Madeleine Child
Madeleine Child’s extensive training and travel can be seen technically and conceptually in her work whether reflecting the distinctive colour and vibrancy of Mexican pottery or the playfulness in faux chocolate Easter bunnies.
Madeleine Child specialises in contemporary ceramic techniques.
Since receiving a Ceramics Certificate from Otago Polytechnic in
Dunedin in 1978, Madeleine has pursued the study of ceramic and
glass in New York, Lisbon, and London where she received a Masters
from the Royal College of Art and an Advanced Studies 3D degree
from Central St Martins College of Art. She has since returned to
where she began and has lectured at Otago Polytechnic School of
Design since 1997.
Madeleine's extensive training and travel can be seen
technically and conceptually in her work whether reflecting the
distinctive colour and vibrancy of Mexican pottery or the
playfulness in faux chocolate Easter bunnies. Her work evokes a
sense of sentimentality that is, at times, countered with darker
intonations as in Sweet As, a collection of intensely
colourful popcorn. Buying her children coloured popcorn she became
"fascinated by its fleshy gorgeousness, organic fecundity and
forbidden fruitiness" creating hundreds of giant ceramic popcorn
pieces sparking with colour to comment on food politics and
additives.
Madeleine has received awards in prestigious competitions such
as the Noresewear Art Awards, Waiheke Ceramic Awards, Gold Coast
International Ceramics Art Awards, Sidney Myer International
Ceramics Awards, and NZ Society of Potters Awards. Her work
features in private and public collections internationally
including the Frans Hals Museum in the Netherlands, Shepparton Art
Gallery in Australia, the Dowse in Lower Hutt, the Otago Museum,
and the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Emmanuel Cooper included
Child in his 2000 publication 'Ten Thousand Years of Pottery'
distributed by the British Museum Press.
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