Artwork:Tree shadows 2000
Artist: Hiroe Swen
Medium: stoneware, titanium glaze
Dimensions: 24 x 20.5 x 20.5cm
Acquisition: An acquisition of the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Advisory Committee, 2001
Asset no: OLA001955
About the Work
Hiroe Swen’s training in Kyoto was in the modernist movement in the Japanese tradition of ceramics. Swen moved from Japan to Australia in 1966, and she established a pottery studio and gallery in Bimbimbi near Queanbeyen where she settled in 1970. She taught at the ANU School of Art Ceramics Workshop from 1980 until her retirement in 2005. Her works display great expertise in one-off coil-built vessel forms. She gives her pieces Australian names and stamps her work with both Australian and Japanese monograms. Swen was awarded The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays by the Government of Japan, in the 2016 Autumn Conferment of Japanese Decorations.
About the Artist
Hiroe Swen is the 'Grand Dame' of ceramics in Canberra. She established her practice in Kyoto, Japan. Since 1973 she has assumed an educative role from her studio at the Pastoral Gallery. She has taught ceramics at universities and through more informal workshops. Her work is strongly influenced by the Canberra environment which is reflected in the body of this work as well as the glazing. There are no concerns regarding condition and conservation implications, provenance or duplication.