Pia Murphy ‘Woolgather’

Pia Murphy’s small ceramic sculptural works from 2011 and 2012, including new works, descend on the city from their dreamy genesis off Victoria’s southwest coast. Some emerge life-like, as if from the pages of the National Geographic, others blend a wayward imagination and artistic influence in their shape, form and final touches – a Hockney inspired print on an unusually shaped jug, a dog-creature born of a Bill Traylor drawing.

Murphy pays homage to the malleability of the material and the uncertainty in the transformative firing process, viewing the intrigue surrounding the end result as a source of excitement rather than anxiety. A background in printmaking is as much responsible (as is her cheeky and nebulous approach) to creating these thought-altering objects of interest.

Installation, Pia Murphy’s ‘Woolgather’, Chapter House Lane.