Kirsten Coelho: The Return

Ceramic artist Kirsten Coelho draws on her fascination for Grecian and Roman artefacts in her first major solo exhibition at UNSW Galleries.

Words: Hande Renshaw | Photography: Daniel Noone

The Return, currently at UNSW Galleries is the artist’s largest solo exhibition to date. Photo: Grant Hancock

‘Sitting at the potter’s wheel and throwing a shape is my favourite part – every process after that becomes a little more stressful,’ says Kirsten Coelho. Photo: Daniel Noone

Adelaide-based ceramic artist Kirsten Coelho can’t remember when her appreciation and love for art and creativity was first sparked; for as long as she can remember it’s been a constant in her life. 

‘It wasn’t even like so much of a conscious thought; more like an internal feeling of wellbeing,’ she says. ‘I just knew that when I was doing things to do with art, I felt better.’

Coelho attended art school in the 1980s and felt an immediate sense of belonging.

‘These people are just like me,’ she remembers thinking. ‘It felt like I was home.’

For more than three decades, Coelho has worked in porcelain, producing distinctive objects that are as fine as they are utilitarian.

Porcelain to Coelho is both ‘mercurial and alchemic, unexpected and poised, unpredictable and disastrous, luminous and silken’. 

Her largest solo exhibition to date, The Return, is showing at UNSW Galleries until July.

The Return is replete with narratives and references to art history: major installation ‘Ithaca, 2020’ is inspired by Homer’s epic tale The Odyssey (900–700 BC) and the ancient Greek island seen by Odysseus on his return home after a ten-year journey.

‘I used Homer’s Odyssey as a starting point – from there I really wanted to experience first-hand the idea of the relic and the ruin but also those cities and locations of where The Odyssey had taken place.’

‘I remember being at art school in the 1980s and thinking “these people are just like me.” It felt like I was home,’ says Kirsten Coelho. Photo: Daniel Noone

“I feel so drawn and inspired by the way other artists engage with their practice, be it through literature or history, poetry or architecture.”

— Kirsten Coelho

‘I like to give the illusion of fineness but I also want to have a real density and generosity to my work,’ says Kirsten Coelho. Photo: Grant Hancock

‘I draw a lot of inspiration by going back and reading about other artists through history and contemporary artists today,’ says Kirsten Coelho. Photo: Daniel Noone

Coelho’s forms often reinterpret everyday objects and draw from the social and material histories of ceramics. Her installations also play with shadow, transparency and abstraction, reflecting porcelain’s long history of trade and exchange, and the changing function of utilitarian objects.

Coelho is effusive about the qualities of white porcelain.

‘Even just the word “white” is an inadequate term for what your eye can take in because there’s so many different tones and levels of what that is. I love using different types of white glaze and how they engage with the light in really different ways.’

The opportunity to display her work in an exhibition, away from the busy studio environment, is something Coelho treasures. 

‘The chance to display my pieces at UNSW Galleries really is a privilege – as an artist you’re just so lucky to have that opportunity, platform and support.’

‘More and more I’ve been really engaged with the idea of just making white work. Even just the word ‘white’ is an inadequate term for what your eye can take in because there’s so many different tones and levels of what that is,’ says Kirsten Coelho. Photo: Grant Hancock

VISIT
KIRSTEN COELHO: THE RETURN

UNSW Galleries Corner Oxford Street and Green Street, Paddington, Sydney

Hours:
Tue to Sat 10am–5pm

7 May - 31 July 2021

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