For Maori, early contact with Europeans “constituted in an exotic vision of unrecognisable people and incomprehensible technologies”. (1)

Rebecca Harris’ ceramic wall hangings are a humorous exploration of the issues that arose during European colonisation of New Zealand. “Many transported all the trappings of British civilisation into this strange land and the resulting incongruities at first must have bewildered and amused tangata whenua” (2)

Harris’ work is concerned with the timelessness of the human condition. The concepts of adaptation and acculturation in New Zealand are relevant to both early settlers and contemporary society.

Harris transposes traditional Victorian portraiture with images from a diverse range of genres and historical periods to create amusing and often disconcerting compositions. Captain Cook attired in a space suit greets a mermaid on the beach in The Meeting, while a Victorian couple in Amongst The Pigeons, posing amongst native flora and fauna, have had their heads replaced with those of Darth Vader and Bat Woman. Harris further references Victoriana by utilizing an oval shaped frame engraved with ornate wallpaper designs reminiscent of William Morris.

Etching the clay in relief, Harris engraves imagery and texture onto the surface. Her work occupies the margin between drawing, print making and ceramics and her authoritative mark making and textured surfaces provide a technique and methodology more commonly associated with painters and print makers, yet the viewer is constantly reminded of her clay medium.

“Like a growing number of contemporary ceramics practitioners, my work does not sit comfortably within the high art sector nor the craft/object sector and points towards a new direction away from the former dichotomous framework.” (3)

1. Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand.
2. Rebecca Harris, Artist statement, 2005.
3. Ibid.