WALKING into The Dowse Art Museum’s Blumhardt Gallery you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped back in time to late 18th-century France.
Ornate and sumptuously glazed ceramic pieces are scattered throughout; everything from large, colourful vessels shaped like vases and urns to small, detailed plates.
Upon closer inspection, it is evident these are not traditional pieces.
A victim of famine is juxtaposed with a “pro-ana” Western woman (‘pro-ana’ refers to the promotion of anorexia as a lifestyle choice); the text reads ‘I only feel beautiful when I’m hungry’. Starving Somalians decorate one side of a piece, on the other is a woman shopping on High Street. The series ‘Hook, line and sinker’ addresses the perils of modern day advertising. A lovely plate, which at first seems perfect for tea and cake, appears to show two women engaged in sexual bondage.
This juxtaposition of style and content is the result of contemporary Karori ceramicist Richard Stratton working as if he were his ancestor Francois Narbey, a French whaler who jumped ship to settle in Akaroa in 1850: “I imagine he thought, ‘bugger it, this looks nice, I’m getting off here’,” says Stratton.
“I imagined myself as him, but with my skills, coming here as an artisan from France and making work that you would remember from Europe and England at the time.”
Stratton wants to capture a snapshot of modern life.
“Stuff grows and grows until it becomes un-newsworthy. In the 80’s you had Band Aid, but nowadays famine’s not the topic anymore – it’s more like ‘oh yeah there’s another famine in this country’. Similarly, I saw on television that when someone gets shot outside of London it’s reported, but if they’re shot in London it’s not reported anymore. It just isn’t big news. I’m trying to remind people about what is out there,” he says.
Aprés les Baleines (After the Whales), The Dowse Art Museum, Laings Road, Lower Hutt, February 12 – May 1.