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Pleased to Meet You...

Exhibition: Pleased to Meet You:
Introductions by Gwyn Hanssen Pigott,
Museum of Anthropology, UBC, Nov. 2, 2012
to Mar. 24, 2013. Public opening, Nov. 2,

7 to 10 p.m. Co-curated by Carol E. Mayer
(MOA curator) and Susan Jefferies (Toronto-
based independent curator).

Australian ceramic artist Gwyn Hanssen
Pigott has created a series of installations
with about 100 objects from the museum's
collection, exploring the artist’s life-long study
of form, line and colour. The pieces (derived
of many materials) are not placed within any
historical or cultural context, rather they
are grouped to illustrate that makers share
similar aesthetic choices regardless of social
and cultural lineage when making decisions
about the development of their work. The
challenge for the viewer is to look at the
groupings without thinking about individual
origin, history or use and hopefully discover
a different sort of delight in the juxtaposition
of the shapes of the objects and the spaces
in between. Gwyn also imagined the objects
asking: Who are you? Why am I next to you? Do

we have something to say to each other?

Gwyn Hanssen Piggot at work.

Her own work is displayed in tandem with
the historic objects.

Gwyn Hanssen Piggot was born in Ballarat,
Australia in1935, and graduated from the

Discovery
Art_Travel

2012-13 CERAMIGS:EXGURSIONS

Crete
Oct. 8-23, 2012

Morocco Burma
Nov. 5-26, 2012

January 2013

By Carol E. Mayer, Curator, Museum of Anthropology

University of Melbourne in 1954. She worked
with Ivan McMeekin at the Sturt Pottery in
New South Wales, one of the most important
apprenticeships of her career. They shared a
passion for Chinese ceramics and his deep
understanding of ceramics, both as a material
and process, was important to her. In 1958
she left for England and during this period
she worked with four of the most influential
functional potters of the era, Michael Cardew,
Ray Finch, Bernard Leach and Alan Caiger-
Smith. Gwyn was also a colleague and
friend of Lucie Rie and Hans Coper. She
established studios in London and France
before returning to Australia in 1973. In the
late 1980s, she began grouping her signature
pieces, beautifully made bowls, beakers and
vases, into installations, emphasizing their
interrelationships, which gave new meaning
and stature to her functional objects. These
installations are more about contemplation
and the drama of line abutting form than
function, although the historical references are
clear. She has received the highest accolades
and her work is in major collections, both
museum and private, throughout the world.

Gwyn will be delivering a public talk
along with Susan Jefferies and Carol Mayer:
Saturday, Nov. 3, 1 to 3 p.m. The talk is
co-sponsored by the North-West Ceramics
Foundation and is free with museum
admission. After the presentations Gwyn will
conduct a tour of the exhibition.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter : October 2012