The Firing Line + Satellite
Cheryl Lucas + Moniek Schrijer
23 Oct – 15 Nov 2018
Baches, bunkers and boltholes form the basis of these new works by Cheryl Lucas.
Cheryl Lucas was born and grew up in Central Otago. She has a Diploma in Fine and Applied Art (Distinction Graphics) from Otago School of Art, Dunedin (1975) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Printmaking (Lithography) from Wimbledon College of Art, London (1979). Cheryl taught ceramics and drawing at Ara Institute for 18 years and since 2005 has been a full time ceramicist working from her home based studio in Lyttelton.
Cheryl has been exhibiting regularly since the 1990s. Recent awards include Portage Ceramics Merit Award (2017) for her work ‘Milkstock’, and Sculpture on the Peninsula (2011) Premier Award for her “Harder Larder” installation. In 2013 Cheryl attended a residency in Sturt, Mittagong, Australia and in 2007 the FuLe International Ceramic Art Centre, Fuping, Shaanxi, China.
Since the Christchurch Earthquakes Cheryl has made many replica architectural ceramics to replace those lost on many significant buildings in the city. Cheryl’s work is held in the collections of the Christchurch Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum, Museu del Cantir d’Argentona, Spain, Ceramic Art Museum of Australasia, FuLe International Contemporary Ceramic Art Museums, Fu Ping, Shaaznxi, China, Lincoln University and Ara. Recent solo exhibitions at The National include The Firing Line (2018) and B Side (2015) and MUD (2014).
In 2017 Cheryl was made a member of the International Ceramic Association, IAC and in 2019 she was awarded the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Fellowship.
“Our skies are full of relics. Half a million pieces of man-made and natural orbital debris circle our planet at this very moment, clogging the Earth’s orbit with technological and geological history. This space junk is the past, present and future of human surveillance, entertainment and communication. Revolving beside these satellites are fragments of asteroids and meteors that contain within their cores the beginnings of our universe.
Moniek Schrijer’s Space Junk reveals the contexts in which preciousness and usefulness unite and diverge. The rock and metal that surround our planet may have lost their initial use, but they reveal our cultural and physical histories.
Approximately 180 brooches come together to create this installation. 180 is a mathematical straight line, or in this case a horizon. Horizons have been the literal and philosophical driving force behind exploration. What is on the other side? This thirst to discover is what saw humanity cross oceans and take to the sky. But it has been 46 years since the last human walked on the moon. Alongside the circling space junk humans have remained bound to the Earth’s orbit since the end of the Apollo programme that took us to the Moon. Man-made objects have left our solar system in the interim, technology becoming our proxies in discovering the secrets of the universe”.
Sarah McClintock