The Vessel in Context

Profile by Nola Anderson.

Published in Craft Arts International #71 (October 2007).
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Simone Fraser's Vessel Forms - Article by Alan Peascod

from: Ceramics: Art and Perception No. 60 2005.
> Read the article

“The favouring of the vessel remains unabated, dominating groupings and, in the singular object, the vessel remains an evocative and powerful form……. The earthy dry glaze on the ceramic form by Simone Fraser complements the asymmetry of its form, with its bands of ruffled rings tempered by soft swelling diagonals pushing out from the interior of the form”

Robert Reason curator of “Ceramics in the Australian & New Zealand Context”

“The surface is rich, but not too much; it is beautifully integrated with the form and reinforces the full elasticity of the shape”

Peter Haynes The Canberra Times

“The work suceeds because all elements work towards this particular mood without resorting to the short cut method of mimicking historical models. There is sufficient personal interpretation in surface finish, form and decoration to create a tension between contemporary expression and historical motif that gives the work a distinctive energy.”
“The work is refreshing because it excites us to curiosity, about the surface, the shape, and, most importantly, about the artists motivation. That is the strength of it all the readily observed clues that the artists are saying something which goes beyond formal construction and function……the original wheel thrown shape is manipulated by hand to create vessels that seem to have survived a few centuries of wear and tear to emerge triumphant but a little wiser for the experience.”

Nola Anderson Pottery in Australia and The Canberra Times

“…..Simone Fraser also works in the “archaeo-style” but she used the vessel forms typical of the Mediterranian. She used vivid, saturated colours that one associates with gouache media. In spite of her “archaeo-tendencies”, Fraser likes her work to maintain a contemporary feel”

Michael Bogel. The Sydney Morning Herald and Pottery in Australia

“Cultured Ceramics. Creating elegant vessels which combine the classic and modern. Simone Fraser is a ceramicist for todays society. For Simone Fraser “ceramics mean changing peoples opinion about what clay is about; it is a medium like any other medium”. Her art is both ancient and modern; individual and personal decorative art appropriate to todays society.”

Penny Holme. Contemporary decorating ACP

“The classical vessel form is timeless. And it is this ethereal quallity which Simone Fraser pursues……If one looks for long enough into the surface of one of Frasers works it is almost akin to a fossil or an encrusted marine rock”

Julie Claessens Freelance writer

Above: Groupings of various Ceramic Forms Simone Fraser 2003