Jeff Mincham Erosion 2001 large handbuilt vessel
ceramics, fired to 1140°
1m x 49
Jeff Mincham is back at the Jam Factory in Adelaide. Almost sixty pieces of work encompassing thirty years of ceramic practice are on show in a major retrospective. Ranging from small, precisely thrown pieces with the slightly self-conscious perfection of his early sgraffito decoration to large, hand-built pieces with loose, whole heartedly huge, expressive brushstroke and deep gouges, this is an exhibition impressive for both its sheer scale and cohesiveness over three decades of work in ceramics.
Mincham’s rigorous early training with both Milton Moon and Less Blakeborough is evident in his disciplined approach to technique and form. But the maverick spirit which drew him to the highly unpredictable field of raku is alive and well in the most recent works in this exhibition which are the first to meet the eye upon entry into the gallery space. I was intrigued and amused to see what amounted in some ways be the artist’s own survey of his work since 1974. In the most practical fashion, Mincham has produced, this year, a retrospective within a retrospective. This new work re-visits past ideas, re-inventing and re-interpreting with results that demonstrate conclusively that he is continuing to explore but also managing to remain connected to past elements of his journey to create a visible dialogue between himself and the landscape.
Reed Beds and Reeds, both 2004, are the new generation of the sgraffito grass motif much used by Mincham to decorate production ware in the eighties, this earlier work being represented by Reed Jar, 1982, Landscape Ring Box, 1982, and Rising Moon, 1984, among others. The contrast between the earlier pieces and the two new works is interesting. Reed Jar, a large turned work with a vigorous crazed raku glaze playing over the surface of the sgraffito grass has a spontaneity and raw quality, despite the fine precision of the turned form. The two smaller pieces while being exquisitely made and decorated, don’t give me the same sense of integration between the form and its surface. With these two, the landscape is something to be looked at, as it sits on the surface of the pot, rather than something to be engaged with as happens with the later work. Reed Beds and Reeds are hand built, the flattened elliptical form echoing the negative spaces between the reeds on the bank of a river, repeated in the flowing cut opening at the top of each piece. The grass motif has been deeply incised through the lustrous dark glaze so that the clay body is visible. The pale tone of the clay body emerging from the surrounding dark glaze offers a distinct sense of distance. There is something ultimately satisfying this highly successful use of a simple motif producing such a subtly complex result. The Summer Grasses series are a collection of platters and handbuilt vessels, which offer yet another retake on the grass motif. Fine, thin slabs are used to make simple square, footed platters. Accompanying them are two equally finely built vessel forms. All are decorated with trailed grasslike motifs across a matt sand coloured glaze. The loose, unself-conscious ease of this work is very pleasing.
Other earlier work has stood the test of time with varying success. Raku Blossom Jar, 1981, Raku Jar, 1977, and Large Raku Jar, no date available, have a timelessness about them. Partly this is due to the classic thrown shapes which hark back to antiquity, but also the raku surfaces with their rich metallic lustres never seem to age in the way of many other ‘trendy’ glazes. Likewise the early stoneware work, Shino Blossom Jar, 1976, and Lidded Ash Glazed Stoneware Jar, 1976, being prime examples, are saved from retro typing by their sheer simplicity of both form and glaze. On the other hand, iconic Mincham pieces, Small Raku Vessel, 1984, Warlord Series, 1984, Neoteric Vessel, 1989, belong firmly to their era. A later excursion back to this style of work in 1996 resulting in Kagome Vessel, is difficult to pick as later work – the combination of the turned form with highly structured hand built additions and the fumed, matt copper raku glaze being so distinctive. That being said, the mastery of Mincham’s technique in these works is stunning. The combination of turned and slab built elements is vulnerable enough to the stresses of firing the work, let alone when subjected the volatility of the raku kiln and the aftermath of rapid cooling. Mincham has said that in order to go somewhere artistically, you have to go there technically, but at the same time, you have to play. These pieces are extreme play!
