Skip to main content

Mum and Me: 19 years with, 19 years without

Highly Commended

Jenna Catchpole, Mum and Me: 19 years with, 19 years without
Image courtesy of the artist.

Jenna Catchpole

Mum and Me: 19 years with, 19 years without (detail) 2025

Stoneware
Shino glaze and layers of sally wattle wood ash
Multiple pieces: 35 x 27 x 18 cm overall

About the Artwork

This work forms part of my ongoing ‘Mum and Me’ series, initiated in 2025 at a midpoint in my life: 19 years with my mother, and 19 years without her. Created as a pair, these vessels explore the enduring presence of a relationship beyond physical absence. The forms were woodfired together in an anagama kiln for 80 hours continuously, with their shared firing becoming an extension of their connection. ‘Mum’ was positioned in the firebox, where intense flame and ash created flowing natural ash glaze trails across the surface, while ‘Me’ was placed near the sidestoke, absorbing a different dialogue with fire and atmosphere. Layered with shino glaze, raw clay, and carbon traces, their surfaces become unrepeatable records of time, memory, and transformation: mother and daughter held together through clay and fire.

About the Artist

Jenna Catchpole is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based ceramic artist whose relationship with clay began in childhood alongside her mother, a potter. After a period of personal loss, she returned to ceramics and has studied for 14 years under Ray Cavill at Clayschool Brisbane, where she also works as a ceramics teacher and studio technician.

Jenna’s practice explores memory, lineage, presence and absence through wheel-thrown and sculptural vessels. Since discovering woodfiring in 2015, she has travelled across Australia to participate in Anagama and Noborigama firings, embracing the elemental dialogue between maker, flame and atmosphere.

Jenna holds a Bachelor of Visual Media from the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Her work is held in the Museum of Brisbane and private collections and has been exhibited nationally. In 2026, she presented her second solo exhibition Her Flame, My Hands at Vacant Assembly, exhibited in Forged in Fire at Jan Manton Gallery, was a finalist in the Ross Creek Gallery Infuse Art Prize, and participated in Clay’s Cool and Women Who Woodfire at Clay Gulgong. She is a recipient of the Queensland Education Minister’s Award for Excellence in Art.