The Chosen Vessel by Belinda Michael and Tiffany Titshall, 2019-2022: resources
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Introduction: The Chosen Vessel
The Chosen Vessel is a first time drawing and ceramics collaboration between artists Tiffany Titshall and Belinda Michael.
The collaboration began with the intention of introducing drawing to ceramic forms inspired by storytelling often used on ancient pottery. The process evolved over three years (partly due to the pandemic) - testing methods of building large forms, using sgraffito and layers of slips and oxides built up or scraped away and trialling different local clays and glazing methods. In the final stages they experimented with some mixed media and began to document the completed works.
The story is of a woman born on the goldfields who grows up to perform wild and powerful acts on a harem of enslaved men. The scene is an arid landscape surrounding an engineered and fluctuating body of water interrupted with outcrops of granite boulders. The seemingly barren backdrop of the landscape could be the foundation for Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.
Belinda Michael created large gourd-like vessels that once might have been used by women to cart water. The decoration responds to the form yet tells a subverted story of female hedonism and sadism.
The technical challenges of vessel scale and image making on ceramics are visible in the evolution of the series of twelve vessels. The chemical process of applying and firing glazes resulted in many variables. ‘Often in any artistic medium the most interesting things happen when the material fights back.’ – Grayson Perry
Artists websites:
Belinda Michael
Tiffany Titshall
Emails:
felixceramicsstudio@gmail.com
tiffanytitshall@gmail.com
The collaboration began with the intention of introducing drawing to ceramic forms inspired by storytelling often used on ancient pottery. The process evolved over three years (partly due to the pandemic) - testing methods of building large forms, using sgraffito and layers of slips and oxides built up or scraped away and trialling different local clays and glazing methods. In the final stages they experimented with some mixed media and began to document the completed works.
The story is of a woman born on the goldfields who grows up to perform wild and powerful acts on a harem of enslaved men. The scene is an arid landscape surrounding an engineered and fluctuating body of water interrupted with outcrops of granite boulders. The seemingly barren backdrop of the landscape could be the foundation for Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights.
Belinda Michael created large gourd-like vessels that once might have been used by women to cart water. The decoration responds to the form yet tells a subverted story of female hedonism and sadism.
The technical challenges of vessel scale and image making on ceramics are visible in the evolution of the series of twelve vessels. The chemical process of applying and firing glazes resulted in many variables. ‘Often in any artistic medium the most interesting things happen when the material fights back.’ – Grayson Perry
Artists websites:
Belinda Michael
Tiffany Titshall
Emails:
felixceramicsstudio@gmail.com
tiffanytitshall@gmail.com
Documentation
Collabotative meetings about the concept and story. Sketches, test fired colours and glazes, vessel building techniques and finished drawings and vessels produced between December 2019 and March 2021.
Letters of support for the project
Letter of support from Wurundjeri artist Georgia MacGuire.
Letter of support from Central Goldfields Art Gallery.
Letter of support and confirmation of inclusion in group show Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Letter of support from Central Goldfields Art Gallery.
Letter of support and confirmation of inclusion in group show Art Gallery of Ballarat.