Honor Freeman
Ebb
11 June > 04 September 2022
Tuesday to Sunday, 11AM > 4PM
IMAGE > Honor Freeman, and the tide rises, the tide falls [detail], 2022,
porcelain, stoneware, enamel bathtub, 94 x 152 x 76 cm.
Images courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Sam Roberts
IMAGE > [top] Honor Freeman, All the tears I cried [detail], 2019,
Slipcast porcelain, Variable dimensions. Images courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Grant Hancock
Be Brave
Freeman harnesses the mimetic qualities inherent in clay, through the magic of slip casting, to produce exact replicas of overlooked
domestic items such as sponges, plugs and cracked bars of soap.
Such items inevitably hold strong emotions and memories, as they populate our homes and are used through our happiest and most troubled times. Freeman’s everyday items are often subtly embellished with gold or other precious materials, to allow viewers to deeply connect with the objects that accompany the small, often poignant, moments that fill our time.
Ebb explores the metaphoric qualities of water. The exhibition will feature a bathtub, complete with Freeman’s signature soaps, alongside contemporary lachrymal vessels used to collect tears, porcelain rain gauges and buckets. The ceramic suites of work explore the idea of rising tides and flooding, as representative of our own internal struggles. Objects show evidence of rising/receding watermarks, watercolour soap scum tide rings line a bath and mother of pearl glaze marks rain gauges holding tears. For Freeman, the focus is less related to the current global environmental crises of rising waters, but an exploration of our emotional ebbs and flows.
Be Bold
IMAGE > Honor Freeman, and the tide rises, the tide falls, 2022
porcelain, stoneware, enamel bathtub, 94 x 152 x 76 cm. Images courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Sam Roberts.
“Buckets of rain, buckets of tears. We cry 64 litres of tears in a lifetime, apparently. The porcelain buckets represent my own personal grief and the manner in which it manifested in public and private spaces following my father’s death. Paradoxically, there were tears induced by untold numbers of failed attempts during the making and firing of this work. I’m attempting to make sense of and measure the immeasurable.”
Honor Freeman, 2022
Honor freeman
Honor Freeman is an artist living and working in the Fleurieu Peninsula on Ngarrindjeri land in South Australia. Freeman completed her studies in 2001 at the South Australian School of Art. Following graduation, Honor took up an Associate position and Tenant residency in the ceramics studio at JamFactory Craft & Design. Her work has been curated into major exhibitions at institutions throughout Australia, including the MCA, Tarrawarra Museum of Art and The Powerhouse Museum. She has undertaken international residencies at Guldagergaard, Denmark’s International Ceramic Museum and in the US at Indiana University’s School of Art & Design.
IMAGE > Portrait of Honor Freeman in the studio, 2021.
Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Alex
Beckett
IMAGE > [above] Honor Freeman, and the tide rises, the tide falls [detail], 2022, porcelain, stoneware, enamel bathtub, 94
x 152 x 76 cm.
Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph: Sam Roberts
Exhibiting since 2000, Honor’s work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South
Australia, ArtBank and Washington DC’s National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her works feature in the publication 101 Contemporary
Australian Artists,
published by the NGV, and the international publication Ceramics Masterclass: Creative Techniques of 100 Great Artists, by Louisa
Taylor.
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