Kirsten Coelho: Grounded by Uncertainty

By Yvonne Wang

Precision and uncertainty are both sides of the same coin in ceramics-making. Clay and glaze chemistry requires the greatest mathematical exactitude, yet once the vessel is placed in the kiln’s raging inferno, all bets are off. No matter how experienced a potter is, one must surrender to the volatile nature of the medium and hope for the best.

Fraught with peril and mysterious wonder, the firing process tends to both betray and delight–a double-edged sword. When Adelaide-based artist-ceramicist Kirsten Coelho first encountered the medium as an anxious teen, she was immediately drawn to the irresistible pull of its unpredictability.

Working with ceramics imparted Coelho an important lesson on relinquishing control – a journey filled with dread, fear, but also liberation and excitement. “The whole process teaches you something new because it’s unexpected until the very moment you open the kiln door,” says Coelho. The spaciousness of uncertainty had a surprisingly grounding effect on her ceramics practice. It allowed her to immerse herself in process rather than outcome, driven by a deep, cellular impulse to make things with her hands.

Coelho’s porcelain vessels are unadorned, modest and deceptively simple, conveying the clarity and disciplined restraint of an experienced potter. Her vessels are reinterpretations of domestic objects made from diverse materials (ceramics, glass and metal wares) across cultural timelines. A reflection of her deep interest in material culture and history, Coelho’s vessels are imbued with multiple references to the waxing and waning of clay and humanity’s fortune. The bleeding band of iron oxide on the rim of her predominately matte white vessels simultaneously evokes Northern Song dynasty Ding ware (white stoneware with copper-bound rim) and industrially manufactured enamelware of the late 19th and early 20thcentury, fusing the past and the present, the rarefied and the mundane.

Coelho’s works draw on, but are not constrained by, the legacy of studio pottery. Rather, she pushes its boundaries into new conceptual terrain. All her vessels – bottles, beakers, bowls, funnels, lidded jars, dishes and cups – are functional objects. But they are conceived as mnemonic devices that create, store and trigger associations and memories. Installations like Ithaca (2020) and Divided Worlds (2018) show how she meticulously juxtaposes her disparate vessels in large, dense clusters, engaging them in dialogue whilst challenging museological conventions of history, connoisseurship, classification and display.

Through these multi-vessel installations, she exploits the expressive potential of the horizontal surface to create visually compelling explorations of form and color, light and space, whilst probing at the evocative power of objects and their situatedness in the contemporary culture. With their allusive titles and rhizomatic web of associations, Coelho’s work generously invites viewers to reflect on their meanings, inflect on them their personal experiences, and draw their own conclusions.

In her solo exhibition, There on the Other Shore (2021), at Sullivan + Strumpf in Sydney, she deployed her vessels in varied constellations across floating plinths, illuminated by the warm glow of overhead lights. Spellbound by an aura of otherworldliness tinged with melancholy and lyricism, her pristine vessels appeared from afar as if they were conjured out of thin air.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Ceramicsmaking entails dirty and hard physical labour that is often concealed from public view. Despite intent and effort, the result of action is always at the mercy of Fortuna. Step closer and the vessels are jolted back to earth, grounded by their tangible materiality in which the artist’s toil is embodied. The weight of each piece, the asymmetry of form, the gravity of the glaze and the abstraction on the surface are all evidence of the interplay between hard work and uncertainty that defines the ceramics practice as much as it does the human condition.