The Mask , 1995, and Allegory of the new man, 1995, take the viewer on an entirely different journey. In a major divergence from the landscape, Mincham has explored issues around being male in contemporary society. The two in the exhibition are just part of a much larger series. They do not make for easy viewing, The Mask, being horribly reminiscent of Hannibal Lector’s concealed face in the movie The Silence of the Lambs. Allegory holds none of that horror, but is still a moving and confronting statement of the pain and difficulty of the modern man. The bust is built up of extruded coils forming a solid basket weave of armour from which emerges the head of a man, eyes shut, with mouth open in a silent scream. In this departure from vessel forms, Mincham continues to use similar techniques of assemblage in conjunction with the finely sculpted form of the head. The patina of copper tones from the firing process gives the pieces a monumental quality, which is entirely convincing. These are the only figurative works in the exhibition and as such, have an impact entirely of their own, but the consistency of Mincham’s approach to the methods of construction and surface treatments makes it possible for them not to appear out of place within this large body of landscape work.
The new century appears to have been a period of consolidation of much of the previous exploration. Common to many of the later pieces is their scale. Command of materials and techniques honed with smaller pieces have given way to an increase in size to some truly colossal pieces. Paeloglyphs, 2001, were part of an exhibition which looked to the outback and its indigenous people. These three pieces from that collection take the form of shields, with deeply incised geometric surfaces and multi-fired matt glazed surfaces. The markings are reminiscent of the geometric patterns and hatching of some indigenous bark paintings, but also reference the deep channels in dry earth at times of drought and the striations in some of the more rugged rock formations of the Australian outback. Also part of this collection is Erosion, 2001, a large handbuilt vessel with similar surfaces. The irony of the concept and title when combined with the form, that of a large vessel which has some heritage in the large water containers of ancient times is hard to miss. It speaks volumes of Mincham’s concern with the environment and awareness of the need to redress much of the damage Westerners have wrought upon the fragile ecology of this country. A five part set of wall pieces, Forest Shrine, 2004, carries this theme through to the present year. This homage to the forest is inspired by the forests of New Zealand, the rich soft greens of Mincham’s glazes drawing on the lushness of a wetter climate than our own for a shift from his more usual palette.
The strikingly coloured vessels that form part of the Highland series of 1999-2000 glow like jewels. Landscape vessel, Highland Journey Series, 1999, and Landscape vessel in the highlands, 2000, take their shape from earlier work, the angular yet flowing trapezoid shape somehow create a framework for this highly abstract but graphic interpretation of the landscape without imposing any geometric restrictions. The patinated copper glazes are rich and striking, moving from golds and yellows at the base of each piece through to the greens and blues nearer the top, mimicking natural colour layering of the landscape. Using the same range of colours with very much more deliberate application, Mincham has turned to the night skies in the third of these pieces. Nightlands, 2000, is a very large vessel, coil built, with sensual curves and bulges undulating up the slightly conical form. These have been further accentuated by deeply incising around them then filling in with areas of colour from the same copper glaze materials as used in the previous two pieces. With the sooty black background highlighting the clarity of the colours available from copper, this is a truly beautiful piece, which is modern and timeless simultaneously. Both the Shedding Bark and Coorong series make use of similar shapes as the two smaller Highland vessels, but there is a distinct move away from the rich, matt copper surfaces to glossy, thickly applied and crazed glazes. The former relies on rich earthy tones applied vertically with thick brushstrokes to convey the image of the gum tree loosing its bark as part of its growth pattern. With similar application but a shift to blues, golds and whites, the long vistas of the Coorong emerge in the work of the second series. The tea bowls included in both the latter series are delightful and among the most covetable works in the exhibition.
As the works in this most comprehensive retrospective demonstrate, Mincham is drawn repeatedly to the landscape. Growing up in a rural environment, he says, conditioned him to deal with the landscape and it remains the most common basis for his work. The impact of Japanese style, techniques and philosophies has influenced the way he looks at the landscape and reinterprets it in clay. He is preoccupied with the mutability of his surroundings, monitoring natural events, how objects grow, die and rot – the cycles and processes of the natural world. The combination of a solid form, most often a vessel form, and a figured surface becomes a metaphor for the idea of shifting changes over an underlying structure. Decorative motifs in his work have gradually become more abstract as he searches for the means to communicate the essence of the landscape rather than use the surface of the form merely as a three dimensional canvas. Textures, colours and varied surfaces vie with each other to create a sense of the inherent conflict between order and disorder within the landscape, conveying messages of emotional communication to the viewer.
The works invite the viewer to reach out and touch, to engage with this most intimate interpretation of our landscape. They are raw and visceral, and have the capacity to speak to the most fundamental, elemental component of our human existence. Mincham has, in his journey with the medium, found a way to both make and give voice to his connection with the landscape that most of us in urban settings appear, in many ways, to have lost.
