‘Treasures from the Underworld’: New Zealand Ceramic Art at Expo ’92 Alison Rutherford
Alison Rutherford
‘Treasures from the Underworld’ remains the largest international exhibition of contemporary New Zealand object art ever mounted. Comprising over 300 individual pieces, in 48 works by 13 potters and ceramicists, and one glass artist, the exhibition formed an integral part of the New Zealand Pavilion at Expo ’92 in Seville, Spain.1 The National Museum of New Zealand curated and commissioned the works, and was the long-term beneficiary of these ceramics, which, upon their return to New Zealand, became part of the national collection. However, although New Zealand ceramic and glass art had achieved an impressive reputation within international ceramic circles, and had a thriving domestic community, recognition for ceramic practice was not forthcoming within the wider New Zealand art world. That ceramic and glass objects where chosen to represent the peak of New Zealand artistic production at this important international event was, therefore, a significant gesture. Yet, despite the unprecedented scale of this exhibition and its international context, the works did not engender the critical analysis that may have led to a re-evaluation of the craft medium within the established hierarchies of New Zealand art.2 Seville’s Expo ’92 followed in the tradition of the large-scale nineteenth-century International Expositions (Expos), or World’s Fairs, that began in 1851 with the ‘Great Exhibition’ in London.3 These Expos, which are held every few years and participated in by several countries, originally provided a platform for the concurrent promotion of the manufactured goods of the confident, industrialised nations of the Western world, as well as the raw materials and labour of the sparsely populated territories of the developing world. As other writers have shown,4 New Zealand was quick to participate in the exhibition movement, despite its comparatively fledgling capitalist economy.5 Today, the national exhibits are expected to cover the areas of raw materials, machinery,
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