Jeannie Holker – Earthrider ceramics

Michael Reid Northern Beaches will soon present Pulse by Jeannie Holker, who received the top honour for ceramics at last year’s National Emerging Art Prize. Befitting the leafy environs of The Garden Gallery, Holker’s exhibition of large-scale ceramic sculptures invites new perspectives on how we relate to nature, plugging into the little-perceived frequencies that reverberate through the non-human world.

“Pulse is a collection that explores interspecies communication,” says the artist, who sculpts scrolling forms, fossil-like seedpods and totemic insect deities on a scale that conveys primordial heft and monumentality, albeit tempered by the weathered surfaces and nuanced effects wrought by the firing process. “The ecosystems we inhabit are constantly exchanging information. Our capacity to perceive these interactions is shaped – and often limited – by our Umwelten: sensory frameworks and assumptions rooted in our own perspective. The living world emits a continuous pulse, a signal transmitted and received through an intricate web of sensory experiences.”

Guided by field research, Holker describes her process as intuitive and driven by storytelling. “I embrace imperfections as part of the narrative,” she says. “Each piece captures a moment or idea made tangible through clay.” Holker triumphed at NEAP 2024 with Giant Pill Millipede, which connected the evolutionary endurance of ancient, elemental forms with both the vicissitudes of her medium and a sense of human resilience in the face of hostile environments. She returns with an ambitious body of work that similarly binds conceptual rigour with an air of wonder. “I hope my work opens a window into the deeper concepts that shape how we connect with the natural world,” says Holker, whose work can be previewed and acquired by request. “I want viewers to feel a renewed wonder and appreciation for the complexity of life – its beauty, fragility and constant transformation.”