Synthetic history, though born through modern hands, notes of recovery and memory wash over the critic. John Gilbert, prolific during the 60’s and 70’s, much of his work available today leans towards warm browns and glossy finishes, permeated through the Old Ballarat Pottery he established in 1988. The work on hand however, tells of his appreciation of Hans Coper, Gilbert’s loose and biophilic carvings uncovered from Coper’s blackened surface. The major form appears broken, lost and now recovered, face tarnished and now polished back. Through excavation, and archaeology, one reveals organisms lost and captured within surface.

Gilbert produces an impression well beyond the manufactured origin of the work; the vase provocative, asking, what story have we stumbled over, what creature bore these marks?