Johanna Zellmer: Water Vessel

The Artist

According to the ANU's School of Art, Johanna Zellmer was born in 1968 and completed a formal apprenticeship as a goldsmith in Germany and a masters degree at the Australian National University Canberra School of Art. Her research interests are the construction of national identities and cross-cultural matters. Her work was presented in New Zealand's TVONE series Neighbourhood (episode 10: North Dunedin, 2012) and selected for New Zealand's Parkin Drawing Prize in 2014. Dr. Pravu Mazumdar discussed her projects in his keynote for Schmuck 2013 at The International Design Museum Munich; this text is published online. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Korea, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and New Zealand and is held in public collections internationally. She calls a small farm in Dunedin 'home' and works as lecturer and Artists-in-Residence Coordinator at the Dunedin School of Art.

The Work of Art

Water Vessel is made  of three  parts. The main part is the vessel bowl  made of anodised aluminium  with two ribbon like pieces that fold and extend from the bowl (one in silver and one in turquoise).  The work was created in 1999 and was exhibited as part of a joint exhibition with the ANU at the Canberra Museum and  Art Gallery  as part of the  Collective Wisdom Exhibition.