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Joan Campbell, MBE
Lindsay Lovering
Lovering, Lindsay 2014, 'Joan Campbell MBE', Fremantle Studies, 8: 19-26.
I have always lived within the sight and sound of the sea and for most of my life it has played an important part. The sounds of the sea have nurtured me almost more than the sight of the sea and there is a wonderful rhythm and freshness on the beach. My studio on Bathers Beach in Fremantle looks out onto the sea and I can hear the moods and different energies being played. I know that when I am gone the sea will still be there. [1]
Joan Campbell, 1984 (Roger Garwood)
Preparation of this paper has made me appreciate even more that, while Joan was modest and unassuming, she had an enormous impact on the careers of so many of today’s artists and arts workers and on the cultural development of Australia.
When I first met Joan in 1991 she was invited to be a member of Healthway’s first ever Arts Advisory Committee and I had recently been appointed as the organisation’s Arts Program Manager. [2] The more I got to know Joan the more she impressed me with her boundless energy, vision, wisdom and youthful outlook on life. I believe she had tapped into the philosophical ‘fountain of youthful spirit’.
She was always active, abuzz with curiosity, energy and had a busy agenda. She loved being amongst people, particularly young people and had an enduring love and respect for the environment. Joan had a passion for life, fair play and honesty and was a proud and loving mother and wife. She had a great sense of humour, but, most importantly in this context, she was a master ceramicist of international repute.
Joan Campbell was born in Geelong in 1925 and at the age of 15 moved to WA with her family in 1940. One of her first jobs after school was secretary to the Maylands Aero Club where she learnt to fly. She told me once she only realised she needed glasses after crashing a Tiger Moth while on a training flight. She also boasted to my Healthway colleagues that she was one of the state’s first glue sniffers. Part of her job was to paint petroleum based glazes on the wings of aeroplanes and, in her words, she used to get ‘as high as a kite’!
In 1947 she married Jim and had four children. Sadly the third child did not survive and as a result Joan suffered Post Natal Depression. She followed her doctor’s advice - and took up pottery as a hobby. This was also a period of reflection that shaped her future outlook on life, her family and her career. She came to the conclusion that people should try to accept tragedy and adversity with a positive attitude and that people who were dealt what could be called a ‘raw deal’ had a choice. They could be negative, cynical and bitter but they could also choose to become stronger, calmer, more positive, more loving and wiser.
Joan chose the latter and once told the story of two men who looked out through prison bars; one saw mud, the other, stars.
She chose to work in clay for two reasons (1) it was cheap and (2) it was something she could do alone and schedule around her family life (in reality she was often up at all hours tending her kiln).
Her husband and loving partner Jim, assisted with the construction of a workshop in the backyard and her father, an engineer and inventor, built her first kiln; and so began a lifelong passion for working with clay.
Her father had taught her well and she developed a critical and analytical mind and this proved valuable time and time again. She was constantly constructing kilns and other contraptions for her work. They were always meticulously planned and constructed - and they produced magnificent ceramic works of art.
In these early days of her development she studied with local potters Daniel de Blanken and Eileen Keys. They taught her the value of technique and knowledge rather than output (she complained that, when assisting De Blanken, he gave her all the dirty jobs). Also under their tutelage, she came to understand the significance of discipline, form and balance and a respect and love of clay, an understanding of glazes, colours and kiln construction; and the courage and freedom to explore ideas and accept challenges and failures.
She began to read industriously and she studied the history of ceramics including A Potters Book by the English potter, Bernard Leach. It was Leach who introduced raku to the west and who was interested in the influence of Zen Buddhism on Japanese pottery. He also introduced the idea of the potter/craftsman with a harmonisation of life and nature with a respect for natural form.
Inspired by these influences, she was the first Australian to embark on a voyage of discovery in raku pottery and to make the voyage through uncharted waters from potter to artist.
Another significant influence was Peter Voulkos, an American and one of the founders of the Otis group who was known for his Abstract Expressionist ceramic sculptures, which crossed the traditional divide between crafts and fine art.
Joan began experimenting with raku in the 1970s, 1989 (Robert Frith)
Then in 1970, as a result of a grant from the Australia Council, she studied with the eccentric Paul Soldner regarded at the time as America’s leading raku potter whose works were organic and earthy. Soldner fired at low temperatures (unusual at the time); and experimented with glazes and natural materials - after the pots were removed from the kiln.
As her local profile began to rise and as a result of encouragement from a friend, Joan entered and won a public speaking competition! It was something she admitted she enjoyed and came naturally and she began to accept regular speaking invitations to talk about her work
Interestingly, while she accepted that she had a talent for public speaking she always denied she had any natural talent with clay.
Eventually she decided to stop accepting invitations to talk about her work on the belief that her works should speak for themselves - in silence - very Zen!
About this she said, ‘Maybe it was as a result of my illness but, during the recovery process, what really gave me strength and courage were the things that were said in silence, very often from a painting, a sculpture or a building - something from which I felt the warm presence of a fellow human being. [3] A statement that reflects the well-known Zen saying ‘Only when the waters are still can we see ourselves clearly’.
As a result of this period of reflection Joan began to place increasing importance on the context and the setting of her exhibitions.
Rie Heymans in her essay ‘Explorations: a personal response, [4] tells the story of Joan’s second exhibition held at the Old Fire Station in Perth (where she held her first ever exhibition in 1969). The space was completely blacked out and the exhibition pieces were spot lit while resting on beds of white sand. It was a style of presentation that was totally unprecedented at the time and was fully consistent with her desire to give her works the freedom to speak for themselves.
I remember walking through ankle deep in water at one of her exhibitions at Bathers Beach when she wanted people to experience a particular environmental sensation - it certainly touched my senses.
