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Giacometti once said, “every failure is one step closer to success.”
>

I found some similarities with the ancient Song dynasty Ge ware.
As this has been an interest of mine for many years, I found the
opportunity irresistible. Ge ware was produced exclusively for royalty.
And uncannily, the first prece of this work that I produced was as a
gift for a King. Here the similarities end and the romantic associations
begin. The Song dynasty potters spent centuries developing and
perfecting this very difficult technique. I have the benefit of modern
technology to speed the process and have condensed the exercise
down to two years.

Some of the subtle quality of the Ge wares was due to the use
of a friable black clay body and the application of an unrelated pale
felspathic glaze fluxed with slaked quick lime. This strange dirt 1s
composed almost entirely of equal parts of silica, alumina and tron
oxide. I have taken the Chinese references above (and these are the
only Chinese imports in the show) and developed a series of works
that reflect this venerable and ancient tradition. There are references
to the traditions of the tenmoku bowl, which has been an enduring
preoccupation of mine, the Song Guan bowl, Longguan celadons as
well as the work of the late Ivan McMeekin.

In the Pacific region there 1s a term ‘mana’ with some currency that
describes a power that can reside in objects. This power 1s created in the object at
the time of its creation by the maker, sometimes it is bestowed on the object by an
observer, and at other times 1t is passed into the object by association.

Not all makers create objects with mana and not all objects made by a particular
maker are imbued with mana, but when these two circumstances coincide the result
is powerful.

When an object charged with mana by its maker is passed to another, the mana
is passed along with it and empowers the receiver. I don’t believe that this power in
an object is so much like magic, as I am of the post industrial age, but rather, it is
more akin to a sense of wonder 1n the beauty of some particularly special object that
enriches the lives of those that are able to appreciate it both 1n its making and in its
use.

These works are the dirty little secrets of the Southern Highlands and I believe that
I have imbued some degree of mana into them.{@
Steve Harrison

Article contributed by Keith Race-Jones,
courtesy of Steve Harrison and the Legge Gallery.

To view more pots from this exhibition, visit:
http://wwwleggegallery.com/HARRISON/2006/Harrison4.html

To learn more about Steve Harrison and his wood fired work, check out this podcast online:
http://www.anagama-west.com/firing_log/pics/20061118-firing_log-steve_harrison_
podcast.mp3

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Steve Harrison

Steve Harrison