Fliss Dodd

Fliss is a sculptor/photographer living outside of Berry NSW. She studied Ceramics at the ANU School of Art back in 1994 where she fell in love with hand building whilst being taught by ceramicist Hiroe Swen. Fliss Dodd draws upon her life experiences, travel, culture, humour and everything in between as reference points and inspiration. She works closely with textiles, design and photography and her continual fascination for other cultures and travel has enabled her to develop her own unique and distinctive sense of style from which she now draws upon in her latest abstract ceramic pieces.         

She has been a finalist in the following prizes:                                                                                      

National Emerging Art Prize – 2021                                                                                             

Muswellbrook Art Prize 2022

Her pieces are held in private collections in both Australia and overseas. No two pieces are ever the same.

Core to Fliss’s studio practice is a manner of working best described as deeply intimate, where she works with clay and textiles, making small, rhythmic, thoughtful, mediative marks on each piece. Nature and ceremony are elucidated by Fliss’s considered suggestion of scenarios that play through her mind, manifestly abstract bull forms and anthropomorphic characters with their own particulate and nuanced offerings to time and place.

The artist has subtly introduced textiles, such as the symbolic red thread and its many significances from different cultures and traditions. The Talisman tassels and red thread suggest protection, luck and staying connected to the spiritual world. Similarly, the layering and hand stitching of fabrics is evocative of Indian Kantha quilts and West African Asafo Flags – telling a yet larger story through costume.

“My pieces are all independent characters that unfold as I create, yet they have meaning to one another and have formed their own narrative. They are born from the creative spirit of extraordinary cultures. They hold music, calmness, courage, initiations, connectedness and external rhythms through pattern and mark making. They are sculptures that explore and I find my heart sings when I make each and every one.”

Fliss Dodd (2023).