Two Seasons
Lachlan MacKee
Two Seasons (detail) 2026
Indian stoneware clay with native feldspar
Natural fly-ash and flame markings
Multiple pieces: 9 x 24 x 13 cm overall
About the Artwork
Two Seasons is the latest in a series of ceramic objects, in which I am exploring how international tea cultures can converge; for example, Japanese-inspired forms made and fired in India. The project began in 2024 during my training at Golden Bridge Pottery, sparked by daily chai breaks where students, potters, and teachers gathered to escape the heat and to share community. That ritual sparked a broader curiosity: how shared drinking vessels quietly hold communities together across cultures.
The two tea bowls in Two Seasons form a bonded pair. Without a traditional ‘front side’, the work invites the user to rotate the bowl for comfort, prioritising connection over ceremony. Both were shaped from the same local clay, then wood-fired in different locations within the kiln, each settling into its own zone of heat and ash. Two Seasons captures that shared origin and divergent outcome, echoing my practice moving between international research and building a home studio in Australia.
About the Artist
Lachlan MacKee is an emerging ceramic artist based in Gimuy/Cairns, whose vessels and sculptural forms are shaped as much by fire as by hand. At the heart of his practice sits wood firing, not as a last step but as a genuine collaborator—one whose flame, ash, and unpredictability help decide what each piece becomes.
Since training in production ceramics in India in 2024, Lachlan has travelled widely, seeking out wood kilns and the tight-knit communities gathering around them. In turn, those connections shape his work: pieces made for communion and everyday connection, their final character is never fully his to control.
On his property in the Atherton Tablelands, Lachlan is building and experimenting with kilns, translating his research into locally sourced materials. He also teaches ceramics at Cairns TAFE, passing on wood-firing knowledge to the next generation of local makers.