Penny Evans produces her beautiful ceramics on a kiln in the backyard of her home in suburban Lismore, on the traditional land of the Widjabul people.
As she explains, “My practice includes producing ceramics and collaged, mixed media work on paper. Each work created is unique and an evolution in my artistic practice.”
Her techniques are varied, ranging across pieces thrown, pinched and coil built using raku, terracotta and white earthenware clay bodies. The technique of sgraffito (from the Italian “to scratch”), is a major focus. This is a pottery decorating technique produced by applying layers of colour/s to leather-hard pottery and then scratching off the parts of the layers to create contrasting images, patterns and texture, revealing the clay colour beneath.
Its successful use reflects Penny’s cultural heritage (the Kamilaroi/Goomeroi people), her imagery drawing on the men’s traditions of carving into trees, weapons, utensils as well as ground carving for ceremonial purposes, communications and storytelling.
“My concepts relate and refer to my identity through a decolonising process; learning about my Aboriginal heritage and processes of colonisation / decolonisation provide me with a rich base of material to work with,” Penny told GPSpeak.
Her ancestors’ homelands are to the north-west of Bundjalung country, in and around Garah, Mungindi and Narrabri.
“Professor Judy Atkinson [Southern Cross University] introduces herself as coming from the 3 I’s – Indigenous, Invader, Immigrant. This also describes my heritage as an Australian. I am of Kamilaroi/Goomeroi, Anglo-Celtic & German heritage.
“For me as an artist… my primary concerns are with the history and aftermath of colonisation.
“First contact and the frontier are of particular interest to me. I have a frontier story in my family…of black and white. Aboriginal woman and freed convict man. I look back and imagine our history fleshed out with anecdotal and historical stories.
“For me our history is not the distant past. I am the culmination of it and embody it. I grew up in an education system in the late 1960’s and 70’s born out of denialism cloaked in a binary structure in which racism thrived and still does.
“My work is an homage to my grandfather, great grandmother and their individual life struggles as Aborigines in a climate of virulent racism in Australia. My art practice is healing and my work is often a mapping of my personal psychological and spiritual development.”
Penny’s superb creations are becoming increasingly popular with local collectors and in recent times have made much appreciated farewell gifts for medical practitioners undertaking placements in the Northern Rivers.
