Barbara Campbell-Allen (b.1954)
Long awaited rain, 2018
woodfired stoneware, earthenware slip, ash glaze, 39 x 45 x 33cm
MAG&M Collection - Purchased 2019
Item C0422
Like much of Campbell-Allen’s oeuvre, Long Awaited Rain embodies several stories. In one, it is a literal interpretation of rain snaking down a fogged-up window. In another it evokes a dream of water in Australia’s parched interior. Thirdly, its ovoid shape references the high art of Constantin Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse (1910). Originally carved in marble, then cast in bronze, Sleeping Muse represents a head stripped of superfluous detail, just as Campbell-Allen’s piece suggests geological features rather than being a literal interpretation of the Flinders Ranges and the massifs of Central Australia that inspired it. Kata Juta and Uluru are best known as red-rock behemoths but in downpours their colours range from indigo to storm grey. To create the watery runnels streaming down its misty-white surface, Long Awaited Rain was fired in a hot zone at the front of the kiln under layers of ash. Barbara Campbell-Allen trained at the National Art School, Sydney, later at the Gippsland Centre for Design and Art, and gained a M. Visual Arts. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and overseas and received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to the creative arts. Barbara works with the demanding practice of anagama woodfiring not only because of the striking effects it produces, but also for the challenge of working within its rigorous framework. The choice of clay and firing cycle, how the kiln is packed and whether pots are exposed to the flames or protected, and the timber used (eucalypt, willow and blackwattle) all affect the outcome. An anagama firing needs constant attention. Campbell-Allen often takes the early-morning shift. ‘Having that calm period alone with the kiln is very satisfying,’ she says. ‘The lengthy firing breeds patience … there is nothing to do but wait.’
Crafting ceramics is as old as human civilisation and inextricably linked to the earth, particularly in Non-Western cultures who regard their relationship to the land as integral to the social order. In anagama-fired works like Long Awaited Rain, Barbara Campbell-Allen also shows how human endeavour and the natural world come together responsibly.
Dr Susan Steggall, MAG&M Society Member
SOURCES:
- • Barbara Campbell-Allen, ‘Variable or Vagary. Exploration of the dynamics of pot placement in an anagama kiln’, Pottery in Australia, Issue #34/2. Winter, 1995, 54-56; ‘Anagama firebox Colour’, Ceramic Technical, No.12, 2001, 60-66; www.barbara-campbell-allen.com.au.
- • Barry Lopez, ‘Effleurage: the stroke of fire’, About This Life. Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, The Harvill Press, London, 1998.
- • Catalogue of Exhibition: Cracker. Colours of Australia, December 2018-February 2019, Rochefort Gallery.
- • Susan Steggall, ‘Nature with a hint of architecture’, Pottery in Australia, Vol.41, No.1, 22, 2002; ‘Introduction’, A Way of Happening, Society of Women Writers, 2006.
