The second installation of WORRY - post COVID-19 restrictions.
Being set up for a fall, plenty of time, not enough time, not enough work, waiting for reply, too much work, comparing work, no ideas, shit ideas, last minute changes, chat technique, flaws in work, s cracks, explosions in kiln, relying on others, fits of stress, self talk, hung over talk, hair of the dog, wake up juice, juice cleanse, do the rituals, bummed, beer, wanting work to be dope, hint of chatness, below zero, on zero, off zero, back below zero, moral compass, getting negative snooze movies, thought, reality all mixed up, absent friends, new friends, gronk friends, self worth, letting others down, the social opportunity of let downs, visualising the worst and that girl Tegan I saw on tinder with the gun.
Some worried voices put into word play Ceramics the therapeutic art form.
Ryan Hancock is a Sydney based visual artist. Hancock’s work is a meeting of ceramics and contemporary painting.
Riffing on popular culture and shot through with dark humour, expressed always with Hancock's bold use of colour, form and technique, the result is both immediately comic and complex. As associations between content and form are revealed, layered visual gags find their mark and rewarding details emerge.
Sam Stephenson’s art practice started at age 18, developing photos of his friends in his neighbours darkroom. Since then Sam has been exhibiting photos of his friends in galleries around Sydney. Sam then found an appreciation for ceramics in 2014 during a mental health art development workshop.
After a lesson on figure building he found a passion for making figurines of pop culture icons for his friends. Eventually he began making figurines of his friends as well, giving them the same stature and treatment as his pop icons. To quote Steve Latimer III; ‘These loose little idols of celebrities and friends puncture the ridiculousness of celebrity (by giving his friends the same status and rendering all in the same childish manner).’
Sam in his latest work has made a series of ceramic vessels and sketched images of his friends onto them, continuing on themes of intimacy and the value of those closest to him. These drawings are taken from his extensive archive of documentary photography of friends over the years, friends who are also painters, potters, photographers, musicians and skateboarders.