Artwork: I thought I heard a bird sing series 2019
Artist: Patsy Hely
Medium: slip-cast porcelain, under- and over-glaze colour, ceramic decals
Artworks from L-R:
Was that a Fairy Wren? 37 x 9.5cm
Was that a Scarlet Robin? 38 x 9.5cm
Was that a WhiteThroated Treecreeper? 39 x 9.5cm
Was that a Silvereye? 34 x 9.5cm
Acquisition: An acquisition of the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Advisory Committee, 2020
Asset no: OLA002602
About the Work
Patsy Hely’s ceramic work has frequently reflected the natural environment, specifically local places with personal resonance, and with a continuing interest in birdlife. She is recognised in particular for her characteristic hand-painted surfaces (built up over several firings), on slip-cast porcelain objects, in this case assembled from 2 parts. For the series I thought I heard a bird sing, 4 slip-cast objects are painted with images birds found in her native plant-filled Canberra garden, that due to their small size, are often hard to see; one finds them through their song. The vessels mimics this game of camouflage with the viewer having to search the ‘foliage’ for the bird. Hely has captured their song in a graphic notation.
About the Artist
Dr Patsy Hely is one of Australia's foremost contemporary ceramic artists. She studied at the National Art School (then East Sydney Technical College) in Sydney, graduating in 1979, and was senior lecturer in the ceramics studio in the School of Contemporary Arts, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW where she completed a Master of Arts (Hons) degree in 1995. From 2002-2014 Hely taught at the ANU School of Art, Ceramics Workshop, where she completed a PhD from the AND School of Art in 2007. Hely was an Emeritus Fellow until 2019.
As well as maintaining regular exhibitions in commercial galleries, the Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design (Adelaide) presented a solo exhibition, To There and Back, in 2010. Her work has been selected for influential curated exhibitions such as Being with Objects (1995), a national touring exhibition; Beyond the Veneer (2014), Museum of Australian Democracy, Canberra; and Turn, Turn, Turn: The studio ceramics tradition at the National Art School (2015), National Art School Gallery, Sydney. Her work is represented in many Australian public collections including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney; Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Shepparton Art Gallery; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane; Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville; Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery, Darwin; Bathurst Regional Art Gallery; Manly Art Gallery; and GoldCoast City Art Gallery. International collections: the Musee royal de Mariemont, Belgium and
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.