Crustacean ginger pot
1999
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Kenneth Hood Bequest Fund, 2005
© Courtesy Janet Beckhouse Estate
- 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
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