Seven leading Australian ceramic artists are reinvigorating one of Australia’s oldest museum collections by creating a contemporary potter’s quarter–known as the ‘kerameikos’ in Ancient Greece.
In devising the ‘kerameikos’, the seven artists were brought together for a week-long residency at Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum. This revolved around deep-learning sessions that saw the artists guided through the vast collection by the curatorial team. They offered insights on items from Bronze Age Greek figures, to a Torres Strait bird specimen and Chinese ceramic cats, followed by periods of individual reflection and ideation.
For curator Candace Richards, fostering this intensely collaborative atmosphere for a group of artists who usually practice independently in their own studios was “curatorially the most enriching experience,” as she witnessed their knowledge sharing and joint problem solving. This collaborative framework further revealed to Richards the importance of having “multiple perspectives on a single moment” to move beyond the singular version of history represented by cultural institutions.
The works in the exhibition reflect this polyvocal focus. Kirsten Coelho’s terracotta sculptures re-interpret the legendary ancient myth of the Odyssey by representing the 12 maidens arbitrarily hung by Odysseus on his return home—an elegy to the historical and ongoing prevalence of gendered violence. Meanwhile, Glenn Barkley employs his signature kaleidoscopic usage of colour and form in a ceramic installation involving a shelf with collaged details representing artefacts, potters and kilns, surrounded by a round dell made of thousands of handmade coins, coin stamps and objects of antiquity. Monica Rani Rudhar offers a dazzling reinvention of ancient artefacts via oversized terracotta jewellery pieces with glistening gold and green lustres that speak to her own Romanian and Indian cultural heritage.
For Richards, the process of bringing this new exhibition and permanent collection to life is part of a far more expansive curatorial conversation around the role of museums today. It sheds light on the future of our cultural landscape—one that lies in igniting new connections between stories of the past and present, and building trust between cultural institutions and living artists.
Kerameikos: the potter’s quarter
Chau Chak Wing Museum
On now—3 August 2025
This article was originally published in the November/December 2024 print issue of Art Guide Australia.
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