TRIP: Spain and Portugal with LOCKERROOM founder Monique Robinson
Based in Bellingen, LOCKERROOM founder Monique Robinson works predominantly in ceramic, with craftsmanship that also includes sculpture, lighting and creative direction/set design.
Where are you? At the end of the year I spent 3 months in Spain and Portugal. I was assisting artist and sculptress Berta T. Ivanow in Barcelona for majority of the time.
What were you working on?
While there, we traveled to Valencia with our friend Iris to partake in a weekend of Wood Firing at Jaime Romeros’ kiln yard. We fired a small Train Kiln for around 16 hours into the early hours of the morning. We enjoyed lovely food and, although my Spanish is still improving, a reciprocal love for clay and Wood Firing was felt. Berta, Iris and myself later travelled to the south-west coast of Portugal, to Clay Kitchen Portugalto Wood Fire for 80 hours in a larger Train Kiln and 18 hours in a small Phoenix Kiln over the NewYear. Here we spent our time discussing all things ceramics, eating incredible food, swimming in the rain and offering endless hours of labour and love, poured into the pieces that are unearthed at the opening of the kiln.
How do your surroundings inform your work?
Within the work I make, I hope to encompass an adaption and expansion of place and memory intotactile object and form. To worship, revere, a place with artefacts created from made and collectedsite specific materials. I often collect materials in the place in which I am making, including clay,rock and tree ash. These materials are used in the actuality of the form of the piece, but also, in thefinish and glazed surface. To further enhance the connection to place, I seek out local Wood Kilns,implementing the historical method of Wood Firing, usually using local or nearby tree, emphasisingthe site-specific details of the work.Altogether, from inception to conclusion, these facets, intertwine and overlap, creating layers ofmeaning. I aim to capture experience and place, a conjuring of marks, traces and remnants that areeternally held within the work.
Tell us more about your work?
My ceramic practice often draws upon geological, geographical and architectural influence. A focus within the work is the emphasis on hand-made, that of mark-making and impressions, that often signify a moment in time or a piece unique unto itself that cannot be remade. Less a tool of function and more of experimentation. Fostering the notion of presence, with a strong connection to, or reflection of, our natural surroundings and my lived world.
Mon wears Drawstring Pant in White