This ash-glazed earthenware bowl was made by Aboriginal artist, Thancoupie (b. 1937) [Thanacoupie], probably during the late 1970s when she lived and studied in Sydney. Its incised motif depicts one of the bird species native to her homeland of West Cape York Peninsula.
Born in the small mission town of Napranum, near Weipa, Thancoupie experienced a traditional childhood of hunting and travelling with her family in time with the seasons. As part of her upbringing, her female elders taught her traditional stories and symbols that they drew in the sand. Thancoupie would later modify these for her work in textiles and clay.
In 1971, Thancoupie travelled to Sydney to enrol in a graphic arts course at East Sydney Technical College. Although her application was declined, she was accepted into the ceramics department where she was taught by Peter Rushforth, Bernard Sahm, Shiga Shigeo, Joan Grounds and Peter Travis. She became the first Indigenous person to study ceramics at a tertiary level.
Thancoupie held her first solo exhibition in the backyard of her friend, Jennifer Isaacs, and through this received an invitation to attend an international ceramics conference in Mexico. Since then, she has become one of Australia's best-known ceramic artists with work held around the world in public and private collections. As a community elder, she now educates Indigenous children in their traditional culture and runs art education programs during school holidays. (http://www.abc.net.au/message/tv/ms/s1175226.htm)
Catherine Reade
Assistant Curator
April 2008
This ash-glazed earthenware bowl was made by Aboriginal artist, Thancoupie (b. 1937) [Thanacoupie], probably during the late 1970s when she lived and studied in Sydney. Its incised motif depicts one of the bird species native to her homeland of West Cape York Peninsula. Her signature is impressed into the base.
Thancoupie studied ceramics in the 1970s at East Sydney Technical College where she gradually developed an expertise in ash glazes. She described this particular skill in an interview for the ABC television program, 'Message Stick', in 2004:
'I went on and the big challenge continued, not only making pots, finding hard how to fire and how to make up glazes. It was really hard. But with explanation of some teachers and a very good one, who then went slowly - this is back in Sydney - went slowly, and we worked on teaching me about ash glazes that came from wood. And that was something that I knew, you know, better was the woods - the strong heat wood, the light wood. And picking out one of the glazes. I worked on ash glazes then.' (http://www.abc.net.au/message/tv/ms/s1175226.htm)
Sydney artist, Gloria Bishop, began working with Aboriginal support and welfare groups in the late 1960s. At this time she developed an interest in Aboriginal art, which she acquired for her own collection and promoted on trips overseas. She purchased this and another Thancoupie bowl from a Sydney gallery in the late 1970s. Gloria's two daughters, Wendy and Marina Bishop, oversaw the donation of the bowls to the Powerhouse Museum in 2008.
This gift follows an earlier donation by Gloria and Arthur Bishop of a carpet with a design by Aboriginal artist, Jimmy Pike (Powerhouse Museum object number 2000/54/1). Arthur Bishop purchased the carpet in 1988 to hang in his company's boardroom.
Catherine Reade
Assistant Curator
April 2008
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