Muse - Alexandra Standen
MUSE - Alexandra Standen
Photography by Anna Westcott
Was there an exact moment or turning point when clay won you over as a medium to work with?
I actually discovered ceramics at art school. My plan was to go to The National Art School and major in painting but when I got there and tried the ceramics course for three weeks I was hooked. I have never looked back.
I find your ceramics very elegant, powerful but also playful. The forms almost take on their own unique characters, like a modern day totem. How do you see them?
I Really like that each work takes on its own character. I hand build each form so the pots have a very individual presence. I loved that you referred to them as totem like, it’s something that gives them a lot of strength and I think I have come to see them as placeholders, or reliquaries for something personal.
I love the interactive pieces that you mix and match together with different clays and glazes. What inspired you to make work that can be altered with conjoining elements or adorned?
The love I have for functional ceramics is real and while my work has taken on a more sculptural form I always come back to function in vessels. Each work has a connection to different places and moments in my own history so I make pieces that draw from my surroundings. The different clays and glazes make it possible to add surprising elements that I find in the built and domestic environment.
What has been the most inspiring residency you’ve done and in what country did the local art or craft / history inform your practice the most?
I have always loved Paris so when I received a two month residency at the Cité Internationale des arts I was over the moon. I came away from that time feeling like I had really experienced that city and seen so many inspiring things.
What are you working on now and when is your next exhibition?
I have a new body of work going in the Melbourne art fair online exhibition in June, showing with Chalkhorse Gallery. I will also have a solo exhibition on 24th September this year with Chalkhorse.
