Craft Australia Advocacy·Communication·Research
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1 January 1970
Beyond the Seas is a practice-led research project in which I explored the ways in which cultural and geographical dislocation influences craft practice and the creation of material culture.
This question was investigated through the medium of my own creative practice, informed by research on location in Australia. The crafted artefacts produced by the early colonial settlers, and also those of Indigenous Australian makers were the main subject of my study. I was interested in exploring the 'hidden' narratives and knowledge embodied in these objects, the ways in which life experiences can be infused into an object through the hand (and mind) of its maker. It was therefore important that the research was developed primarily through practice, supported by periods of museum and archive study and research on location in the Aboriginal homelands. My own (albeit temporary) re-location provided an insight into the more profound instances of dislocation experienced by colonial period transportees and settlers.
Stephen Dixon studied Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Ceramics at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1986. His work features in numerous public and private collections, including the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, the British Council, the Crafts Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Museum of Scotland, and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. He is currently employed as Professorial Research Fellow in Contemporary Crafts at MMU Cheshire, investigating the contemporary printed image in ceramics. Specific research interests include the British satirical tradition (in both printmaking and ceramics), commemorative wares and 'pop' culture, and the development of socio-political narratives in contemporary ceramics.
