Rock and Roll 2009
Adam Rish with Lino Alvarez
glazed terracotta
29 X 33 cm
Adam Rish has been making ceramics with Lino Alvarez in Hill End, since 2004. Lino is a master potter from the Sonora (Mimbres) region of Mexico. He has had many exhibitions of his own work (and is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York). He established La Paloma Pottery in 1981 and moved it to Hill End in 2002. He has been collaborating with other artists, such as Garry Shead, and John Olsen, at La Paloma, since 2003.
Submarine 2004
Adam Rish and Lino Alvarez
glazed terracotta
30H X 20W X 50L cm
In 2004 Adam Rish’s show “Metamorphoses” was held at Michael Nagy Gallery. The exhibition (named after Ovid) was concerned with the transformation of humans (“click go the gene shears”) into otherness – part animal, part machine. This transformation, with the rise of genetic technologies, is seen by Rish as more than a metaphorical issue. Rish designed the pots. He then made a series of embossing stamps in rubber with images from his back catalogue of iconography from Turkey, the Pacific and Indonesia. In addition he made plaster casts of clay elements which were then used to produce multiples of objects. Thus the pots are encrusted with eyes, ears, telephones, etc and/or embossed with howling dogs, falling figures, trees, suns, dollar signs etc. Many of the pots are finished in Mimbres style with unglazed, wax covered, black on white, slip designs on the insides but then coloured, external glazes and gold lustre detailing.
Greek 2009
Adam Rish with Lino Alvarez
glazed terracotta
39 X 25 cm
Drunken Bottle – White & Red 2004
Adam Rish and Lino Alvarez
glazed, cast and stamp decorated terracotta
86H X 15D cm
Classic Mimbres ceramics were produced in what is now New Mexico and Upper Mexico between 1000 and 1150 AD. The pieces were decorated with striking, black and white, anamorphic figures and geometric design. They were used for ceremonial burials with the bowls (like helmets) being placed on the skull of the deceased and the base broken to allow the spirit to escape.
In Mimbres Man an armless figure with a television face hops around on a long curling tail. Cartouche 1 is a large terracotta work embossed with hundreds of images of cars, TVs, fish, plants and dollar signs. Kumete, a platter shape from Tonga, has an anthropomorphic chicken surrounded by a wall of televisions projecting images of bones, all executed in Mimbres influenced style.
Kumete 2004
Adam Rish with Lino Alvarez
glazed terracotta
13H X 35W X 47L cm
Cartouche 1 2004
Adam Rish with Lino Alvarez
stamp decorated terracotta
92 X 40 cm
In 2009 Rish produced further works at Hill End which were shown at Mary Place Gallery as part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale 09. For this show his influence was sixth century BC Athenian pottery. In Greek men, armed with rakes and garbage tin lid shields, fight for glory. In Olympia Nike clad runners find “things going better with Coke”. Rock and Roll celebrates the dance of life with that classic blues band “Oedipus Rex” going full throttle.