Maggie Moy has a preoccupation with the histories of discarded objects and overlooked elements found in their surrounding environments.
She shares this idea with fellow SA artist Liz Butler in the upcoming exhibit at Adelaide Central Gallery: '(im)Perfection'. While their subjects and art-making practices differ, each artist draws inspiration from her experiences in repeatedly exploring and revisiting specific places or sites. As a result, Moy’s ceramic works, inspired by a residency in China alongside Butler’s works, inspired by the Australian bush, demonstrate that perfection can be unexpected, and found in the everyday.
For Moy, her explorations of the local shard market during a 2015 residency in Jingdezhen, China (supported by the Helpmann Academy), led her to reflect on the highly emphasised pursuit of ‘porcelain perfection’ instilled into local ceramics students. Her reconfigured sculptures consider found vessels, porcelain shards and their patterns, which had been cast aside as ‘imperfect’ or ‘worthless'.
Maggie highlights 5 things you probably didn't know about your granny's old and beloved China collection:
Porcelain in a nut eggshell The porcelain from Jingdezhen, China, is the finest in the world. It can be made so thin that it becomes as transparent as eggshells. You can see your tea through it!
Queen V – a trend setter!
Queen Victoria had an extensive collection of Imperial, hand-painted, blue and white Chinese porcelain from Jingdezhen. It was known as 'white gold' as it was more valuable than gold itself. She housed her collection in a glass cabinet she lovingly named her 'China cabinet' and set the trend for collecting tea cups and plates. This lead the English to refer to their dinnerware as 'China'.
So why all the blue and white? Originally, only aristocrats could afford the Imperial blue and white porcelain from China. The mass produced and cheaper English version of blue and white china is the Willow pattern. Designed by Thomas Minton in 1790 it was the most popular English dinner set pattern for over 200 years. Today its popularity is making a comeback.
Links to a love story
The Willow design depicts a picturesque scene of pagodas, a lake, flying doves and escaping lovers being chased over a bridge. The oldest and rarest plates did not have the flying love doves on them (have a peek through your granny's collection) as this was added later to the story. It is based on a fictional, tragic love story of a young Chinese couple that came from different social status, and actually has no links to a Chinese fable!
Porcelain: Foundations for a city
The whole of Jingdezhen is built on discarded porcelain shards, some of which are collected and sold at the weekly shard market – all laid out on blankets on the ground. That's where I went shard hunting on my residency to collect pieces to work with for this exhibition. I found several Song Dynasty vessels that are over 1,000 years old. It’s amazing how much history you can buy for as little as $5!
(im)Perfection exhibits Adelaide Central Gallery 26 April - 21 May.
Links to a love story
The Willow design depicts a picturesque scene of pagodas, a lake, flying doves and escaping lovers being chased over a bridge. The oldest and rarest plates did not have the flying love doves on them (have a peek through your granny's collection) as this was added later to the story. It is based on a fictional, tragic love story of a young Chinese couple that came from different social status, and actually has no links to a Chinese fable!Porcelain: Foundations for a city
The whole of Jingdezhen is built on discarded porcelain shards, some of which are collected and sold at the weekly shard market – all laid out on blankets on the ground. That's where I went shard hunting on my residency to collect pieces to work with for this exhibition. I found several Song Dynasty vessels that are over 1,000 years old. It’s amazing how much history you can buy for as little as $5!(im)Perfection exhibits Adelaide Central Gallery 26 April - 21 May.
