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Object: stories of design and craftContemporary design and craft in Australia Author: Australian Design Centre
Contemporary design and craft in Australia. Season 3 goes behind the scenes of the 2023 MAKE Award, Australia's newest and richest national award celebrating innovation in contemporary craft and design. Meet the winner Vipoo Srivilasa; and finalists High Tea with Mrs Woo; Julie Blyfield, Csongvay Blackwood, and Johannes Kuhnen. Hear from MAKE Award judges Jason Smith, Hyeyoung Cho and Brian Parkes. Season 2 is all about ceramics - production pottery, teaching and learning with clay, museum collections, personal collecting, working with galleries, and ceramics writing and photography. Hear from Ilona Topolcsanyi, Brett Stone, Jane Sawyer, Robyn Phelan and Eva Czernis-Ryl. Season 1 explores the Masters of Craft - nationally and internationally acclaimed Australian craftspeople working in ceramics, jewellery, textiles and metal. Why does their work matter? How do they keep going? Whats their advice for makers now? Hear from artists Prue Venables, Jeff Mincham, Lola Greeno, Liz Williamson, Les Blakebrough, Marian Hosking and Robert Baines, and go behind the scenes on the making of the 'Living Treasures' program with Brian Parkes. Object: stories of design and craft is by the Australian Design Centre. It's hosted by our CEO and Artistic Director Lisa Cahill. Production by Jane Curtis, with production support by Alix Fiveash. Sound engineering by John Jacobs. Language: en Genres: Arts, Crafts, Design, Leisure Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Artist Deep Dive: Seven key works in Helen Britton's The Story So Far
Episode 10
Tuesday, 2 September, 2025
A deep drive into seven key works by Helen Britton, from her current exhibition The Story So Far. In this audio tour, Helen describes how she made each work, her techniques and materials, and the stories behind each piece.The Story So Far is a major solo, touring exhibition that honors Helen Britton as the tenth artist in the series Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft. Living Treasures recognises eminent Australian craftspeople, celebrating their mastery of skill, their achievements and the unique place they occupy in the national design culture. Featured works and excerpts1. My Godmother's HouseA set of 20 photographs taken in northeast New South Wales near Yamba on Yaegl Country. Over several years I took over 700 photographs. We've selected twenty for the exhibition. What was really fascinating for me were the collections within the house. Shell collections, stone collections, gathered objects and how they were arranged. And then, of course, the path of time. So you'll often see the dust. I was very interested in photographing the the dust as a metaphor, the material reality of time passing.2. The Mysterious Path of Matter and TimeA small cabinet framed by branches. A work made out of my childhood detritus [using] a cabinet that I made about 30 years ago, and cement branches. The cement branches does give it a ritualised, almost relique object-like atmosphere, which is what I was trying to achieve. It's also in the true sense of the expression cemented into eternity. Cement is a very interesting material because it is so stable and has such a long life. And it's an ancient material, which I think we also tend to forget.3. Junkyard Three A monumental necklace made of many parts. I've created a piece using absolutely everything I could find leftover in my studio, and put it together. I've used the circle and bone catch for many years. For me, it is an interesting way to close a necklace, a circular necklace, with these two symbols.And the rest of the pieces in Junkyard Three are often leftovers from my industrial series. Works preoccupied with the kind of environment that I grew up with in Newcastle in the 1970s and early eighties where BHP was kind of at its peak. For example, all of the barrels and rods that you would see lying around on the periphery of industrial areas.4. The Magic Cupboard When I was told I was to be the Living Treasure of Australian Craft, I decided to create a kind of 'cabinet of wonders' that included everything going back to my early childhood, the things that kind of triggered my imagination over all of those years. And include archival works. On the bottom shelf, there is a porcelain plate painted by my godmother that she made that as a gift to me. She was very interested to make something not conventional, because she thought I'd appreciate that more. It's quite a dynamic drawing of geckos. On the top shelf are a pile of airplanes made by my brother.In the drawer, some of my dolls, put to rest.5. The Big and The Small ThingsA large wall piece of paintings and jewelry depicting animals and bones. I guess the bones make this work much more sombre. They're often... what's left over. After we've eaten an animal or what's left...
