In Play of Light, Jane McKenzie presents a new body of ceramic sculptures. Using slab-building techniques, her geometric forms reveal an architectural vocabulary through the materiality of clay and explore notions of depth, space and light. Not intended to represent buildings, her geometric pieces instead entice the viewer to look through each piece and consider the play of light and shadow on form.
In response to the events of 2020, McKenzie has sought a new playfulness in this series of work and was loosely inspired by the Wooden Dolls designed by Alexander Girard in 1952. This can be seen in the embellishment of the sculptures with incised lines, white gloss and goldene glaze on the terracotta clay.
This event is proudly part of Melbourne Design Week.
Jane McKenzie is a ceramic artist based in regional Victoria. Deeply informed by her twenty-year career as an architect, her practice combines an architectural understanding of form, space and light with the materiality of clay.
Turning to a visual language that is anchored in form and geometry, McKenzie is influenced by the buildings of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, and the sculptures of Ruth Duckworth and Isamu Noguchi. McKenzie’s work has been included in group exhibitions across regional and metropolitan NSW and Victoria. Her sculptures were exhibited alongside works by ceramicists from across Australia in Ceramics 2017 at Maunsell Wickes Gallery, Sydney, and included in The Design Files: Open House in Melbourne in late 2017.