Low Lifes and the Child-Jarvis connection

Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis are two artists whose primary medium is ceramics. They are also a couple who have worked together consistently since their days at art school in Camden, London.

In November 2009 they controversially won the Portage Ceramic Award with work that wasn't completely ceramic - it included foam and rubber, wire and paint. Their latest exhibition, Lower Life Forms, carries on this new stream of work and its interest in materials.

When Philip was in Wellington installing Lower Life Forms he talked about the naturalness of using the packing materials for ceramics - the foam blocks and layers - as material for the work, and the way the two materials seem to have an existing affinity.

Lower Life Forms is full of colour and texture. The wall works, the Vegetable Sheep (above), layer up ceramics in the manner of the plant after which they are named and inspired. And the Doodads and Doodahs (below) recreate a kind of rockpool with the shapes and colours of coral.



Click here to read Mark Amery's review of the exhibition.

Random Dictates and the art of the backyard

Andy Irving's recent show at the gallery Random Dictates subtly rearranged the gallery space. One of the works acted as a space divider cutting the space in half.

It hinted at something we couldn't quite put our finger on. When he came in last week he described the exhibition as a backyard installation - art from the backyard, with interior touches too.



In fact he recreated the aesthetic of the home-handy person complete with saw horse, fencing, debris, as well home renovations gone wrong - the air bubbles that blew out the wall, and the painting that seems about to fall off...



There's the impression of an industrial aesthetic at work but hand-done.