Merit was awarded to Ryota Aoki from Japan for a delightful bowl titled Luxury. This bowl appears almost weightless, an exquisitely delicate piece which contrasts external geometric patterning with random speckles of gold dust across the vessel’s soft white interior. The Friends of the Shepparton Art Gallery Award was presented to Graeme Wilkie for his

two vessel forms titled Neo Classic Suburban Urns. These large pieces have a strong presence, are slab built and were fired in an anagama kiln over six days. Josie was taken by their anthropomorphic quality but in particular stated she was captivated by the very luscious quality of the handles. The final award, the Poyntzpass Pioneers Award of Merit went to Ann Ferguson Durkin for her large-scale sculptural piece titled Fire and Fruit. In choosing this piece Josie referred to the strong personal and environmental significance of the subject matter, which echoes the fragility and strength of trees as well as their spiritual connection with the Australian countryside.

Four special acquisitions were also made: Sophie Thomas’s spiral forms which contained intricate textural surfaces, created through multi layers of coloured slip; Susie McMeekin’s wood fire tea-dust bowl glazed using Australian rock; John Stroomer’s thrown vessel form titled Classical Gas, an excellent example of the use of crystalline glaze; Ken Eastman’s slab built forms titled Full Circle; made from white stoneware coated with delicate blue coloured slips and oxides.
The gallery director, Leanne Willis, presented the exhibition by courageously painting the gallery in a charcoal grey as well as deciding to dispense with glass cases. All free-standing pieces were placed on plinths regardless of size and fragility and together with careful attention to the lighting of each item, the overall effect was stunning.

Accompanying the exhibition is an excellent catalogue, which clearly articulates the significance of the award. Whilst the photographs clearly document each entry, they do not reveal the scale of each piece. This could have been achieved through varying the size of the photographs in relationship to the scale of the work. Similarly, more could have been made of capturing the surface quality and decorative elements of individual pieces through more creative framing of key features and use of lighting. For example, the ‘sparkle’ of the piece Luxury is notably absent.

In discussing with Josie the Australian entries for selection, it became obvious that many notable Australian ceramists had not submitted an entry. Given that this is a premier international ceramics award held in Australia, the question has to be asked why? Shepparton Art Gallery is of a world class standard and is unique for its ceramic collection and commitment to promoting ceramics. The 2004 Sidney Myer Fund International Ceramics Award is no exception to the high standards this gallery has set in presenting ceramics to the public.