Reflecting on ‘In the Company of Water’
My first exhibition in many years, In the Company of Water with Kaiqi Qiu, was shown in The Strand Arcade, Auckland, between 4 and 21 February. I am grateful for everyone who helped make it possible, and who came along. It was wonderful to share my work, and receive thoughts and feedback from a wider audience. The idea for this exhibition came about after I met Kaiqi through the ‘Wayfind Creative’ programme at Depot Artspace in 2024. We were both thrilled to meet a fellow nature-inspired ceramicist and decided to collaborate.
The elements in the show includes wave-inspired ceramic vessels by Kaiqi and shoreline-inspired sculptural ceramics by me, as well as sand and found beach detritus used both as displays for the ceramics and sculptures in and of themselves. Three key coastal locations in Tāmaki Makarau Auckland informed the sculptural forms and textures of my ceramic pieces in this exhibition, as well as the source of the found materials - Long Bay Beach, Chelsea Bay Beach and Karaka Bay Beach. While creating, I kept in mind the movements of water eroding these coastal landscapes, and the more recent encroachment of humans into the ecosystems.
It was a lot of fun to play around with the found materials during the installation process - flinging sand, stacking and hanging and balancing detritus. Setting up my ceramics alongside Kaiqi’s pieces and other non-ceramic objects has been an interesting exercise and has allowed me to look at my work with a different perspective. During art school I experimented with found object installations and sculptures. It’s nice to revisit this method of working, and this is an avenue I would like to continue exploring.
Although I have been creating hole-filled ‘beach stone’ ceramic pieces for a couple of years now, I found that having an exhibition really sped up my progress and helped me develop different types of pieces. I was constantly in my studio furiously making, and new ideas or forms seemed to emerge frequently. I have also found presenting my work to others to be quite generative - I had great discussions about my work with artist friends, mentors, artworld professionals and many others. These conversations have given me much needed feedback as well as interesting ideas and thoughts to pursue going forward. As always, I’m excited to see where my practice takes me next!
Read the exhibition text and see the full gallery here. Buy a piece from the exhibition here.
Images from exhibition In the Company of Water by Rubee Prattley-Jones and Kaiqi Qiu.