Richard Stratton: Après les Baleines

Richard Stratton: Aprés les Baleines (After the Whales)

Wellington ceramicist Richard Stratton has transported himself back in time, creating ornate and luxuriously glazed new works as if he was his ancestor, Francois Narbey, a 19th century whaler. Imagining his ancestor was equally skilled in the ceramic trade as he was in the techniques of early whaling, Stratton's pieces are in the style of English and European ornamental ware but with a contemporary twist.

Using the knowledge he has uncovered from period texts and technical manuscripts (from 1897 to 1914) of the European ceramics that arrived with the settlers, these new works emulate European design trends and fashions of the colonial period while reflecting on the condition of making in an entirely different cultural setting – where industrial technology was, at best, rudimentary.

The source material and inspiration for the ceramic ware comes from a variety of European ceramic producers and periods of production like: Faience wares of Rouen, Moustiers & Marseilles, French porcelain wares from Sevres, Vincennes, St Cloud, and Rouen; and English earthenware and porcelain from Worcester, Mason and Minton.

Richard Stratton is the recipient of the third Deane Award for Decorative Arts and Design.