Anneke Borren + Caitlin Moloney Ceramic Collaboration Exhibition

You are warmly invited to attend the exhibition of Anneke Borren and Caitlin Moloney's collaborative works at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries Gallery in Coromandel town between Friday the 24th March and the 9th of April.
These ceramic pieces have been two years in the making, each taking up to two months to create. This journey has been a labour of love and commitment to the integrity of each other's work. 

Official opening Friday the 24th at 5:30pm. All are welcome.
Open 10am - 4pm daily.

The exhibition Two Birds by Anneke Borren and Caitlin Moloney is a collaboration grounded in a respect for the mastery of each other's work.  These forms have been two and a half years in the making speaking to the slow and methodical process of Caitlin's creative practice.

Anneke and Caitlin met at Driving Creek briefly during the summer of 2019, where Anneke was attending an artist residency and Caitlin was working while still maintaining her creative practice.  
One day, while stacking a kiln, Anneke handed Caitlin one of her porcelain forms and said, "Here, decorate this"!  
The results were so stunning that from this one pot the collaboration formed.

Both makers are inspired by social anthropology, of how humans are shaped by and connected to the natural world.  Much of their time working together was in conversation around these topics, feeding into the development of these works.

Caitlin is unique in her approach to Anneke's forms showing an understanding of their structure, of how to enhance them through her surface treatment and ceramic embellishments while retaining the integrity of the pieces.  While working, Caitlin was reminded of the regal nature of birds, their natural beauty and grace being a source of wonder and connection, in turn inspiring the ceramic embellishments on some of the forms.

This collaboration has been a stunning journey of bringing Anneke's forms from the world of domestic ware into decorative sculptural pieces, of seeing how far they could be pushed.

About | Anneke Borren

Ceramiste M.N.Z.M

If ever there was someone born to be a potter it is Anneke Borren. Since she was 12 she has passionately pursued that single course, improving, changing, experimenting and growing. Born in Holland and now resident in New Zealand, her early career saw her working as an artist potter at "De Porceleyne Fles" the Delft-Blue factory in Delft, Holland. Later she was to take up ceramics and glass studies at the Konstindustri Skolan in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Anneke Borren met Barry Brickell in 1970 when they were both members of the N.Z.Potters Guild set up to promote professional potters careers in this country.  All the top names of the small but active group of potters making a living solely from clay, were part of this group.  The Guild quietly reintegrated into the N.Z. Potter's Society at the end of 1976 because actually, we were all too busy making a living.  But it created a strong bond between us all. and over the years that grew.  

DCR became one of our focus areas.  Decades later, Barry became part of the N.Z.Ceramic Heritage Collection group, custodians of the evidence of the standard N.Z Potters set themselves in the 1980s and 90's.  We were up there with Mino, Japan, hundreds of years of clay culture, Faienza, Italy and Auckland N.Z, 30 yrs via Fletcher Brown Build Challenge creating the three top exhibitions in the world!!  The N.Z Ceramic Heritage Collection is now housed at DCR.  Anneke was part of all that, and more.

So while Caitlin and Anneke were collaborating at DCR, Anneke was also creating her own clay memories there.

All the pots Anneke made , for herself, called the " kauri Bark Series,"during her collaboration period, to celebrate Barry's conservation contributions, will be part of the collaboration exhibition, as these works are made of Barry's Coro gold clay, and his stoneware, on site at DCR.

It's also acknowledging Barry's huge generosity in fostering international and local potters careers.

We raise our dinner glass of wine, each night at DCR, with a toast to Barry, in remembrance, in affection, and in celebration of his iconic stature in the Ceramic world.
In 2022 N.Z. New Years Honours list Anneke was made a Member of the N.Z.Order of Merit, for services to Ceramic Art.

About | Caitlin Moloney

Caitlin Moloney is an Australian born multidisciplinary artist of Celtic, Iberian and north west European descent. Her early exposure to multiculturalism, community care and social justice has instilled in her a deep curiosity to explore an integrated culture in a colonised world. What is our language of connection to place and to each other? In her making Caitlin turns repeatedly to the rhythm and shapes found in nature, our plants and animals - and their constant renewal.

Caitlin studied at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia where she touched on her interest in sculpture by majoring in metal work.  Caitlin has always been a maker, whether she was drawing, working with paint, textiles or metal, the need to create has always been there.  

Finding the Coromandel clay community at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries in 2005, Caitlin was taught skills by local and international artists.  Over time Caitlin found herself creating sculptural forms integrating clay and metal, revisiting her earlier interests in bringing materials together.  Caitlin is excited to see how far she can take her ideas and by how far she can push the development of different mediums.

Driving Creek is an environment shaped by living so close to the earth, in rhythm with the land. This has formed a community of unconventional makers, supporting Caitlin's creative growth with grassroots learning.