Verzeichnis aller Künstler

Robin Best

Born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1953. Lives in Adelaide.

Training and Professional Experience

1973-76 Studies Ceramics at South Australian School of Art, taking a Diploma Design. 1985-89 Lecturer in Ceramics at RMIT and Monash University. 1993 Graduate Diploma Visual Arts, University of South Australia. 1998-2004 Coordinator for the Ernabella Ceramics Project based on the Anangu-Pitjantjatjara lands of north-west South Australia. 2000-2001 Coordinator of Design Lab Project funded by Visual Arts/Craft Board of Australia Council.

Selected Awards

1982 Workshop Development Grant, Crafts Board of the Australia Council. 1999 South Australia Design Awards, Merit Award. 2002 South Australian Ceramic Award. 2003 Visual Arts/Crafts Board, Australia Council, grant for new work. 2005 Asia Link residency Beijing.

Selected Exhibitions (outside Australia)

2002 "New Work", Madama Mao's Dowry, Shanghai. 2003 "Light Black", Touring exhibition v.a. The Craft Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art Kyoto, National Museum for the Arts, Taiwan. 2004 "New Work Inspired by Old Cultures", Madame Mao's Dowry, Shanghai. 2005 "Collect", Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

References

Robin Best. Recent Work, Craft Arts International, No. 53, 2001. - South Australian Ceramic Awards 2002, Ceramics Art and Perception, No. 49. 2002. - Stephen Bowers, Australian Contemporary. A Survey of a Sense of Place, Ceramic Art and Perception, No. 58, 2004.- Christine Nicholls, New Work with Old Cultures, Ceramic Art and Perception, No. 59, 2005.

Coral Membrane
Cast white engraved porcelain
2004
240 x 310 mm
Photorapher: Grant Hancock

Robin Best verfolgt in ihrer Arbeit zwei unterschiedliche Wege, die jedoch beide mit ihrer Heimat zu tun haben.

Eine ihrer Inspirationsquellen sind die submarinen Ökosysteme vor der Südküste Australiens, auf deren Fauna sie in ihren dünnwandigen Porzellanschalen Bezug nimmt.

Daneben gilt ihr Interesse dem kulturellen Erbe sowohl Australiens als auch Chinas, des Ursprungslandes des Porzellans, auf das sie sich schon mit ihren strengen Vasen- und Schalenformen bezieht. Aus diesem Erbe hat sie sich nicht einfach bedient, sondern es, seine Eigenarten achtend, in ein interkulturelles Netzwerk der Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern aus beiden Kulturbereichen eingebunden. So bemalt Nyukana Baker, eine angesehene Künstlerin aus der Aborigine-Gemeinde Ernabella in Zentralaustralien, Robin Bests Gefäße mit Mustern aus dem traditionellen Formenschatz ihres Volkes, der durch andere Aborigine-Künstler auch in die zeitgenössische Malerei Australiens Eingang gefunden hat. In Jingdezhen steht ihr mit Liu He Tian

ein kompetenter Partner auf dem Gebiet der traditionellen Porzellanmalerei zur Verfügung. Die von ihm gestalteten Landschaftsdekore sind dem Kanon der chinesischen Malerei verpflichtet, ohne in überlieferten Formen zu verharren.

Mit beiden Künstlern ist Robin Best eine künstlerische Symbiose eingegangen, die, von der spezifischen Lage Australiens und seiner Geschichte ausgehend, für den Dialog der Kulturen beispielgebend sein könnte.

Peter Schmitt, M.A.
Stellvertretender Direktor i.R.
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe

In her work Robin Best pursues two different ways though both relate to her homeland.

One of her inspirational sources is the underwater ecosystem of Australia's south coast, whose fauna she refers to in her thin walled porcelain bowls.

Alongside that she has an interest in the cultural heritage of Australia as well as China, the country of origin for porcelain, to which she refers in her austere vases and bowls. She didn't simply help herself to this heritage, rather - respecting its particular nature - incorporated it into an inter-cultural network by working with artists from both cultures. In this way Nyukana Baker, a distinguished artist from the Aboriginal community of Ernabella in central Australia, paints Robin Best's vessels with patterns from her people's wealth of traditional designs, which have also found their way into contemporary Australian painting through other Aboriginal artists. In Jingdezhen (China) Liu He Tian proves to be a competent partner on traditional porcelain painting. His landscape scenes are indebted to the principle of Chinese painting without limiting himself to traditional forms.

Robin Best entered into an artistic symbiosis with both artists which could, from the specific location of Australia and its history, be the start of an exemplary cultural dialogue.

Translation: Eva Hunte