The Whanganui finalists’ work will be exhibited alongside the other frontrunners at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery in west Auckland.
Anderton-Hall’s ceramic work is receiving wide exposure at the moment – she was a finalist in the Sarjeant Gallery’s Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review this year and another of her works was selected for the Pushing Clay Uphill - Forsyth Barr Contemporary Ceramic Award in Nelson.
“Weather and themes of climate change are what I’m preoccupied with at the moment,” said the artist.
“During the Covid lockdowns, the planet had begun to recover from some of our human impacts and as we have come back from that people need to really think about how our actions affect climate changes.”
Anderton-Hall’s selected work for the Portage awards depicts Cassandra – the priestess of Greek mythology who had the gift of foresight and was cursed to never be believed.
Her work featured in the 2022 Pattillo Review exhibition, A Tempest Confronts Disgust at the Sarjeant Gallery has a similar theme, she said.
Two glazed clay figures appear to be in conflict as they face each other in a halo of clouds.
“Tempest, on the left, is angry and frustrated with Disgust, on the right,” Anderton-Hall said.
“He knows what’s at stake but he continues to do things that bring storms.”
Moulded from raku clay, the figure of Tempest has raised isobar lines on her body and both figures are glazed in a matt green with copper effects while the white clouds that surround them appear vapourous despite their density.
“I have always liked studying clouds. I grew up in Canterbury where you watch them drift over the plains and for a while now I have really enjoyed making them in clay,” said Anderton-Hall.
“I sketch my designs in a notebook I carry with me.”
Anderton-Hall is a multimedia artist who has lived in Whanganui for 25 years. She studied art at Otago Art School, Whitireia Polytechnic at the Quay School of the Arts in Whanganui where she acquired a fine arts bachelor’s degree in 1997 and then her master’s degree from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2004.
She teaches art and design to certificate students at UCOL Whanganui two days a week and works in her converted container garden studio in Aramoho on other days.
“I used to teach four days a week and that tended to influence my work,” Anderton-Hall said.
“I was teaching a lot of different media so if I was doing print work with students I tended to make prints or I’d paint when I was teaching painting.”
Since reducing her work hours, her focus has shifted to ceramics but she also makes natural plant dyes and finds time to knit with wool she colours with plants from her garden.
“It’s a nice contrast,” she said.
Anderton-Hall is one of 10 Whanganui artists represented by Space Studio and Gallery. She has recently turned her hand to jewellery making to complete a piece for Brooch - Art Meets Wearable exhibition at Rachel Garland’s Magpie Studio at 7A Victoria Ave.
The winner of the 2022 Portage Ceramic Awards will be announced at the awards event in Auckland on November 25 and the exhibition will run from November 26 until March 5, 2023.
The awards are open to all New Zealand artists both established and emerging whose work spans sculptural and domestic clay traditions as well as other associated disciplines, including photography and videography.
