ARTISTIC SUPPORT MATERIAL FOR APPLICATION 2025

Materiality of Melbourne exhibition

5 - 10 September, 2023

No Vacancy Gallery, QV, Melbourne, VIC 3000

A solo exhibition and demonstrations presenting Breaking Ground research. In partnership with Revival Sustainable Practice and supported by City of Melbourne Arts Grants.

The exhibition featured two long tables with 6 different materials in their original form, and a set of test tiles demonstrating how to use in a ceramic clay body or glaze.

Detail shot of the presentation layout for each material, with:

- an untouched original piece, alongside 3 processed particle sizes after crushing,

- test tiles,

- accompanying information: details and research about provenance and notes from testing and analysis.

On back wall: ceramic wall hangings, each with an addition of concrete rubble, from Collingwood or a recycling facility in Brooklyn (Vic), in the clay or glaze.

Large ceramic blocks made with additions of concrete, tile fragments, stone-cutting industry byproduct and heritage glass in the clay or glaze.

Bud vases and cups made with local material additions, each showing a unique colour, texture and character. Each piece investigates the potential for embedding meaning and site-specificity within an object.

The gallery installation included piles of the originally collected materials in curated piles (seen here in background)

A demonstration took place in the front window of the gallery over 4 days for 1 hour at a time, to show how to process a material found in an urban environment for use in ceramics.

The demonstration offered an opportunity for visitors to engage with the materials and ask questions about the process. It provided a chance to share knowledge and build community.

18 Blocks made from 9 unconventional local materials:

Brick debris, brick cutting sludge, locally found clay from road works, concrete rubble, stone-cutting sludge (byproduct), tile fragments, heritage glass and slate.

Top shelf: handmade cubes with differing textures and colours.

Bottom shelf: pieces of the original materials

The aim of the exhibition was to prompt industry to use local materials that have potential to give identity and meaning to our built environment through architectural elements, landscaping, public art, finishes, texture and colour

Bulk Buy

25 - 28 October, 2023

Testing Grounds Emporium, Melbourne, VIC 3000

A thought provoking and speculative Exhibition & Pop-Up Shop with Public Program, part of Craft Contemporary 2023 Festival. Organised with Alternative Ceramics Supply: an Australian based artist collective focused on second-life materials with Georgia Stevenson (creative director and project manager), Claire Ellis, Sarah Muir-Smith and Amelia Black.

Bulk Buy featured 10 alternative materials, all reclaimed from industry byproduct and ‘waste’ streams. Each material was sourced locally, processed by ACS, tested for use in ceramics and available to buy.

Empowerment through education and the bringing together of community were important focuses. Talks, demonstrations and a pot-luck style shared lunch all helped to facilitate discussion amongst potters and create a space where techniques and material knowledge could be openly shared.

With an emphasis on knowledge sharing, each set of tests was accompanied by open source research and information to empower other potters to collect their own and make informed decisions.

Styrofoam boxes from the adjacent Queen Victoria Market filled with raw materials available for potters to buy in bulk: concrete rubble from demolition, oyster shell from restaurants, broken bisqueware from studios, brick pieces from demolition, stone offcuts from manufacturing byproduct.

Unlike at current pottery supplies stores where materials are often sold in minimum weights of 1kg, at Bulk Buy, customers were encouraged to purchase only what they would use to minimise waste. Instead of selling the materials as a commodity, we used ‘transfer of custody’ agreements. Hoping to encourage a paradigm shift in how we collectively view “ownership”, pricing covered labour costs of our processing the material, but not the material itself. By signing the agreement on transfer, the new custodians promised to use the material in a respectful manner and keep it in circulation when they were no longer in need of it.

CERAMICS OF CONCRETE

(SOME THINGS) MATTERS Group Show

Melbourne Design Week 2024, Villa Alba, Kew, VIC

Experiments that transform and reconstruct concrete debris using a ceramics approach. Concrete debris was collected from demolition sites on High Street, Thornbury and Claude Street, Northcote.

Using a process-led approach, a variety of forms were created. Each piece tests a different characteristic of the hybrid clay-concrete material, or a different making technique beyond the usual scope of ceramics and leaning toward glass fusing.

This collection of pieces challenges the value perception of concrete debris though demonstrating a wide range of surprisingly vibrant colour and surface finishes.

This piece was created using 100% concrete. Further experiments using only concrete will be the focus for Georgia in 2025.

FUTURE MATERIALS BANK

Online, published 2024

“The Future Materials Bank is an archive of materials that supports and promotes the transition towards ecologically conscious art and design practices”

Georgia’s material submission to the online Future Materials Bank. Full text and original link can be viewed here.

Georgia Stevenson’s Studio

Georgia works in her Thornbury home studio which is host to a large library of tests from years of experimenting, documenting and archiving.

One of many trays of test tiles in Georgia’s collection.