Marlik Vessels is a group of three: a jug with a long spout and a looped handle, a second spouted form that lies on its side, and a small goblet raised on a foot. They are things for pouring and drinking.
I threw the bodies on the wheel and hand-built the spouts and handles. The white and black Rocko clays are worked together rather than glazed, so the two colours marble through the walls and surface as pale seams in the dark clay. Fired to 1200 degrees, with a clear glaze inside.
The forms and the colours come from Marlik Hills in Persia — the same earth tones, and the same shapes that held wine and water there around 750 BC. My earlier creations were destroyed by political conflict in Iran. Making these in Melbourne was a return to art, to voice, and to life.
Nearly three thousand years later, in another country, I am still making the same vessels.
White and black Rocko clay, wheel-thrown and hand-built · fired to 1200°C · clear glaze inside · 2024
