Fruzsi Kenez - SOURCE AND STREAM (THE RIVER FLOWS BOTH WAYS)

Next date: Wednesday, 08 October 2025 | 10:00 AM to 04:00 PM

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE EXHIBITION 

27 September until 1 November  

Lounge Gallery, Hallway Gallery

A deeply site-responsive project that translates the energy of the Ngangkipari river and a 19th century Hungarian poetry collection into a ceramic ‘pebble’ of the day.

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Join us for the official opening Saturday 27 September 2-4pm -to launch the exhibition, we welcome writer and creativity coach, Lara Day.

Read Lara's opening words here. 

SOURCE-AND-STREAM-OPENING-WORDS-Lara-Day.pdf(PDF, 121KB)

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Artist Statement 

The Pebble of the Day 

I was really clear on wanting to establish a daily ritual that would allow me to engage with the residency experience, the site and the river as deeply as possible. For me, this looked like creating a daily ‘metronome’, a routine I could repeat every day that I was here to make as much room for magic and happenstance as possible. I knew it had to involve physical interaction with the river, engage with key Hungarian poetry in an authentic way and result in outcomes made of clay, using no tool other than my hands.

Metronome of the day

Bypass the house, go straight to the river, get the pulse of the day. What is the mood of the water? What is the weather, what colours and energies are present? Be still, listen. Observe, make notes and remove nothing from nature. Return to the house. Make a pot of tea. Hold and speak to the 19th century poetry collection by Sándor Petőfi. Ask it (in Hungarian) to offer a poem that captures the energy of the day. Open it by feel, read the poem, drink the tea. See what parallels are drawn between the poem and the notes made by the river that morning. Time for making!

Choose which clay to work with.

With no preconceived outcome, intuitively form a ‘pebble of the day’ that encapsulates and responds to the energies distilled through the filters of the river, the poem, my consciousness and hands. The only other rule is to start and finish the making of a piece on each day, which is quite a task when making large works, in clay, in winter. This parameter was set to contain the unique energy of each day.

I also set myself the challenge of working with glazes that were completely new to me. I created over 200 test tiles during the residency period to achieve the rocky, textured, fossilized results.

A Cosmic Exchange 

This work is an organic result of spending time by the river, observing both the water, and the surrounding environment and human impact. Every day I found (and frequently disposed of) discarded litter from plastic bags and bottles, to bags of dog excrement left by owners. I observed people collecting shells and rocks, and fishing. Essentially offering a very poor exchange: Rubbish for ocean bounty. This doesn’t include the ever-growing effects of the algal bloom that resulted in foaming, frothy water and dead fish littering the coastline. Watching this environmental devastation unfold was very confronting.

The forty-three objects that make up ‘‘A Cosmic Exchange’ are my offering, and a way of digesting this experience as though to say “Take this piece from the gallery, something that was created with the intention of being collected.

But in exchange, leave what doesn’t belong to you. Resist the temptation of pocketing that pretty object from nature.”

The primary intention behind this work is to encourage a discourse around our hand in local environmental issues and to review our collective micro-contributions which are not limited to littering, and extracting objects from nature for personal gain.

  Image: Fruzsi Kenez,Works in progress, 2025, assorted clays. Image courtesy artist.

When

Location

Sauerbier House, 21 Wearing St, Port Noarlunga SA, Australia, 5167, View Map