Stronger Together
Fliss Dodd
Stronger Together (detail) 2025
Stoneware and black clay
Coloured slips, sgraffito carving, clear glaze, red thread, gold kintsugi
Multiple pieces: 44 x 40 x 28 cm overall
About the Artwork
Stronger Together celebrates connection. Two semi-abstract bulls stand side by side in a quiet, rhythmic dialogue that speaks to the power of simply being there for one another. They do not touch, yet between them exists a silent dance. That space is intentional: it is where support lives. This is not dependency, but presence.
Across cultures and throughout history, the bull has been revered through ceremony, ritual, and myth. Its paradox of strength alongside curiosity and gentleness has long captivated me and finds its form in my work.
By using two different coloured clay bodies and black-and-white coloured slips, and carving intricate sgraffito meditative marks, I aim to create a sense of balance and rhythm within the pieces. To be stronger together is not about being the same. It is about standing close, holding your own, and letting that be enough.
About the Artist
Fliss Dodd is a sculptor living on Yuin Country, NSW. She studied Ceramics at the ANU School of Art & Design, where she fell in love with hand building pottery, under the tutelage of Hiroe Swen. Dodd’s sculptural pieces are all independent characters that unfold as she creates from slabs of clay. Born from a deep fascination with other cultures and their reverence to the bull, ceremonies, rituals, and story, they hold a sense of calmness, courage, connectedness, and rhythm.
Nature and ceremony are elucidated by Fliss’s considered suggestions that play through her mind, manifestly abstract bull forms, and anthropomorphic characters, with their own particular and nuanced offerings to time and place. Fliss’s manner of working is best described as deeply intimate, making small meditative marks on select pieces. The addition of the symbolic red thread is inspired from travels to Asia, signifying a form of protection and staying connected to the spiritual world.
Fliss has exhibited with Michael Reid Galleries in Newport, Murrurundi, and Sydney as well as Sydney Contemporary (2022). She has been a finalist in the National Emerging Art Prize (2021), Muswellbrook Art Prize (2022), The Alice Prize (2024), National Emerging Art Prize (2024), and The Little Things Art Prize (2025).
In August 2025, she was accepted for the 12th International Ceramic Symposium in Changchun, China, where she worked alongside 19 other artists from around the world. Her work is held in the Changchun International Ceramic gallery and numerous private collections, both internationally and nationally.