The enclosed quietness of the ranges 2004 vessel from thrown and altered with slabs claywork clay, fired to 1260c h. 33 x diam. 23.5 cm

I have chosen the title – ‘Echoes of a landscape’ – because this new work is like a

mirror of my observations and my feelings about nature

The opening lines of Silvia Stansfield’s artist statement written for this exhibition at Adelaide’s Jam Factory speak to the heart of both the work in the exhibition and the core of this artist’s inspiration. She goes on to write of her experience of the Flinders Ranges, in particular the area around Arkaroola, relating her connection with this local landscape to that of her native Chile. Stansfield explores elements of both landscapes in a collection of work arranged by curator, Janice Lally, in a narrative sequence, describing the artist’s journey through her work from Chile to outback South Australia. The work is a mixture of vessel and sculptured forms. Some are thrown, some hand-built, others a mixture of both techniques. All are characterised by meticulous attention to surface finishes. This collection of work marks a new direction for Stansfield, a departure from previous work using low-fire clay bodies with highly burnished terra sigillata finishes and pit firing techniques.

Dominating the beginning of the exhibition is a large pot constructed with multiple techniques. Thrown, altered, carved and hand-built, The sun shines bright makes a clear statement of the artist’s origins. The rough texture of the clay body forms an important part of the decorative qualities of the piece, the grogged surface contrasting with the coloured slips used to paint hand-built buildings of a Chilean village sprouting from the domed top of the piece. There is a pleasing primitive quality to this piece despite the obvious technical competency of the artist. Stansfield has been content to let the clay speak for itself and has resisted the possibility of overworking. The artist has captured very well the surprise factor of the villages of the mesa which appear, she says, almost from nowhere, as if they had just grown out of the hilltops.

Punctuating the collection, and providing a link between the more individual sculpted pieces, are a series of vessel forms. Thrown and assembled using a porcelain clay body, these pieces demonstrate Stansfield’s decorative abilities. With titles, in the main, encompassing a range of flora native to the Flinders Ranges, these pieces evoke flowers with their simple, elegant dish forms, some on stems and feet, some not. Clear, matt glazes with a bare hint, occasionally, of minute amounts of stain accentuate delicate relief designs over the surfaces, both inside and out. Stansfield uses a process of painting on the design in wax resist with a fine brush, then gently washing away the surface of the clay not covered with wax. It is a time consuming and painstaking technique which results in a softly defined motif which is totally integrated into the surface of the pot. Stansfield experimented with carving similar motifs on earlier works, but disliked the hardness of the effect. This alternative process also mimics, by washing away the clay surrounding the design, similar erosion of the landscape by natural weather patterns. New to porcelain, Stansfield has exploited very nicely the fine, plastic quality of the clay resulting in gentle organic forms which have none of the stiff formal quality of some thrown porcelain.

The sun shines bright 2004 sculptural vessel with town and figures handbuilt, glaze stains, fired at 1220c h. 50 X diam. 30cm

Fusing the concepts of the flower bowls and more sculptural works are two vessel forms, The enclosed quietness of the ranges and Towards Arkaroola. Thrown, with slab built additions to the top, these pieces have very subtle resist work on the outside and evoke complex messages about landscape. The folded layers of slab work at the tops of the vessels are reminiscent of the layers and ridges of rock formations in the hills of the northern Flinders Ranges. The former piece has elements also of stairs and hinted buildings – an echo of The sun shines bright and other former pieces relating to the Chilean mesa with its villages seemingly growing out of the landscape. The combination of the natural and imposed landscape is well balanced and intriguing – staircases leading the eye around the contours of the piece. In both pieces, the ridges and folds both hide and expose parts of the interior of the vessel, depending on the angle of the viewer. The wax relief work is less defined on these two works than the flower pots, suggesting perhaps, that our imprint on the landscape can still be rendered less significant than the inherent strength of the land itself. But there is paradox too in the combination of the formality of the vessel form with the landscape elements both rising out of, and remaining confined by the wheel-made form.

The stone was riddled with holes , creates an intimate and personal statement within the exhibition. It comprises a flat, gently undulating slab forming a grinding stone, with a primitive, carved image of a woman, her arms encompassing the central placement of the pestle stone. With utmost simplicity, this piece tells of the connection between women and the land. In all primitive societies there existed some form of mortar and pestle. Stansfield talks of conversations with women from the Adnamatana people who, as nomads, used whatever flat stone was available at campsites, discarding them as the tribe moved on to the next place. This piece places the stone at the heart of woman and the woman in the heart of her community and the earth from which comes both grain and the stone with which it is ground. Decorative elements in are at their most minimal, the figure being reduced to a few well chosen lines and simple foliage with lustred inlay bordering the image, leaving the texture of the clay to speak for itself. Notwithstanding its presence within the context of an exhibition, and its existence as an art piece, in theory it could also be used as its original counterparts have been used for generations.

In a more oblique fashion, Fossil fern Xylopoteris tripinnata makes a similar fundamental statement. Reminiscent of the flower images of Georgia O’Keeffe, this work offers an image of the earth, our connection with it and our emergence from it which is both subtle and confronting. Hand-built ridges and folds encompass a human face, nestled into the centre of the piece. Comparisons to various images of birth in a variety of media are, perhaps, inevitable. The surfaces are richly textured with incised, impressed and carved markings and images. Layers of oxides applied and rubbed back enhance the effect. There is an ancient feel to the piece, the convolutions of the clay both flower- and mollusc-like, the solid form balancing well the intricacies of the surface markings.

The balance of the collection is made up of a range of slab-built sculptural works. They speak directly to the landscape, often to our relationship with, and impact on the land, the trees, its waterways. In these pieces, Stansfield has worked the surfaces of the slabs with layers of stains and oxides creating rich patinas that have all the appearance of tree bark and stones. Some have added elements, modelled birds in The forest twilight. Screech of Birds and A path of love, moulded faces in Springs of a wounded tree, A path of love and Pan, God of the forest. A notable feature of all of these pieces is the excellence of Stansfield’s technique – the moulded and slab built elements fuse together with no sign of tension or cracking in the work, as is the case with both the thrown and sculpted landscape vessels. Interestingly, these pieces still have a feel of the vessel about them. Negative spaces created by carving windows out of the slabs invite a view both through and into some of the works, and provide places to nest added elements. These sculptural works have an ageless monumental quality to them beyond their actual dimensions, being very much offspring of the land which inspired them. As with the flower pots, Stansfield has been minimal with her glazes, opting for a matt glaze with just enough sheen to enhance the subtlety of her oxides and stains. There are few glossy finishes in nature and Stansfield has continued to take her cue directly from the landscape.

As is often the case with ceramics this is an exhibition engendering some frustration for the viewer, bounded by the ‘no-touch’ rules of the gallery, where shapes and surfaces invite caresses. The silky, matt finishes on many of the porcelain pieces are seductive in their subtlety, inviting the viewer to touch, if not for the glass doors on the display cabinets! Stansfield has produced a collection of work, which speaks clearly, and poignantly of her heritage, her love for and commitment to the landscape of Chile and Australia, and her connection to the indigenous people of both continents.