antonio aricò
antonio aricò
Masterclass
2015
Antonio Aricò lead a 3 month workshop designing and developing a handmade ceramic tableware collection with the Industrial Design students of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
His inspiration for the ‘Shell Collection’ came the previous summer in Calabria while he was swimming in the Ionic Sea. This collaborative teaching experience was surprisingly intense and charming. The young Australian Students were great in following the full design process from sketches to the making of moulds, slip casting and glazing. “I am particularly thankful to Judith Glover and to name a few: Hamish Maggs, Mechelle Shooter, Richard Greenacre and Mohamed Osman for this great experience”
“I wanted this collection to be a funny and graceful way to describe Australian hidden beauties often connected to the idyllic idea of sea, lightness and exotic feelings. I wanted to use basic cultural stereotypes and create a surreal and dreamy imagery around them”.
“Coming from the south of Italy, I also wanted to connect my origins and identity to something that’s for me one of the greatest natural Beauties: The SEA.” He adds: “Transforming organic and natural shapes into daily objects is an approach very much used in the past and is very characteristic of a European art and craft movement. The porcelain of the white collection is “White Southern Ice”, an Australian made porcelain. However, all have this main characteristic: this “lustre” pearlescent finishing typical of mother of pearl and shells.”
Client: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
photos: Johnny Sisavath