Madeline Child

now your mother
can’t tell you
what to do

well she can
but you can answer
adultly
pooh pooh
— On turning 18, by Madeleine Child
 

Hand-built Ceramics

We Love…

Child by name, playful by nature, genius by execution. Madeleine Child’s ceramic works defy tradition and explode with colour, form, and delight. A gigantic ceramic bird ring? Of course! You simply can’t not smile at the joy of her works and wonder at the skill of how she executes them in such a clever and vibrant way. ARTFORM.

Currently in the Gallery…

Feature

“You form your own bubble to work within and against. Things that come with inherent funniness, comic clumsiness, organic fecundity... (popcorn, mudplops) - or things you are inclined to veer away from (poplars, podforms, ramekins) -  are all material to start with. Paying attention to clay in all its states, timing, working with and against gravity and process. Acknowledging that you never have complete control, the dynamics between intention and luck. You are making a kakariki with it’s yellow crown and the glaze runs so you have a bird with poop on it’s head instead."


Madeleine Child studied ceramics in New Zealand and London where she received a BA(Hons) Camberwell School of Art, Masters from the Royal College of Art and Advanced studies Central St Martins College of Art.

Madeleine has received awards in prestigious competitions such as the Wallace Art Awards, National Contemporary Art Award, Portage Ceramics Awards, Norsewear Art Awards, Waiheke Ceramic Awards, Gold Coast International Ceramics Art Awards and Sidney Myer International Ceramics Awards. Her work features in private and public collections internationally including the Frans Hals Museum in the Netherlands, Shepparton Art Gallery in Australia, the Dowse in Lower Hutt, the Otago Museum and the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Emmanuel Cooper included Child in his 2000 publication 'Ten Thousand Years of Pottery' distributed by the British Museum Press.

Words courtesy of Whitespace Gallery