Articles - 7 June 2005

On The Table

Planet has shown ceramic tableware for many years and has invited leading studio ceramicists from around Australia to make work that celebrates the specifics of culinary tableware, exploring the way that we prepare, present and consume our food.

The parallels between cooking and ceramics are very similar. Raw ingredients are blended carefully using a variety of techniques and then they are heated for a while with subtle natural variations in ingredients and conditions having a significant impact on the success or failure of the outcomes.

In "celebrating the specifics of culinary tableware" Planet has looked back to when the Sunday roast involved gravy boats and big platters for carving meat. When cherries and asparagus were something extraordinary that commanded special dinnerware to hold the cherry pips and to display the asparagus to its best advantage. Of course we now even eat raspberries all year round and things are very different. Food has had an explosion of interest with the multicultural Australia gorging itself in a spectrum of styles of eating and on some of the best produce at exceptional prices. It has followed that celebrity chefs and restaurants and cookbooks and television programs and deli extravaganzas and exotic pre-prepared meals fill our consciousness.

On the table runs from 19 May to 16 June at Planet Furniture, 419 Crown Street, Surry Hills