Mingling
Jackson Family Award, in memory of Graham and Betty Jackson – $500 Non-Acquisitive
Lea Durie
Mingling 2023
Wild clay, midfire terracotta clay, slips, underglaze, glazes, liquid quartz
White glaze
26 x 36 cm
About the Artwork
Mingling is an exploration of a new place within an ancient landscape, and how care and responsibility might appear with an engagement beyond the human. What happens when the clean, human architecture of a new suburb is mingled with the labours of my urban human body and the nonhuman 350 million-year-old clay that lies just beneath the surface?
This new form of occupation seeks to smooth the surface of a landscape carrying the scars of extreme weather events and human habitation, covering it white. I seek out the messy stuff beneath the surface and begin an entanglement with this living matter.
Through this sensory engagement with the landscape, an animal–vegetable–mineral cluster takes shape. A tension is created and then eased; friction flares and then subsides. The thing force of the wild clay combines with the thing force of me. I consider our mutual responsibility in caring for this place.
About the Artist
Lea Durie is based in Braidwood, NSW, and holds a Master of Contemporary Art Practice from the Australian National University (2024).
Lea has been the recipient of several awards, including the Belconnen Arts Centre Emerging Artist Award and The Craft + Design Canberra Emerging Contemporaries Award (both 2023). The same year, Lea received a Highly Commended mention at the Klytie Pate National Ceramic Award (2023) and won the QPRC 3D Art Award (2023). She also won the Canberra Potters Society Doug Alexander Award (2021).
Lea’s work has appeared in numerous group exhibitions. In early 2024, she undertook an environmental art residency at BigCi in Bilpin, NSW, and held a solo exhibition in the Craft + Design Canberra Crucible Space. Later in 2024, Lea will hold a solo exhibition at the Belconnen Arts Centre.