How would you describe your practice in 5 words?

1. Immersive
2. Personal
3. Reconciliation
4. Reinvention
5. Evolving 

Which South Australian artists do you admire? 

• Mark Valenzuela – an artist who is always pushing the boundaries and expanding the idea of what a ceramics practice can be.
• Karen Genoff – I visited her SALA exhibition last year and came away with huge respect for her mastery of mixed media sculpture and an arts practice of over 40 years.
• Karl Meyer – always doing amazing sculptural work and public art commissions.
• Renita Stanley – iconic artist from Ernabella working in painting and ceramics who I have had the honour of working with firstly at Ernabella Arts and later at Iwiri Art Centre.
• Margaret Ambridge – She makes work that moves me.  

What has changed about your creative practice over the years? 
The significant changes in my creative practice throughout my career have really been driven by the two themes in my work – family and place. Immersion in place has deeply influenced my creative practice whilst living and working in the APY Lands, also during my residencies in Jingdezhen, China and Kununurra in the East Kimberley’s.  

These lived experiences have driven new aesthetics in my work. I walked around and collected discarded objects from the surface of remote communities and then slip cast hundreds of porcelain replicas to create installation works. I learnt traditional blue and white painting on porcelain during my time in China and explored the symbolism of Daoism from broken pottery shards. These things have all added to the rich visual language of my ceramics. The Pandemic forced a redirection in my work with a focus on home in Adelaide. The elemental power of small and everyday things, such as sticks, became another inspiration for my art. 

What creative challenges have you overcome? 
In recent years, I have faced serious health challenges and surgeries, a brain tumour in 2023, and spinal surgery in 2025, forcing periods of recovery, reflection and redirection in the way I worked and the projects I could take on. This forced me to work on smaller scale projects that I could accommodate and achieve at home in my studio on the back verandah in Prospect. Periods of ill health with limited output can make you less visible and less likely to be considered for career opportunities such as exhibitions. I am still in recovery and trying to overcome these challenges now, but my determination to make artwork has never wavered. 

What are your creative aspirations for the future? 
Having just moved house, my immediate plans are setting up a new studio. I have a much larger space now with a big shed and am gradually getting set up. In the next year, my goal is to create a new large scale installation work which will see an evolution of the curly stick works that I have been making in recent years. I have recently completed a 3-day contemporary clay workshop with artist Juz Kitson in Milton NSW, which was incredibly inspiring, and I will incorporate and adapt some of those techniques into my practice. As a Lecturer at Adelaide College of the Arts, I aspire to further craft my skills as an Educator and share my experience and knowledge with students. 

www.gusclutterbuck.com