Karen Choy
All Right Vegemite!
27 October – 21 November 2018
Karen Choy has been making ceramic sculptures since graduating from the National Art School, Sydney in 2005. Strongly influenced by the bright, vibrant glazes of Tang dynasty funerary animals, she has also drawn inspiration from Western cultural animal fables such as Peter Rabbit, acknowledging both her Chinese and Australian cultural heritage. In All Right Vegemite! we see Choy turn her attention to native animals such as the wombat and echidna
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The exhibition gets its title from the children’s book of the same name. I grew up reading “Far Out Brussel Sprouts” and “All Right Vegemite!” and loved the amusing rhymes and illustrations – Peter Viska’s witty illustrations of Australian animals have inspired many of the works in this exhibition
I have also drawn inspiration from my direct observations of these animals
On a recent trip to Kangaroo Valley I saw many wild wombats going about their daily task of munching their way around the paddocks in the early mornings and before dusk. These creatures are cheeky humorous animals with attitude – they ganged up on our pet dog and chased him away
In Cradle Mountain Tasmania on the Dove Lake walking track I have spotted echidnas. I pay homage to this Aussie icon as it appears on the five cent coin – making their spikes was no mean feat and a test for my patience
