Robert Harrison

White Gold: Montana Dreams

I was given an opportunity to create a ceramic environment at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana; White Gold: Montana Dreams was the result. A couple of years of careful planning along with a fortuitous gift of biscuit-fired white-ware gave the exhibition its focus. White Gold does indeed refer to porcelain and my 3-year obsession with collecting inexpensive porcelain ‘treasures’ from local thrift stores.

After a number of visits to the museum and careful consideration of the gallery space I developed the idea of constructing three installation pieces, each one with a Montana reference. Porcelain Cloud would use an indented wall space along the east side of the rectangular gallery and pay homage to collecting ceramic plates as souvenirs.  Triple Divide, the triple arch piece set in the middle of the gallery space and was designed to be walked through while experiencing the abundance and variety of 1950’s slip-cast white ware objects. Governor’s Hutch made use of a white vintage wooden cupboard with 4 drawers that would be ‘stuffed to overflowing’ with collected thrift store porcelain.

Around the periphery of the gallery were a variety of new wall and pedestal pieces made for the exhibition.