The focus of this research is to provide an argument for and examples of social and political commentary in the area of hand-built ceramics. Ceramics, more than other art/craft disciplines is generally seen as removed from the field of social commentary due primarily to a dominant adherence to the aesthetic conditions of function. There is, however within the field of ceramics another tradition that eschews first order function and is representative of a decorative, commemorative or narrative impulse more closely associated with the carriage of meanings rather than the carriage of actual substances. / However it is not uncommon to find both ceramic traditions - the functional and the decorative, conflated into a decorative object of function: a singular example of which is the tradition of Willow Pattern ceramics that emerged in England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The thesis is primarily concerned with referencing this particular tradition within the context of a contemporary ceramic practice, one that is concerned with the inclusion in this work of social and political commentary. / Complimentary to the thesis, the exegesis engages with historical developments in the social significance of ceramics, in particular the extended story behind the emergence of the blue and white tradition in ceramics. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267086 |
| Creators | Wedd, Gerry. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds