Intersections and Boundaries

In Intersections and Boundaries, Robson has crafted a body of ceramic artworks that respond to the Araluen Art Collection, Alice Springs. As the 2018-2019 Araluen Cultural Precinct’s Creative in Residence, Robson was granted intimate access to the collection and the opportunity to develop a body of work in response to both her research findings and engagement with the local community through artist-led workshops. The Araluen Art Collection aims to establish a permanent record of the diverse arts practices in Central Australia and contains over 1,000 artworks by artists who have a strong connection to the region. 1 During her time with the collection, Robson was particularly drawn to a number of artworks that evoked a strong sense of place through the use of line and cartographic references, including both two and three-dimensional pieces by Alec Baker, Pepai Jangala Carroll, Queenie McKenzie, Thancoupie and John Wolseley. This exhibition sees Robson focus on the idea and power of the line in asserting our understanding of ‘place’ – lines being a universal mapping device through which space is defined, boundaries delineated, the course of journeys documented and ownership claimed. Through the imagery of mapping and cartography, Robson also utilises her ceramic practice to explore the complexities of the idea of place in the Northern Territory.

Most maps are not neutral, but instead present information selectively, communicating particular viewpoints and interests that in turn express, support and shape our view of the world and our place in it. “The story of place is always being made and re-made”, Robson says. As someone who has come to Alice Springs and established a home there, Robson was particularly struck by the notion of how we feel at home (or not) in the places we live, something that Robson notes is very complicated in a remote town like Alice Springs. Robson’s research into the cartographic archives was devoted to examining pastoral maps and exploring the history of European settlers in the Northern Territory. Largely based around pastoralism, the complex histories of the settlers and their impact of their arrival on the Indigenous population was a particularly important theme for Robson to distil in her artworks while interrogating the idea of place. “I was really struck by the way the land was just carved up into these very geometric blocks of pastoral holdings and written over with English names,” Robson says.

The works in Intersections and Boundaries are presented as an undulating panorama of vessels of different shapes, sizes and textures that peak and trough, reflecting the landscape of Alice Springs and the Northern Territory. Preferring to work with a minimalist aesthetic, Robson has paired back and broken down the elements of maps to the most simple lines, patterns and forms possible while still maintaining a visual link with cartographic symbols and imagery. The vessels are marked with an array of networks of fine and heavy lines, tightly packed patchworks, broad strokes and block colours reminiscent of aerial views of a divided landscape. The strict boundaries and precise demarcations that appear on the vessels, speak to the way in which understandings of place are human constructs with the power to both unite and divide. “It is the line that can bring us together and connect us, as much as it can divide and separate us,” Robson says. The fine line work of pastoral boundaries and the detailed mapping imagery are mostly created using ceramic decals, with Robson sourcing maps, texts and drawings from explorers’ journals from the 1800s to build up a varied visual library of carved, delineated and marked up landscapes. In addition, Robson has also used underglaze washes and pencils to create softer painterly finishes and imprecise hand-drawn marks on the clay surfaces.

Mel Robson, Pastoral series, 2019 — Mel Robson, *Pastoral series*, 2019

The diverse material scope of porcelain, stoneware and earthenware clay reflect the colours and textures
of the landscape of Alice Springs and the Northern Territory. “The red earth... the bleached riverbeds, the sun-bleached sticks, twigs and stones that line them like little bones, the smooth milky surfaces of the ubiquitous ghost gums, and the deep black of the often burnt out landscape,”, Robson says. This colour palette has become integral to Robson’s practice over the past few years. The artist often leaves her pieces unglazed or otherwise using simple black and white glazes to highlight the natural colour and surface quality of the clays, although the surfaces are often sanded back after firing to produce a smooth, stony quality. While some of the pieces are wheel thrown and slip cast, most of the forms are hand built, a technique that Robson has not generally used in her previous work, but has been drawn to for this project due to her desire to create a more varied range of surfaces. The shift to this style of making has allowed Robson to playfully experiment with contrasting the irregular forms and fingerprinted surfaces of her hand built vessels with both the smooth, precise slip cast forms and the softer wheel thrown forms. “I like the subtle variation of form and surface when combining vessels made using different processes,” Robson says.

Offering both literal and metaphorical representations of place, Intersections and Boundaries ultimately explores the ways in which mapping can encourage us to examine the construction of place and how we position ourselves in the landscape, thereby offering us a means to navigate the complex histories of the places in which we live.