Storytelling Vessels with Angela Xrisaphina
Angela Xrisaphina sees the vessel as a vehicle for storytelling. Her ceramic works — unapologetically creative in the truest sense of the word — embody freedom and embrace the beauty of subjectivity.
Words: Cardia Speziale I Photography: Liana Zarimis & Anthena Michailou
‘My art practice is how I process information and how I process the world. And through this process I end up connecting with people on a similar trajectory to me. I work to feel connected to the female lineage in my family but also to feel connected, that everything is interconnected,’ says Angela Xrisaphina. Photo: Liana Zarimis
‘Ceramics is a very meditative process, so being selective of what is in my physical environment and what I allow access into my inner world helps me to stay in that state,’ says Angela Xrisaphina. Photo: Anthena Michailou
‘A lot of my motifs and vessels are explore ideas of nature, plants, seashells, very feminine archetypes, about cycles of birth, death, rebirth, intuition, our connection to our inner world… It helps me to process my inner world. The objects I make hold my narrative and then, once they belong to someone else, they take on an additional meaning and history. I love that connection,’ says Angela Xrisaphina. Photo: Liana Zarimis
NSW-based ceramist Angela Xrisaphina approaches her creative process with a belief that art has no place trying to look good. Rather, ‘art is about saying what you have to say and embracing your own style of making,’ she says.
Angela’s foray into ceramics began after art school, where she explored her intrigue with the form of a vessel, ‘an object that’s role is to perpetually contain and empty, contain and empty.’ Beginning her career as an apprentice pastry chef in Double Bay, Angela muses on the similarities between her artistry today and that of creating baked goods; from feeling the humidity in the air to understanding form and pace.
Formative were these years, and those later on where she worked as a teacher and also welcomed opportunities to meet, listen and learn from Indigenous artists in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. ‘The importance of telling a story, gathering pigment from the earth to grind up and use as paint, hold ceremonies… being a part of daily life there was a totally different rhythm but also felt very familiar to me.’
Angela’s process uses a coiling method to work pieces together and build form. She uses ‘sgraffito’ — an Italian word used to describe a scratching technique adopted by visual artists — to etch her motifs or draw the linework, freehand. ‘Mostly I draw directly onto the piece, quickly and without hesitation is the only way to do it,’ she says, adding that fostering an ‘attitude of detachment’ from the outcome is of benefit to the overall process.
‘Mostly I learn from failed work…It’s nice to work like this because I am forever naively pushing the boundaries of what I can make.’ Photo: Courtesy of Angela Xrisaphina
‘I love the richness of the red and how it almost burns to a deep brown-red when its fired at just the right temperature,’ says Angela Xrisaphina. Photo: Anthena Michailou
“Many of the motifs I use are a way of preserving the lost skills and traditional textile techniques that my great grandmother worked with – it’s my way of holding onto a lost practice.”
‘Not only are our crafts lost and traditions not passed on, but there’s also a conformity that comes with only having access to mass produced objects,’ says Angela Xrisaphina. Photo: Anthena Michailou
‘I was very fortunate to come across lots of opportunities that opened my eyes to different ways of living, that there wasn’t one way to go through life.’ Photo: Anthena Michailou
Having realised she could connect with people via art during her teenage years, Angela reflects on her time as a teacher, where she would encounter children as young as 7 years old declaring they were good or bad at art.
‘But that can’t be true,’ she says. ‘It’s not like music where you can be off key and have no tone…I make things that sometimes are good to look at and sometimes they’re not good to look at, but that’s not the point. The point is to just get to work and make something that tells your story about how you see the world. Some people might like what you make, others may not. It’s all okay.’
What’s interesting and beautiful about Angela’s process is her openness to letting go — a sentiment that carries with it an air of creative freedom and also a steadfast belief in oneself as The Artist to always be making something new.
‘Trust your own process and throw a little away, she says. ‘By this, I mean to follow what you’re genuinely curious about and interested in and then once you’ve made something, it’s good to get rid of some of it and trust that you’ll make something else that will tell the story in another way…there’s something freeing in not keeping this so precious.’
This June, Angela will be presenting her ceramic vessels in a group show at Modern Times in Melbourne from 15th June – 27th June. Later this year, she’ll also be exhibiting a solo show at Jerico Contemporary.