Whanganui artist Andrea du Chatenier earns merit at Portage Ceramics Awards

"Softfall" by Andrea du Chatenier. Photo / Haruko Sameshima

Whanganui artist Andrea du Chatenier has been named a runner-up in this year's Portage Ceramics Awards, for her work "Softfall".

The awards, usually held Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, were streamed online on Friday night.

She received merit, along with Auckland-based artist Fiona Jack.

The Premier Award Winner for 2021 was Teresa Peters, also from Auckland.

Du Chatenier said it was the third time she had been a finalist.

"The first time I was accepted I was blown away, because it's New Zealand's premier ceramic award.

"Usually, they also throw a really good party. It's an important event on the calendar at Te Uru.

The work itself was incredibly fragile, she said.

"A lot of it is made of sponge that's soaked in porcelain slip.

"I make these units and put them together with a thick, gloopy glaze, and then stuff happens.

"They fall apart, there's a sort of precariousness about them. They are very vulnerable."

Du Chatenier said "Softfall" and another piece that was accepted for the awards had actually broken in transit to Auckland.

"I guess I'm lucky to be showing the work at all.

"Originally, I was going to drive them up to Auckland myself, but of course that couldn't happen because of Covid.

"I took them to Palmerston North to use a specialist packing place, but they still didn't make it intact.

"The judge did say though, that precariousness is part of the work."

Another Whanganui finalist was "reclusive workaholic" Aaron Scythe, for "To take root".

Like du Chatenier, it was his third nomination.

"I really don't think too much about work, in a sense," Scythe said.

"The style that I do is Oribe-based, which is more about the immediacy of clay."

Scythe said he took traditional Japanese (and sometimes English) forms and interpreted them into the Oribe-making tradition.

"To take root" by Aaron Scythe. Photo / Haruko Sameshima

"It's very fast, and really to do with the movement of clay, I suppose."

Scythe's journey in ceramics began when he left school at the age of 15, when he realised he "didn't want to do anything academic".

After studying at Carrington Polytech he moved to Sydney and eventually set up a studio.

"I built a wood-fired kiln there and started teaching myself.

"A few years after that I ended up in Japan and eventually got married."

Scythe and his family left Japan after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, settling in Te Aroha, Waikato, before moving to Whanganui seven years ago.

"It [Whanganui] had quite a bit of strange, bad press about it, but we couldn't see any reason why.

"We really, really like it here.

"It doesn't matter where I go anyway, I'm normally just in my studio, working."

His next exhibition will be held in February at Masterworks Gallery in Auckland.