Janet Fieldhouse facts for kids
Janet Fieldhouse (born in 1971) is a talented artist from Cairns, Queensland, Australia. She is known for her amazing ceramic artworks. Janet uses different types of clay and special art methods to bring back and share Ailan Kastom. This means the old cultural ways, symbols, and art of her Erub community. She especially highlights the important roles of women in her culture. Janet learned about ceramics from another artist, Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher James. She has also studied art in Japan and the United States.
Janet is bringing Ailan Kastom back to life through her unique ceramic art. She has won several awards for her work. These include the Indigenous Ceramic Art Prize at Shepparton Art Museum in 2007 and 2012. Her art is also displayed in public collections across Australia and the United States.
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About Janet's Early Life
Janet Fieldhouse was born in Cairns, Queensland. She has strong family connections to several islands: Badu, Mua, Kirriri, and Erub. She also connects with South Sea Islander communities.
Her Art and What It Means
Janet's art mixes different clays like earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. She also uses natural fibres, found items, and other materials. Her work shows how important it is for Torres Strait Islander Peoples to stay connected to their land and culture.
Janet's art expresses her Torres Strait Islander background. It shows the traditional culture, important ceremonies, and objects made for daily life and spiritual needs. She especially focuses on the contributions of women to Ailan Kastom.
Janet's art often shows the traditional body designs and decorations of Torres Strait Islander women. She uses a special flexible porcelain called Keraflex. With this, she turns old stories from Erub and Badu Elders into detailed, see-through discs. These discs are lit up by light-boxes in her Comb and Pendant art series.
Her 2011 artwork called Tattoo is a porcelain piece. It features symbols and images from women's traditional body art. These practices are no longer done in the Torres Strait. This artwork won the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award in 2012. Tattoo is part of the "Paradise Again" online exhibition at the Shepparton Art Museum.
In 2011, Janet had an exhibition called "Journey" at the Vivien Anderson Gallery. In this show, she combined white raku, red raku, and Cool Ice porcelain with feathers, string, and paint. This showed her creative way of working with ceramics. She also used terracotta clay from the Mekong River in Laos. She traveled there in 2010 and worked with local potters. In the same year, Janet was a featured artist in "The Women's Show." This group exhibition at Vivien Anderson Gallery showed the amazing art of Australian First Nations women artists.
Janet's Achievements
Janet Fieldhouse has received many awards and prizes. These are for her important contributions to modern Australian ceramics and Australian First Nations art. In 2018, Janet was a featured artist in The National in Sydney. She showed her Comb and Pendant series at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, New South Wales.
Where Her Art Is Kept
- National Gallery of Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria
- Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
