By taking a long view of the social life of clay commodities, Clay Economies at Objectspace in Auckland intends to open up different considerations of contemporary ceramics. Coinciding with the exhibition is the Clay Economies publication launch.

By taking a long view of the social life of clay commodities, Clay Economies at Objectspace in Auckland intends to open up different considerations of contemporary ceramics. Coinciding with the exhibition is the Clay Economies publication launch.

This critical anthology of essays by Dr David Craig, Moyra Elliott, Richard Fahey & Dr Christopher Thompson, address ceramics as a significant form of local cultural production.

The works in Clay Economies traverse the industrially mass produced and the handcrafted; the ornamental and the utilitarian; the authored and the anonymous; the high and low status; the visible and the barely acknowledged.

By assembling such a diversity of works the intent is to expand our understanding of contemporary ceramic practice by considering the multiplicity of ceramic production and consumption that exists beyond the narrow confines of studio pottery.

Implicit in this undertaking is the assumption that the potentiality of future ceramic production becomes apparent when we recognise the complex but specific mechanisms that regulate taste, trade and desire.

Clay Economies is published by 6 Point Press with the assistance of Creative New Zealand, Objectspace & Unitec. Clay Economies is curated by Richard Fahey.

When: August 2 - 30

Where: Objectspace Main Gallery 8 Ponsonby Rd Ponsonby Auckland Ph: (09) 376 6216

12/08/08