Crustacean ginger pot

Crustacean ginger pot
 1999

Gallery location
Not on display
 

About this work

This Chinese-inspired lidded vase is barely discernable beneath an encrusted surface of barnacles, shells and coral. Much of Janet Beckhouse’s work is inspired by the sixteenth-century wares of Bernard Palissy which are based on forms from the natural world. The relationship between man-made objects and the relentless force of nature is a recurring theme in Beckhouse’s oeuvre. Next to the nineteenth-century Worcester vase it makes an intriguing dialogue, both vases celebrating nature; the Worcester vase literally displaying it on a pedestal (of nature’s own making), and Beckhouse’s illustrating the futility of any thought that man might conquer nature.

Artwork Details

Medium
stoneware
Measurements
(a-b) 43.3 × 24.7 × 20.0 cm
Inscription
(a) incised in base c.: JaneT / 99
Accession Number
2005.3.a-b
Department
Contemporary Design and Architecture
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Kenneth Hood Bequest Fund, 2005
© Courtesy Janet Beckhouse Estate
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Reproduction requests
Gallery location
Not on display

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