ClayFeast Gulgong
Ceramic Event Review

layfeast Gulgong took part in Australia from the 29 April to 6 May 2001. This was a truly international event was hosted by Ceramics Art & Perception editor Janet Mansfield. Demonstrators and lecturers came from the USA (Jun Kaneko, John Glick, John Neely, Rimas VisGirda), Australia (Bill Samuals, Chester Nealie, Jane Sawyer), Italy (Giampietro Rampini), Norway (Elisa Helland-Hansen), Hungary (Maria Geszler-Garzuly), Canada (Trudy Golley), Germany (Hans Fischer), France (Brigitte Penicaud), Japan (Suzuki Goro), China (I-Chi Hsu), Jeroen Bechtold (Netherlands), Denmark (David Miller) and Peru (Polo Ramierez).

The conference, this year with an emphasis on functional tableware, began with demonstrations of making and decorating techniques by some of the above artists. These continued on for most of the week. There was also a slide lecture every day, by one of the main artists/demonstrators and some who came to give the lecture only. Of particular interest was a slide lecture by I-Chi Hsu, who talked about contemporary Chinese ceramics, an area we don't often hear about, as well as memorable talks by Jun Kaneko, Maria Geszler-Garzuly, Hans Fischer and many others.

Various exhibitions dotted the small country town of Gulgong (north-west of Sydney) and social activities abounded day and night, i.e. the four local bars (pubs) were full every evening and nobody got much sleep... A highlight of the conference was a 'field trip' to Janet Mansfield's property, site of previous events, where an experimental miniature Hoffmann kiln was fired (more on this next week) and where there was a display of fireworks in the evening.. Towards the end of the event, a forum on educational issues was held, where there was some lively debate relating to current ceramic educational issues in Australia.

With 350 participants, including many from overseas, this event was a great opportunity for learning, networking and just for fun. Janet Mansfield can be congratulated for bringing so may diverse people together at this conference and for pulling it off so smoothly. All those who were there will be looking forward to the next event!

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