Sony Manning

Biography

Since graduating from RMIT ceramics in 1978 Sony has been on a continual journey towards the refinement of her technique of pigment inlay. She is well known for her evocative imagery within simple vessel forms as well as larger coil built pieces which are laminated and inlaid with coloured porcelain then polished to reveal a silky tactile surface. There is complexity in the technique but her recent work reflects a distillation of earlier influences and a more instinctive simpler approach.

Artist Statement

My work refers to aspects of the land and how colour in clay can depict its moody light and define the marks made on the earth by the movement of water and air. I have always explored the mechanics of inlay which is essentially a concept of layers of different clays, either white and translucent or coloured with metals as they are in the earth. These are laminated in slip form or put together in a way that when carved through in cross section, its profile is unique and unexpected. The exterior surfaces are burnished and unglazed. Fired in reduction to 1280 C.