Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present the long awaited Sydney solo exhibition of Western Australian ceramic artist, Pippin Drysdale. Tanami Mapping III is the third exhibition in the Tanami Mapping Series in which Pippin continues to investigate the extraordinary colours, textures, patterns and ambience of the desert landscapes of the north west of Australia.
There is something very elegant, gravity defying and poised about her vessels. They have a lively spring, an awe-inspiring lightness and there is the added frisson of their delicate balancing act that gives them a presence that sustains long engagement. These vessel forms also offer the promise of the interior, that wonderfully coloured void into which we fall after circumnavigating the complex linearity of the exterior surface.
An acclaimed international artist and master of Australian craft, Pippin Drysdale’s career as a ceramic artist spans thirty years. Her passion for the craft merges with a love of the landscape, which has travelled across continents and in most recent years has focused on the vivid desert landscapes of Australia. Her works evoke a timeless and breathtaking sense of space and place within finely crafted porcelain vessels, narrating the mesmerising vastness of colour experienced in the unique Australian landscape.
Working from her studio in Fremantle, surrounded by the catalogue of her trials and experiments – racks of wonderful pots of all colours and sizes that failed her almost impossible test of quality – Pippin Drysdale continues to interrogate her practice from the perspective of an artist without borders. The Falstaffian spirit that imbues her every action is pitched always at maximum intensity, from her explosive laugh – that fills not only rooms but auditoria – to her extravagant generosity and, of course, to her total commitment to her work.
The process of analysis, review and revision continues until she is convinced she has captured the character of each new series of work. The landscape is the ever-constant lure, the catalyst for making, the connecting point and anchor for each new development. Her works is ambitious. It negotiates interweaving journeys through various landscapes describing her artistic practice and her engagement with the sites she documents. Through a continuing investigation of the flora and landforms of these unique areas of Australia and a commitment to engaging with the cultural, social and political agendas that are shaping them, she is open to embrace each new creative challenge.
Winthrop Professor Ted Snell AM CitWA
