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.