In the 21st century we are working longer and harder than we ever did before. As a result discretionary income is generally higher but time is poor. Nevertheless, quality is highly important: we work hard and long and deserve the best. There are indulgences. Collecting quality, original, hand made ceramics becomes a passion and a reward. The greatest reward, the greatest indulgence is to use such pieces at the table, extending their value.

Leisure is another indulgence: the time to prepare and cook our meals. The choice is limited only by preference and taste. Our culture has shifted: cuisine, style, work practices and leisure, families and relationships have exploded in all and many directions. Where it is economically feasible we make the choice; for example, those who can afford the highest quality organic beef steak might prefer vegetarian; prefer simplicity to extravagant design; prefer quiet comfort to Edwardian formality.

The challenge thrown out to potters around Australia was to consider these changing directions and how tableware for domestic and commercial use might respond to these changes. The exhibition offered an opportunity to present genuine prototypes, or works in progress, of either a single specific-purpose object, or one which is multifunctional, or a group of objects which are interactive and multifunctional.

What has emerged is, not surprisingly, a strong interest in Asian food and what one of the participants in ‘Future Function’, Yeon-Hee Jeong, described as “cultural cross fertilisation”. We may continue to eat European food with or without Asian influences, but the traditional European tableware setting no longer serves its purpose, although the major manufacturers of tableware would not agree. New styles are being marketed continuously but their content has shifted focus: plate sizes and designs are irregular and multifunctional, and other dishes complement the range. In fact, these major manufacturers of tableware are reaching for new markets with their “new generation collections” which “embrace the mix-and-match concept to create endless variations on a theme. These new products are “fun to use all year round”.1

This new generational mix-and-match has not discarded the concept of the traditional talbleware settings and their accessories, although it recognises the informality of dining at home. This is obviously an economic decision. Younger generations may not be able or willing to pay for a full 48 piece setting, but they may buy one or two pieces in the setting for their individual needs. Later they can add to them. But the philosophy here is still the old one: it follows fashion trends but the system stays intact. There is no true revolution.

Perhaps this is what Norman Bryson is referring to when he states: “The culture of the table displays a rapid volatile receptivity to its surrounding culture in the mode of inflecting its fundamental forms. At the same time it also displays a high level of resistance to innovation in the forms themselves.” 2

This resistance to innovation is evident in most full scale mass production of tableware. Can the universe now and in the future sustain this mass production? Global marketing and the ecological crisis are in opposition. The alternative is smaller, more intimate; fewer and multifunctional; personal and life sustaining - beyond style and fashion.

The Asian influence is not fashion or food fad, but a fact of immigration and successful integration of cultures. Items such as the tea bowl, beaker and the variety of simple bowl shapes for food and drink have become part of our culinary cultural mix. Such simple forms have existed in other societies for centuries and have now found their way into the 21st century milieu. Such objects remain timeless. There is no style to date; no fashion to change. The integrity of the object is sustained forever. Such timeless integrity is an ecological blessing.

Ceramics are of the earth and its elements; ceramics, therefore can be considered as a bridge between nature and culture. Food is part of that culture and also of nature. Its production, presentation and enjoyment become part of a community of shared interests and pleasures. Dr Tony Fry, author of Remakings, ecology/design/ philosophy writes:“ A growing imperative to confront thinking about community ... comes out of assumptions of absence and recognitions of the fear and loss.” 3 Thinking about ‘Future Function’ has extracted an awareness of the value of community life as it relates to eating and drinking, socially as a community and also individually, as part of a community of shared interests.

We witness the growing relationship between restaurants and their community, where eating out and eating in are no longer bi-polar acts but almost integrated. Restaurants have in many instances led the way in interest and development of food revolutions: quality produce, simply cooked and served and blending cultural cuisines in such a way that a simple meal or a whole menu can be transported and easily reheated and served to restaurant standards at home. The same meals can also be imitated in home cooking and serving, as chefs regularly share their secrets in books, magazines and newspaper columns, and TV.

Anticipation, activity and pleasure

We anticipate the pleasure of a meal, whether we have booked to dine in a fine restaurant or whether we have planned a simple meal at home. In this period of anticipation we fall into a state of imagining and prepare ourselves to enter into an experience of pleasure. The anticipation continues through the next period of activity: the activity of preparing to go to the restaurant or preparing the meal at home. And finally there is the pleasure of enjoyment; nourishing both the body and the spirit and giving ourselves over to the experience.

Whether we live in high to medium density urban housing or have chosen wider spaces to inhabit, we share this space with our utensils, appliances and, as we choose to call them: ‘pots’, ceramic objects which grace our homes and which we can admire for their beauty and for their function. The making of these objects is at once a generous and a selfish act. I know of no potter who doesn’t feel privileged to make beautiful objects for use because in doing so they are sharing their pleasure and their experience. This role of creation doesn’t change with time. It will be there for us to enjoy in the future. ‘Future Function’ presents multiple pleasures which are not prescriptive in that they present the feelings and emotions of the maker, rather they induce them.

1. Villeroy & Boch magazine advertisement 2002.
2. Norman Bryson, Looking at the Overlooked (quote supplied by Patsy Hely in her Artist Statement).
3. Tony Fry, Remakings, ecology/design/philosophy, Envirobook, Sydney. p.118.
4. Ibid, p. 120.