Exhibition Feature: Imagined Spaces

Imagined Spaces: Jacqueline Spedding on her exploration of the ‘wild’ and ‘domestic’ for Biome.

Clay, found objects and locally collected organic material form the basis of Blue Mountains artist Jacqueline Spedding’s sculpture and installations. Her daily finds – leaves, dried plants, dead birds and insects – eventually find their way into her work as inspiration or material elements, drawing attention to our ambivalent relationship with nature.

Spedding will present her new body of work as part of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre’s 2020 Exposé Program

Photo by Ona Janzen

Jacqueline Spedding talks to Artistic Program Manager, Sabrina Roesner:

SR: You have researched and developed this exhibition over the last three years; tell us more about your process and how the concept came about: JS: The genesis of this work came about while I was installing my sculpture for Scenic World in 2014. The lush rainforest valley is littered with remnant machinery from the coal mining that took place there. Rusted and decaying into the valley floor and tangled in the vines, there is a certain nostalgia to these objects that are connected to an industry that has driven the planet to breaking point. In that setting we are almost immune to the reality of their past use, much like we might feel immune to the reality of our present reliance on coal in the comfort of our own homes – until those homes come under threat by catastrophic bushfires like we witnessed this past summer.

SR: What are some of the key works in the exhibition? JS: The main focal point for the exhibition is an old coal burning fireplace with a decorative surround made of handmade tiles in a fern motif. The fern is bracken that grows profusely in degraded and disturbed soil and is found commonly on the sides of the road. It’s a native plant but can become invasive. This bracken was collected in Lithgow during my time at the Old Lithgow Pottery. After I started making the tiles I discovered that the pottery produced a very similar tile over a hundred years ago – a nice link to my ceramic heritage. The pottery kilns were also fired by coal; another connection that is present in this piece.

The idea for the fireplace is that, as the tiles run further out, they begin to morph and change from a traditional satin-glazed sprig-style decoration to burnt-out imprints highlighted by oxides. This surface pattern is created by introducing organic material into the clay during making that burns out in the firing. The material disintegration signals the need for a philosophical change from the comfort of old, well-worn ways to something new and transformative.

The abiding passion I have for clay is its capacity as a material to capture incongruent and paradoxical states. Clay starts out soft and malleable and is transformed through making and firing. It undergoes a chemical change to harden into ceramics. This transformation makes it a wonderful vehicle for expressing ideas of transience and ambiguity. As a material, it is metaphysical and elemental, and I love that about it.

Biome is on display at Blue Mountains City Art Gallery from 26 Sep – 29 Nov