The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard’s speech a while back, had me fist pumping the air in joyful salute and my feminist blood was surging. Finally a high powered woman has stepped up and said to the world, we are not going to take this sexist shit anymore.
In honour of our Prime Minister, I asked a number of high profile women on twitter, women I admire for one reason or another, to give me a tweet that captured how they felt about the Prime Ministers speech. I wanted to inscribe the tweets onto the inside of a bowl and then I planned to exhibit the bowls.
The women who have given me a tweet are Jane Caro, Dr Leslie Cannold, Destroy the Joint, Catherine Deveny, Kim Foale Veronica Foale, Dee Madigan, Dr Jennifer Wilson, Stella Young, as well as one anonymous tweet which represents the voice of all women.
During the drying and initial bisque firing processes two of the bowls cracked, putting a halt to my idea of a December exhibition in The Off Centre. So plan B came into play and I used the remaining eight bowls as test pieces to experiment with different ways of highlighting the text. I was very surprised when I opened the kiln and the bowls were blue, as I am sure I didn’t glaze them with a blue glaze. BUT, stranger things have happened and I might have accidentally used a pale blue glaze instead of clear glaze.
Another possibility is that the black underglaze I used to highlight the text leached some cobalt into the glaze BUT that wouldn’t explain the blueness of the glaze over the iron wash on the exterior of the bowl. A simpler explanation is that I have made a mistake as I did mix the dregs of a cobalt glaze into a small bucket of clear glaze intending to use it on a bowl for my daughter.
This tweet inside the bowl is mine and it says, Really hope @JuliaGillard realises that ALL the women I know are shouting “Sing It Sister” We are not going to take misogyny ANYMORE @frogpondsrock
Here is the detail of the texture on the outside of Jane Caro’s bowl. Jane’s Tweet says, “The response of women has not been manipulated. We’ve all lived it. To say otherwise is belittling.” @Jane Caro
I am in the process of sending these bowls off to the women involved and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their generosity in allowing me to use their words to make these bowls.
And of course I would like to thank the PM for the speech that inspired this set of work. Keep on “Destroying the Joint”, Prime Minister Gillard.
I will be making another set of larger bowls, using the same tweets and these will be exhibited at Penny Contemporary in Liverpool street in Hobart in the first half of 2013.
I am linking up with Adriana Christianson’s Mud Colony Blog this week and as we speak Adriana is hard at work at the Big Design Market in The Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. You should go along and say hello and buy some of her work, it is lovely.
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I love that you’ve done this! It was such a powerful moment for women all over the world, and I think it deserves a big deal made over it. Love how they turned out
Thanks Sharon. The Prime Ministers speech was HUGE 🙂
Absolutely, and it confused me that the media didn’t pick up on that at all.
They are simply beautiful and inspiring – much like you in fact.
Are you going to send a bowl to Julia, so that she realises just how much impact that speech had?
A friend is going to Kirribilli house for Christmas drinks with the PM and if my bowl arrives in time she is giving it to the PM as a hostess gift. Fingers crossed it arrives in time.
I think you should make one more bowl and send it to Julia.
I love the light blue glaze, it really highlights the text.
I have organised to send one bowl to the PM River via a friend who is going to Kirribilli House for Christmas drinks. with any luck it will get there in time.
What a fabulous idea – I really, really love the idea of using pottery to spread some ideas that the media just don’t seem to understand. Very inspiring, it has got me thinking… I did an installation a few years ago of female figure with the text of poems written by my friends about their relationships with their women friends and relatives. It was very moving. Images on my website http://www.ellensappleby.com.au in the installations section.
Oh cool, thanks I will go and have a look. I am pleased you like the concept 🙂
Terrific idea…Great execution!