Boby Markovic A Retrospective Exhibition from circa 1997 Image Maker ~~~ Potter Roleystone Western Australia To visit this exhibition use your computer's arrow keys or the browser's scroll bars. There are many pictures; they will take a few minutes to arrive. Please set the display definition to at least Hi-Color 800x600.
Phone or EMAIL inquiries to:	Boby Markovic Phone +61 8 9397 5412

What Is My Shape

Trying to balance a worthy Art/Craft style with the need for a reasonable income and a satisfying lifestyle is a challenge. Nestled in amongst the Hills of Perth is Roleystone which harbours a number of craftpersons doing original work. These committed folk are truly brave as they take on the whole craft spectrum. One foot in the direction of the market places mindless regimentation toward consumerism and another in the mixture of creativity and individualism which entertains high economic risk. It is these craftspersons which are our hope and our future. It is they which set the style and fashion our scene.

My name is Boby Markovic and I am one of the Craftspersons living and working in the Roleystone Hills. I choose to live and work in the hills to give balance to my life. I love working with the handcrafts and the body arts as you are so directly connected to creation and life.

Our modern Technological World is increasingly distancing us from the real world, our life source. We submit to prolonged over exposure. Our bodies exposed to fluorescent lights turning night into day Air conditioners standardizing our environment. Radios, black and white television sets, colour television, V.C.R.'s and computers with video monitors all giving us insensitive information. We miss out on the changing sky, the emotional moods and energies of the seasons. We are losing the healing energy of the night and are losing the connection between our inner and outer selves all of which leads us to a passivity resembling death!

Living and working in the hills keeps me in touch with the wilderness. My senses respond to the immediate environment and clearly show how we are being fed unsensed second hand information from television and computers. I see the need for a revival of a hands-on existence and the need for personal involvement. Working with clay I achieve a balance. The beauty natural materials reveal is a healing for the soul and I need to bring this awareness into the marketplace. Life in the Hills gives the silence and space that allows the unconscious to present its inner order. The manner of quiet and tranquillity that exists nurtures the imagination. Our natural ease with the sounds of nature - the wind in the trees, the birds singing to the sunlight all lead to a calm that fosters the imagination and gives personal growth.

The clay forms I make are functional and non-functional with a sculptural narrative bias. I use clay with my own manufactured tools to impart character and reflect my own personality and experiences. As a craftsperson I have learnt to trust my imagination. I believe in what it will give me. Understanding that imagination is not merely make believe and leading only to personal ego gratification is a realization. Imagination is a discipline of listening from within. Listening to what is being whispered to the mind from a fuller more objective order. Listening, reading, taking in images, talking, the hear-say of friends, engaging the furthermost reaches of our mind and periphery all come into play and lurk awaiting time for communion and imagination. You need riot be a scholar to be imaginative, but you may need to relearn how to respond naturally. As innocently as does a child toward a new experience.

The challenge of being a potter in modern times is demanding. It can lead you to an insatiable preoccupation with feeding the hungry mouth of consumerism. It can lead to a highly competitive and stressful state where you may stop listening to yourself. Your materials all seem as commodities to be exploited for financial gain. But this is your choice. Your choice of how you work and where you live. Finding your own balance is the key.

Living and working in Roleystone has shown the question is not how much you make but the fact you are making. You are involved in the creation process. You engage in this hands on activity not for the recognition but for the connection with the actual world. My clay forms are interpretations of the real world. They contain living energy of the pleasure I had in making them. They are kindly to use and are a pleasure to live with. Viewers of my, work may come to smile, laugh, reminisce and for a little while journey in the world as I have experienced.

Works are made from clay and contain wheel-thrown and sculptural handbuilding alterations and additions.

Decoration is one of the more striking aspects of my work as the use of glazes, slips and lustres and used to demonstrate narrative content or aesthetic competence with visual design.

Much of the narrative works contain hidden visual symbols of innocent animalia or childlike figures whimsical and spiritual. These are used to demonstrate the subconscious pleasures, tensions and conflicts that exist within myself as I relate to my immediate environment and to the overall humanitarian concerns.

Boby Markovic
4 Birtwistle Place
ROLEYSTONE 6111
Western AUSTRALIA

phone +61 8 9317 5412
 

Boby Markovic (born 30th April 1954) grew up in Wagin, a wheatbelt town in Western Australia. Since moving to Perth he has acquired a Diploma of Teaching qualification and has attended the Western Australian Institute of Technology studying Fine Arts to acquire a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Since graduating he has held regular exhibitions and had many solo and group exhibitions. He has traveled extensively around the world and is represented in many public, private, corporate and government collections in Australia and overseas.

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phone +61 8 9293 1512