"Cultivars" - A solo exhibition by Melanie Hillebrand

Over the past ten years, I have used African ceramics as inspiration for a series of vessels intended as water carriers. The constant refinement of certain generic forms is a quality that I admire, particularly in Zulu pottery. I decided to take this one step further by referencing non-African source material. For this exhibition I have chosen Imari porcelain plates, Shelley tea sets, Carltonware dishes, Willow Pattern dinnerware, a Keith Murray vase, and a Portuguese maiolica charger. These disparate objects have nothing in common besides the fact that they belonged to my parents and various relatives and for my formative years unconsciously represented "ceramics".

Training as an artist potter in the 1970s was a rude awakening in that objects such as these were sternly condemned according to prevailing taste. We are no longer quite as intolerant of decorated ceramics, but there is still a perception that such wares are trivial and tasteless or, at best, amusing. Desperately in need of amusement after a particularly catastrophe-ridden year, I embarked on a plan to cross-pollinate simple, unglazed African forms with my family relics. I tried to imagine my grandmother in early 20th century Africa wanting to replace what was left of her crockery. She finds, to her dismay, that she only had access to the local village potter. Nothing daunted, she confronts the potter with a Derby Imari tea cup and demands a new drinking vessel. The result is a collection of hybrid vessels that have developed organically, hence "Cultivars".

"Cultivar" is a portmanteau word derived from "Cultivated variety" - the name for artificially-bred plants, selectively bred for desirable characteristics such as the colour and form of flowers and foliage, size, crop yield, and disease resistance. The rules for naming cultivars dictate that it should be in a vernacular language following the plant's latin botanical name, thus, Leucospermum 'Scarlet Ribbon' which is a cross between L. glabrum and L. tottum. The production of ceramic vessels is not very far removed from the cultivation of plants. There is a repertoire of useful forms to which can be applied permutations of form, style, size, colour, detail, materials, resistance to heat, suitability for use with food, etc. Convention dictates that product ranges be identified according to factory, thus, Wedgwood English Classics 'Wild Strawberry'.

While creating my selectively-bred vessels I have shamelessly dipped into the history of ceramics. Here I re-discovered the hand-painted Chinese source material for Japanese Imari, Delft maiolica and English bone china. This lead seamlessly to traditional Japanese design and symbolism, which lead in turn to anime and manga - a contemporary meeting of West and East as interesting and eccentric as 18th century European Chinoiserie. I somehow doubt whether my sternly-calvanistic granny would have approved of my efforts but it certainly cheered me up thinking of her having to serve tea from an Imari uphiso (beer pot).

Studio record: ceramics

I trained for four years under Hilda Ditchburn at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, and was the first student to graduate in Fine Arts with a Ceramics major in April 1973.

After finishing my degree I had to make up my mind whether to follow a theoretical or a creative path. In the end I chose art theory and I'm glad that I did because this lead to a career in museums which has been stimulating and creative in its own way. However, in 1999, after spending twenty-five years caring for objects made by other people I decided that it was my turn to create as well as curate. So, I started my own studio at my home in Port Elizabeth where I have specialised in glazed and unglazed earthenware.

I have always believed that the problems facing an artist who uses clay are the same as those faced by painters, sculptors, or architects: problems to do with structure and rhythm, relating to one's environment, and the expression of ideas. Whether making a vase or a building one has to deal with technical processes, form, function, and meaning. I am acutely aware that I am working within a tradition over 8000 years old which encompasses all aspects of those four dimensions. I am baffled by the attitude that ceramics is not "art" and that "artists" should not waste their precious time making pots.

As a female artist who expresses herself by making pots it is inevitable that my work will reflect the role of women in ceramics: hand-building of pots as a women's craft, the relegation of women to the decorators' shed after the mechanisation of production pottery, and a centuries-old African tradition that hollow clay objects should be made exclusively by women. I have long been preoccupied by Chinese philosophy and culture and have found many correspondences in African pottery. The meaning of a vessel will often develop as an exploration of Taoist polarities and ambiguities and the African tendency to treat the vessel not only as a metaphor for the body, but as a tangible location for spiritual essences.

Exhibition record

1999:   APSA (East Cape) Regional Exhibition, Port Elizabeth
1999:   "Frame it" exhibition, Montage Gallery, Port Elizabeth
2000:   APSA (East Cape) Regional Exhibition, Port Elizabeth
2001:   "Anything that pours", Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth
2001:   APSA (East Cape) Regional Exhibition, Port Elizabeth
2001:   APSA National Exhibition, Nico Malan Theatre, Cape Town
2001:   Solo exhibition, Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth
2002:   Solo exhibition, Jack Heath Gallery, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg
2003:   "Exquisite", Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth
2004:   "Jewellery", Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth (P.E. Technikon Award for "most innovative ceramic")
2004:   The Cape Gallery, Church Street, Cape Town (with Jonathan Comerford and Judy Woodbourne)
2004:   "Dig this! Studio potters of Madiba Bay" Grahamstown National Arts Festival 1-10 July
2004:   "A la Carte" Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth, July 2004
2004:   Port Elizabeth potters - group exhibition", Cuyler Street Gallery, Aug-Sept 2004
2005:   "Silly ceramics", Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth, June 2005
2005:   "Dig this! Studio potters of Madiba Bay" Touring exhibition, Holland (various venues) May-December 2005, Red Location Museum, Port Elizabeth, 2006
2005:   "David Walters and Friends" exhibition, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, July 2005
2006:   "Arte-Ceramic", Textures Gallery, Port Elizabeth. May 2006
2007:   "Fourplay" exhibition, Grahamstown Arts Festival - Fringe, Carinus Art Centre.
2008:   "Botanicals", Cuyler Street Gallery, June 2008
2008:   Ceramics SA - National Exhibition, University of Johannesburg, Gauteng, August 2008
2009:   UKZN Alumni Ceramics. Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg. 18 Sept-18 Oct 2009
2010:   Members exhibition, CSA Eastern Cape. Red Earth Gallery, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, May 2010
2010:   "Expressions 2010" - group exhibition. Ron Belling Gallery, Port Elizabeth. June-July 2010
2010:   "Cultivars" - Solo exhibition. UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, 26 Oct- 13 November 2010

Represented in the following public collections

Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg
William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley
South African National Gallery (Iziko), Cape Town
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth

MELANIE HILLEBRAND Large Water Vessel	MELANIE HILLEBRAND Small Plate "Japonica"	MELANIE HILLEBRAND Uphiso (Beer Pot) "Japonica"
MELANIE HILLEBRAND Large Vuvuzela Vase (#34) - Clouds And Rain	MELANIE HILLEBRAND Large Vuvuzela Vase (#32) - Clouds And Rain	MELANIE HILLEBRAND Large Vuvuzela Vase (#33) - Carnival