12 August 2019

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is delighted to partner with Craft Victoria to present Melbourne-based ceramicist Zhu Ohmu in its Showcase #23 from Wednesday 14 August to Wednesday 6 November 2019.

Showcase #23 will feature a completely new body of work titled Way To Your Heart.

Originally from New Zealand, Rose Wei graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 2012 and now works in Melbourne under the pseudonym Zhu Ohmu. 

Ohmu’s works are built through stacking, folding, pressing and pulling; these actions are often dictated by the weight of moist clay. Forms emerge intuitively and seem to ebb and flow, often pushed to their structural limits. Unlike a printer, the artist can detect the slightest change in the properties of the clay body under different environmental conditions.

This embodied knowledge of plasticity and workability, only gained by spending time with the physical material, allows the artist to work with and manipulate the clay. In the absence of a mechanical process, no two vessels can be the same. This project is a celebration of the artist’s hand in the age of automation.

Ohmu’s coiled pieces investigate the resurgence of the handmade and the ethics of slowness in an age of mass production. Through the SAM Showcase, she explores the entangled relationship between human and non-human ecologies in the current geological age.

The initial concept for Zhu Ohmu’s vessels was a response to the rise in popularity of 3D printed ceramics. Corresponding to biomimicry – the imitation of systems of nature – the artist wanted to explore how forms would emerge if she used her hands to mimic the way a 3D printer operates through extrusion.

Pieces are available for purchase, as with all SAM Showcase items, or if you want to learn more and immerse yourself in art-making, Ohmu is also leading a public workshop where participants can create their own Amoebic Planter using hand-building techniques.

The Craft x SAM Showcase is a curated program of exhibitions in partnership with Craft Victoria and Shepparton Art Museum.

Showcase #23: Zhu Ohmu

Date: 13 August – 6 November 2019

Location: SAM showcase display – at the entrance to SAM

Cost: FREE, pieces available for purchase

Workshops

SAM Monthly Makers: A fine cut; Zhu Ohmu
Saturday 24 August from 10:30am to 12:00pm

Paper-cutting workshop, 7-15 yr olds

Price: $15

Bookings: Eventbrite.

Amoebic Planter Workshop for adults; Zhu Ohmu
Saturday 24 August from 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Create your own hand-built funky planter

Regular: $45

Friends of SAM: $40

Bookings: Eventbrite.