The concept for the Beyond the bowl exhibition is exactly what is said by its title. It features the works of artists who are using ceramic and glass, materials that are known for making essential but everyday things in unique and unexpected ways. Eloise Rankine’s work features bowls and vessels but not as you know them. Ceramic works explore the beauty, fragility and (im)perfections of this artistic medium. This can be seen with every crack and fragmented work featured in her Stay Strong.
Eloise Rankine, Stay Strong 2014-2018, porcelain and stoneware clay. Courtesy of Utopia Art. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Rankine has recently extended her practice into installation where she looks at the place of waste within art making, utilising ‘imperfect’ vessels alongside ceramic shards. Rankine works primarily with Southern Ice porcelain and other stoneware clays to form carved and often transformed vessels, while using patterns reminiscent of her mother’s quilting fabrics. Rankine’s works explore concepts surrounding domestic and everyday experiences, nostalgia, a search for comfort and ultimately a ‘feeling’ of the sense of home.
Eloise Rankine installing her work Stay Strong at Hurstville Museum & Gallery.
‘I use a pottery wheel to create my ceramic works using porcelain clay which I then manipulate (including breaking) before I put them through the firing process. Sometimes I fire my work on its side so that it ‘slumps’ in the kiln… I also take photos and collect offcuts of my mother’s quilting fabrics as inspiration!’ – Eloise Rankine
Rankine graduated from National Art School, Sydney (with honours) in ceramics in 2014. She has participated in numerous group shows including; ‘Clay v’, Utopia Art Sydney (2019), ‘Museum III’ at Utopia Art Sydney (2017), ‘Form & Function’ at Glasshouse Gallery, Port Macquarie (2016), ‘Out of Earth and Flame’ at Shoalhaven City Art Centre & Regional Gallery (2016) and ‘Turn Turn Turn’ at the National Art School Gallery, Sydney (2015). She has been a finalist in various prizes including the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2018) and the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2018).
Rankine is the co-founder and manager of elph store in Paddington, Sydney and maker of elph ceramics. She is also a teacher at Kil.n.it, an experimental ceramics studio in Glebe, Sydney.
Rankine and nine other leading ceramic and glass artists can be discovered at Hurstville Museum and Gallery’s exhibition Beyond the Bowl, open now until April 2019. Beyond the Bowl highlights and celebrates the diversity of Australian contemporary ceramics and glass.
For further information please refer to Rankine’s web page or follow her on Instagram.
Rankine is represented by Utopia Art Sydney.
References:
‘Beyond the Bowel Catalogue’, Hurstville Museum and Gallery, 2018.
‘About’, Eloise Rankine, https://www.eloiserankine.com/
‘Eloise Rankine’, Utopia Art Sydney, http://www.utopiaartsydney.com.au/artworks.php?artistID=62-Eloise-Rankine
‘Eloise Rankine’, Australian Ceramics Community, https://www.australianceramicscommunity.com/listing/eloise-rankine-2/
Hurstville Museum & Gallery 