Giving voice to Kirsten Coelho’s quiet forms
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A new Wakefield Press monograph on Kirsten Coelho by author Wendy Walker brings well-deserved attention to the work of this Adelaide-based ceramic artist. Spanning 30 years, Coelho’s practice is grounded in research and draws on the lineage of studio potters, the history of painting, and the myriad artefacts of human history. Walker has successfully summarised these concerns, along with other key influences, to present a book that provides an enjoyable insight into Coelho’s enduring oeuvre.
Around half the publication is dedicated to a gallery of full-colour images that document Coelho’s ceramic compositions and which successfully capture the qualities of the glazes and subtlety of the forms. These photographs (the vast majority of which were taken by Adelaide’s Grant Hancock over the past 20 years) ground Walker’s investigation of Coelho’s life and practice in the vessels themselves.
The book’s design by Liz Nicholson also draws on Coelho’s iconic palette: pale eggshell blue, rust red and a spectrum of whites. Walker’s text is further interspersed with photographs of Coelho’s studio space, personal object collections and the artworks that inspire her. These reiterate visually what Walker writes of Coelho: that her practice is borne of a strong interest in the historic vessel forms found in museum collections and represented in painting.
In the foreword, Glenn Barkley sets the tone for the value of Coelho’s practice within both a craft and art context. He writes of the tension between ceramics as functional objects to be used and ceramics as art in a gallery. He situates Coelho’s work at this junction and reflects on her innovation within the historical lineage of craft.
Elsewhere, Walker charts the progression of Coelho’s work in a loose chronology, focusing on its characteristic traits (the compositions of vessels, the play of light and shadow, and the glaze), and bringing together the ‘trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary references’ that are central to the artist’s practice.
Within this structure, too, Walker captures the complexity that underpins Coelho’s work. She weaves together previous scholarship, as well as her conversations with Coelho and those close to her, to provide a deeper glimpse into a multifaceted artist. The connections Walker draws between Coelho’s conceptual concerns and that of her husband, the jazz saxophonist Derek Pascoe, are particularly perceptive.
The latest in a series of monographs focused on local artists initiated by the South Australian Living Artists Festival, Kirsten Coelho was produced to coincide with the artist’s solo exhibition ‘Ithaca’ at the Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, in late 2020. The final chapter of the publication focuses on this most recent work as the culmination of Coelho’s longstanding studio practice. Enduring beyond the exhibition itself, the book gives meaning and shape to the important trajectory of Coelho’s continuing career.
Saskia Scott
Wendy Walker, Kirsten Coelho, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2020, 168 pages, AU$54.95
