Ceramics
Working with clay enables Coco to connect with the earth. Her slab vessels mirror similar shapes of the land and geology around the various areas where she has lived in both the Northern Beaches and the Bellingen Shire. They are inspired by, and often reflect her landscape paintings.
Coco has experimented with both earthenware and stoneware using at different times a rustic Shino glaze, a basic slip, or colourful underglazes. More recently she applies a simple black underglaze with sgraffito (Italian for carving back into the surface), a similar method used with her oil paintings which are also incised, and in this instance, reveal the white of the clay.
The use of a black and white colour scheme references the effects of positive and negative space; shadow and light; and the historical nature of what has passed. In other instances, it also mirrors the charred effects from the bushfires.
These pots have a unique presence as whilst the vessels appear 2-dimensional front on, the landscape imagery coils and intertwines around the vessel, creating an ongoing narrative of the land, that takes the viewer on a cultural heritage journey, that can be viewed at any angle. The audience can decide which way is front and back, or reverse. Whilst they have a sculptural quality, they have been clear glaze fired on the inside. This vitrification process also makes them fully functional as a vase.
