Wayfaring: Sarah Stubbs

Sarah Stubbs is a jeweller and academic, whose TRACES series features in the Wayfaring exhibition at Craft ACT. Presenting a series of ice porcelain works, Sarah joins her colleagues Bella Dower, Sara Lindsay and Zoe Veness in testing “different materials and processes, modes of seriality, combinations of objects and display configurations with the view to explore and refine curatorial methods”.  

Clay holds a particular capacity for retaining the memory of place and touch. Clay samples a unique geological location at a given time, and its  plasticity responds to and retains the physical touch of a maker. Working with porcelain, Sarah explores ideas of material and poetic traces of place, reimagining past lives and practices. The relationships between design and visual arts, objects and memory underpin Sarah’s practice. 

The TRACES series are reminiscent of Still Life painting: Sarah forms diorama-like spaces from ice porcelain,  referencing global traditions of porcelain functional ware. Sarah acknowledges and celebrates the unexpected to balance the careful planning and testing involved in using porcelain.  

Although visitors cannot physically visit the gallery, the exhibition can be enjoyed online on the Craft ACT website and social media platforms. A beautiful online catalogue features essays, artist reflections and biographies, photographs and a complete list of works. Most of the works in the exhibition are available for purchase, and artist interviews and video tours simulate the gallery experience. 
 
Wayfaring is now showing online at craftact.org.au 

Image: Sarah Stubbs, Wayfaring still life 2 (plaster room), 2020. Photo: 5 Foot Photography.