A Tea Ceremony for the Edgelands - Kristen Calder

'To acquire the right literacy and learn to read the Edgelands, to see the wilderness hiding in plain sight.' This line, borrowed from landscape writer Robert Macfarlane, became an important source of inspiration for Kristen Calder.

Rather than searching for something extraordinary, Calder encourages us to return to what is familiar and look again. By revisiting a place, a material, or a process time and time again, we begin to discover what has always been there, quietly waiting to be noticed.

It is wonderful to encounter an artist who embraces the constraints of material and process, allowing them to become a source of strength and expression. Through clay, Calder transforms the overlooked into something poetic, where fragility and imperfection reveal an unexpected beauty.

As these quiet forms gather together, they invite moments of contemplation. There is a gentle rhythm to the collection that naturally draws us in, encouraging each of us to find our own sense of belonging within the work.

We warmly invite you to experience A Tea Ceremony for the Edgelands, share a cup of tea with us, and spend time discovering the beauty hidden in plain sight. 

‘A tea ceremony for the Edgelands’ by Kristen Calder is her second show at Public Record. 

Artist Statement:

'A Tea Ceremony for the Edgelands'
After being fixated over the years with natural landscapes and geological processes, I have more recently found myself paying attention closer to home. There is this space in-between the city and countryside, where I live, that is often referred to in landscape literature as the ‘Edgelands’. A liminal zone that goes mostly unnoticed as people prefer to ponder the beauty of the wilderness or marvel at the architecture of the city. The edgelands are a place most often traveled through; not a destination of choice or a place to stop for a picnic. 
 
I myself am an edgelander, not just because of where I live but too because of the body I live in. As I started making this collection of work I began to see the edgelands as a reflection of living a life with unseen disabilities and complex health conditions. My daily life often lingers in the margins between functioning and faltering. Symptoms arrive without warning, causing the boundaries of what is possible to shift from one day to the next. Some days I make beautiful pottery and others are a challenge to get out of bed and make a cup of tea.
 
As my physical abilities have changed, the distances I can travel and explore have become more limited. These places aren't far from home, at first seemed uninteresting and boring but, as the landscape writer Robert MacFarlane points out I just needed to acquire the right literacy and learn to read the edgelands to see the wilderness hiding in plain sight. The town I live in is flanked by small industrial areas, parks built over old rubbish dumps, pine forests, stormwater pipes, fly tipping, overgrown vacant properties, old swimming pool complexes and an unusually plentiful number of abandoned roosters on the side of the roads. These edgelands have become my world of wonder. This is where I drag myself out to walk and find inspiration, where I greet the old oak tree that has grown around a metal stake stuck in its bark or where I stop to push clay into the cracks of the broken concrete. 
 
This collection reimagines the discards and dross of the edgelands as a place we might see as both beautiful and sacred. A tea ceremony to celebrate the messy limbo, the forgotten spaces, the broken parts. It invites us into an unexpected place to slow down and be quiet. A space where we can learn to appreciate the cracks. 

Bio:
Kristen is a ceramic artist crafting both functional and sculptural works of art with an element of imperfection. She frequently uses the Japanese kurinuki
technique to quietly hollow out forms from solid blocks of clay while also building larger vessels by hand. Kristen enjoys pushing the boundaries of the materials and techniques she uses which has led her to incorporate wild clay, foraged rocks and plant materials into her ceramic practice.

With a background in geography she is deeply inspired by the local geology and
history of the South Kaipara area where she lives and spends time wandering.
She teaches Kurinuki art form through our gallery and community space. She enjoy expressing their own identity through clay.