Periwinkle

Back

Perriwinkle (2020)

Hand built from White raku and Ironstone

The inspiration for Periwinkle arose during the sombre days of COVID-19 lockdown. During this time the Australian government decreed citizens remain home for an indefinite period to control the spread of the highly infectious Coronavirus. Leaving the house was sanctioned once a day for exercise or food provisions.

This exercise became a ritual as I fled to the harbour foreshore. The hidden coast was untouched by Covid-19. It was oblivious to the human suffering around the globe. The Pacific tides had sculpted the golden sandstone into swirls of honeycomb, crescent mounds, fissures, platforms and pristine rockpools. The pools were fervently alive, brimming with sea creatures and exotic ocean plants. Anemones, star fish, sea urchins, minnows, limpets, turban shells, crabs and cunjevois. Iridescent purple, opal blues, teal and powder pinks, salty lavender and blood reds all swam with every shade of seaweed green. The mirror of the sea served only to intensify these surreal watercolours.

A few months earlier I might have been inspired by the white smoke and black char of our summer bushfires. Endless months of east coast inferno. Chocking skies and black middays. A few months later I may have been inspired by America’s Black Lives Matter. The white straw that broke a black neck, igniting centuries of subjugation and inequality into flammable anarchy.

However, midst this frame of fire, COVID and riots I found solace at the point where the ocean meets the land. Where the sea ebbs and flows with freedom but also tidal predictability. Where the sandstone is carved over millennia and rockpools stand still. At this point I try not to think about rising sea levels and global warming and escape to the place that brings peace.

And it is here, I discover the Periwinkle!

This tiny mollusc gathers upon the sandstone shoreline like scattered confetti. From afar their modest shells appear powdery blue, hence their common name Little Blue Periwinkle, but closer inspection reveals fine ink blue and white markings. A rush of empathy swells as I realise this creature, with its shell on its back is always at home…in its own state of lockdown. At this moment in history, we are confined to our homes and yet the periwinkle lives at home 24/7. Yes, periwinkles do get to wander around the shoreline, but their shell home is their sanctuary, a place of refuge and protection. We too have withdrawn to our homes for safety but perhaps rather than feeling trapped we may view this enforced lockdown through Periwinkle eyes – a time of modesty, of finding joy in simple acts and finding contentment in shelter.

I coil clay to a template, but each form rises with its own character and roof. I am inspired by sea foam and the churn of waves, the salty sand and Periwinkle striations. I look at the wandering shell path and realise that rarely is your destination a direct line. It curves and bends, the journey is long and hopes for patience. I build a steeple of white to pray, a turban top. A spiral leading to a mother’s curve. The generosity of home fired from warmth within. And finally, The Ocean’s Tear, wept for all the lives lost, lives turned upside down and the lived saved during this time of upheaval.