In 1973 she visited New Guinea to work with the people in an effort to arrest the country’s disappearing pottery skills. This trip had a profound long-term influence on her, as it was her first experience with potters who worked with sense of rhythm and who displayed a physical joy in the process. She eventually learnt how build rhythm into the clay as she worked, to relax and to let the creativity flow. She never worked when she was tense or stressed and this state of mind eventually became a way of life.
Each piece she created was an experiment in texture, constituency, temperature, glazing and post firing treatments.
Her main sculpting tool became her thumb that she used as a scalpel, a brush or as a sledge hammer for a resistant piece of clay.
When, after the firings, she opened the kilns she continued to work the surfaces, dunking them in water, placing them in grass or sawdust or blasting them with another flame. Only when the work was cool and the debris cleaned away would the final result be known.
Joan had an ever present curiosity. She questioned and explored everything she did - in her art, her life and in her friendships; it was a journey that never ended.
Joan Campbell in her pottery workshop in the old kerosene store at Bathers Beach, 1989 (Fremantle History Centre, LHOO2648 )
Someone once said, ‘it’s not the destination but the voyage that counts’ - that was Joan from start to stumps!
In 1972 she was awarded a Diploma at the International Academy of Ceramics Exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and was honoured when that august institution purchased one of her works. In addition, in 1973 she was elected to the International Academy of Ceramics - a wonderful endorsement.
In 1973, as a result of a call from the then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, she was appointed a founding member of the Australia Council - a very proud moment in her life. Shortly afterwards, she was invited to present a weekly TV segment on pottery that lasted for approximately four years. She did this because she believed that everyone should be encouraged to explore their creative side and that participation in the creative process was important - indeed more important than issues of artistic standards and quality - her first work was an ashtray that she kept for years with her name scrawled onto the base.
That same year when walking along the foreshore on Bathers Beach she saw the derelict boatbuilding workshop that belonged to Harbour and Lights. It was to be her future creative and spiritual home and for many others as well. She put an enormous effort into its renovation and many believe she saved it from demolition.
The environment at Bathers Beach had an immediate influence on her works. The constant sound of the ocean, the shifting winds, the Wildlife and the changes to the seasons became a constant source of inspiration.
Her glazes became lighter and she put this down to the magnificent sunsets and the constantly changing light that she observed each day that softened her outlook on colour.
But she never lost her love of the Australian landscape particularly after a trip to the Bungle Bungles that was followed by a series of commissions that reflected this wonderful geographic freak of nature.
In the early 1980s that she accepted commissions many of them large scale and in public buildings continuing her low-fire raku like output that very much reflected the Australian landscape.
One of these is the famous Intergrata outside the Eileen Joyce studio at UWA. It’s interesting to compare a photo taken on or before 1984 with one taken recently - the pieces are travelling well and Joan would have wanted them to interact with the environment as they do.
Her passion for her work grew stronger and more determined and she became well known. She also became a mentor to emerging artists. They came from Australia and overseas to work and learn from her often for extended periods. She accepted requests solely on the attitude and outlook of the person making the request. In return, she provided the clay and the kiln for firings and the students held regular ‘garage sales’ of their works that ensured a modest income for gas, clay and other materials.
When she finally accepted that she no longer had the stamina to continue working at Bathers Beach she held a garage sale. I purchased a magnificent ceramic sunflower that was in pieces scattered around the workshop. I placed it in storage for more than a year before I got the courage to even think about putting it together. I thank Greg Daly for his patient advice on how to put it together but it cost me a fortune in Araldite.
In 1986 she was awarded the Roz Bower Memorial Award for her service to Community Arts in Australia and in 1997, just before she passed away, she was presented with the prestigious Australia Council Emeritus Medal.
She died on 5 March 1997 aged 71 and her funeral was on 8 March - International Women’s Day.
Joan was a ‘master’ practitioner, mentor to numerous artists and administrators, a spokesperson on many cultural and community issues. In my opinion she was a wonderful example of a totally unpretentious and generous person.
The time and effort she put into Crescendo, her last exhibition at the Lawrence Wilson Gallery during the final stage of her life was inspirational.
Mural, 1980 (Roger Garwood) Shield form V, 1996-7 (Robert Frith)
Some works collapsed in the kiln and some of her former students had to come to the rescue to assist in their completion. It was wonderful that she and many in the visual arts community believed it was some of her best works - however she passed away just before the show opened.
In many ways Crescendo summarised all she stood for. The glazes, developed with Greg Daly were sensitive, unpredictable and full of surprises.
Some of the double layered works reflected the contradictions and fragility of inner and outer life and the works uniquely addressed the technical challenges of form, line, balance, dynamic tension, texture and scale.
It expressed the fragility of life, of love, disease, decay and death. It also reflected the environment and the Australian landscape.
In Joan’s own words:
Some of the works in this exhibition are essentially about the recycling of energy, how we expend it and how it renews itself. I see this in the ocean all the time, the tides come and go and the waves roll in expending their energy and then recycle back, returning to the ocean.
The sense of embracement in some of these works is not about protection but about there being no beginning and no end - simply life in its fullness.
The works are about all those things, including copulation - the way most living creatures continue the existence and development of their species. 5
Notes
Fremantle Studies Day, 2011
1 Anne Gray (ed.), Crescendo: Joan Campbell’s recent works: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery: the University of Western Australia, Perth, 11 April - 29 June, 1997. The University, Perth, 1997.
2 Lindsay Lovering worked as Arts Program Manager for Healthway for over 20 years.
3 Anne Gray, op. cit.
4 Rie Heymans, in Luceille Hanley (ed.), Jean Campbell - Potter, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, 1984.
5 Anne Gray, op. cit.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 9 May, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/fhs/fs/8/Lovering.html (it was last updated on 16 December, 2018). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.