Five Minutes with... Penny Evans
Spend 5 minutes with Penny Evans as we discuss with her the processes and motivations behind the work in her solo show Dhigaraa galgaa baa – place of many birds, presented as part of Tarnanthi.
Your visual arts practice largely focuses on ceramics. Why were you drawn to ceramics as a way of making and why do you enjoy working within this medium?
I was drawn to clay after doing a minor in ceramics in my first year at Sydney College of the Arts back in 1986. I was actually enrolled in Glass as my major but after working with the tactility of wet clay and experiencing the carvability of the material and then seeing the results of my first raku firing, I quickly changed my major to ceramics.
What is the process of conceiving and crafting a dhigaraa (bird)? What particular tools, materials and techniques do you incorporate in these pieces?
My dhigaraa are coil built using a grogged white raku clay and painted with underglazes which I then carve back through with my signature sgraffito designs. I’ve enjoyed exploring a painterly approach with the underglazes on the birds. I start with building the bases which represent very stylised tree stumps and refer to the heavily textured barks of our trees out on Gomeroi country in north west NSW. The birds evolve from the bases. I like the juxtaposition of the painterly quality of the birds beside the heavily carved black and white textures of the tree stumps. Initially I was thinking about and looking at images of Australian ceramic birds…there’s quite a tradition preceding mine.
Penny Evans in her studio.
“I’ve enjoyed exploring a painterly approach with the underglazes on the birds. I start with building the bases which represent very stylised tree stumps and refer to the heavily textured barks of our trees out on Gomeroi country in north west NSW. “
Bunduun (sacred kingfisher), 2019. Photo courtesy of Penny Evans.
The sculptures featured in your latest solo exhibition, Dhigaraa galgaa baa – place of many birds, features a vast array of birds from many different species. Why have you chosen to represent particular birds and what meaning do they have to you?
The Little Bunduun (sacred kingfisher) was made in April 2019, immediately upon my return from Gali Guumaldanha in Walgett NSW which was a gathering organised by us Murri Gomeroi women in response to Walgett running out of water and the Barwon and Namoi rivers being bone dry. Culturally, Little Bunduun holds responsibility for fresh water as do Gomeroi women. The Swan’s were made after a visit to Hobart in May where I saw heaps of them on the Derwent River. Biliirr (red tailed black cockatoo) flies over our river networks on country and can signify rain coming. Blue faced Honey eaters are regular visitors to my garden where my studio is as are Dhaguway or Noisy Friar birds and I love their loud vocalisations. To help with the forms and construction of the birds I was looking at lots of images in an old Readers Digest encyclopedia of Australian birds and that’s where I came across the extinct Paradise Parrot who once lived in the darling Downs of southern Queensland and nested in termite mounds there. As the pastoral industry took over and destroyed our land and ecosytems, this poor bird was robbed of it’s habitat, just as the corporate agri – business of the thirsty cotton industry in cahoots with our governments are now destroying our freshwater networks through greed, theft and over allocation. A fundamental disregard and lack of understanding of our precious ecosystems in which all these birds play a major role is evident.
“Throughout my 35-year practice I’ve been exploring and unpacking my family history in relation to the true history of colonisation in NSW as this was something not taught in our education system.”
The technique of sgrafitto features strongly in your sculptural artworks, resulting in heavily decorated ceramic surfaces. As a Gomeroi woman, what significance does this carving and mark marking have in your ceramics practice?
Prior to discovering clay, I was exploring printmaking at the National Arts school and specifically woodblock and linocuts… I just loved the carving factor which translates so easily into clay. Throughout my 35-year practice I’ve been exploring and unpacking my family history in relation to the true history of colonisation in NSW as this was something not taught in our education system. My carved and sgrafitto work refers to and celebrates the linear carved work of my ancestors evident on items including shields, boomerangs, coolamons which survived the frontier genocides, tree carvings, emu eggs and ground carvings for ceremonial purposes. I’ve recently just found out too that our old people had a practice of making and decorating mud sculptures leading up to burra (bora) ceremonies.
Your practice has recently expanded into the field of textiles. What ideas and concepts will this new material focus bring to your practice?
I am currently in the early stages of researching for my textile project which is a response to the ecological unviability of cotton farming on Gomeroi country. I am sourcing hemp and other natural fibres which are more sustainable and less thirsty and also suitable for digital printing fabrics using designs I’ve developed on ceramics over many years. I’m also having conversations about the viability of native plant species for making fabric. Linda Jackson has agreed to mentor me in this project and I hope to engage our community at a grassroots level in the future. I am racing against time but hope to have a small range of hemp products to launch at the South East Aboriginal Art Markets at Carriageworks in November alongside my ceramics.
Dhigaraa galgaa baa – place of many birds is showing at JamFactory Adelaide from 12 October - 1 December.
Paradise Parrot, 2019. Photo courtesy of JamFactory.