Graham Hay
I have been a ‘clay-aholic' since childhood, transferring my enthusiasm to the new material paper clay in 1992. This was after being introduced to it as a way to make tiles that do not warp, by Ceramic Chemist Jaromir (Mike) Kusnik OAM (Czech/Aust).
While Graham Hay is internationally well known for his technical innovations and expertise in both paper clay and compressed paper sculpture, he also works across other materials, new technologies, video and performance. He has collaborated with fellow artists, academics, engineers and scientists, writing journal articles together, as well as researching together to hack 3D printers or incorporating living fungi in outdoor paper sculptures and develop composite metal and ceramic materials.
Graham Hay has participated in 181 exhibitions across sixteen countries, including seven biennales in Australia, Holland, Argentina, Romania, and Venice, Italy. A recipient of 23 grants and awards, his artwork is in public collections in eight countries. Hay has written articles for art publications in nine countries, and he features in 22 books.
He is a graduate from the Dunedin College of Education, the Western Australian, Edith Cowan, and Curtin universities (the latter two majoring in ceramics and sculpture). Admitted to the peak International Academy of Ceramics in 2019, Graham is based in the Farmer Street Studio, in Perth, Western Australia.
Aa a paper clay pioneer, Graham has led 300 paper clay workshops across 14 countries, leading paper clay symposiums or conferences in Hungary, the US and Norway. He frequently writes on paper clay, art and technology, with over 40 articles published.
Graham Hay has participated in 181 exhibitions across sixteen countries, including seven biennales in Australia, Holland, Argentina, Romania, and Venice, Italy. A recipient of 23 grants and awards, his artwork is in public collections in eight countries. Hay has written articles for art publications in nine countries, and he features in 22 books.
He is a graduate from the Dunedin College of Education, the Western Australian, Edith Cowan, and Curtin universities (the latter two majoring in ceramics and sculpture). Admitted to the peak International Academy of Ceramics in 2019, Graham is based in the Farmer Street Studio, in Perth, Western Australia.
Aa a paper clay pioneer, Graham has led 300 paper clay workshops across 14 countries, leading paper clay symposiums or conferences in Hungary, the US and Norway. He frequently writes on paper clay, art and technology, with over 40 articles published.
I'm interested in the social foundations of cultural production, so my art making is a personal response to the context of my making, exhibiting or demonstrating."
Themes in his work include the complex relationship between the individual and collective, individual repetition and identity, ritual social interactions and structures, cultural systems and new technology. Motifs in his work have included shaping thousands of multiples to create biomorphic shapes: spirals, coils, koru, cornucopia, circles, and in the process deconstructing binary or polarised thinking in the sociology of art.
Graham's art practice is self reflective. His artwork is a response to the very social foundations of his art practice. It has become a speculation or comment on a wide range of groups and institutions, into which he as a freelance artist and cultural researcher, was invited into, to exhibit, speak, teach and write. In a more formal sense, his art and writing represents over three decades of critical ethnography research. Ethnography began as a static, statistical study of culture. It was an anthropology, then sociologically based field of research. Hay's critical ethnography approach is political and andragogical, a contemplative studio led research which acknowledges its participatory and subjectivity bias.
Having given over 340 artist talks, workshops, and demonstrations in a dozen countries, he was invited to co-lead the first international paper clay symposia in Hungary, the US and Norway, and to recently join the Académie Internationale de la Céramique.
Paper clay is now a third of all clay used in pottery and sculpture studios and classrooms in Western Australia, offering both an easier entry pathway for clay beginners, and increased creativity potential for experienced potters and sculptors.
Graham's art practice is self reflective. His artwork is a response to the very social foundations of his art practice. It has become a speculation or comment on a wide range of groups and institutions, into which he as a freelance artist and cultural researcher, was invited into, to exhibit, speak, teach and write. In a more formal sense, his art and writing represents over three decades of critical ethnography research. Ethnography began as a static, statistical study of culture. It was an anthropology, then sociologically based field of research. Hay's critical ethnography approach is political and andragogical, a contemplative studio led research which acknowledges its participatory and subjectivity bias.
Having given over 340 artist talks, workshops, and demonstrations in a dozen countries, he was invited to co-lead the first international paper clay symposia in Hungary, the US and Norway, and to recently join the Académie Internationale de la Céramique.
Paper clay is now a third of all clay used in pottery and sculpture studios and classrooms in Western Australia, offering both an easier entry pathway for clay beginners, and increased creativity potential for experienced potters and sculptors.
I immensely enjoy sharing my studio discoveries and unique techniques with others, particularly when I see their eye light up, when they realise the creative potential the new material offers them in their own work.
Generous by nature, he has written over 20 journal articles on paper clay, paper and art, and provides a huge, information packed website www.grahamhay.com.au on art and techniques, mentored for a decade through three university’s’ alumnus and stays grounded through sharing a studio with five other artists at Farmer Street Studio, in North Perth, Western Australia.
Parrellel to these activities Graham has pioneered a dry process for creating up to 4 tonne sculptures in compressed paper, a type of artificial wood, which he exhibits both inside and permanently outside in the weather. In response to questions on the permanency of these structures, he worked with a Mycologist and a fungi and bacteria Artist to infect one of his sculptures with these agents for biodegradation.
Corresponded with an Archaeologist from Ireland he developed creative ideas, and later participated together on a panel during the Dublin Biennale and co-authored a journal article for the Irish national ceramic arts journal. Assisted by an engineer, and after meeting with Italian 3D printing experts, Graham assembled and hacked a 3D printer so that it printed in paper clay during a residency within Perth Central TAFE ceramics studio. These and other projects are documented here.
In 2021 Hay concluded three quarters of a PhD on the professional and social patterns of his own studio practice, extending and modifying social network analysis and visualisation theories and methods. The research was an attempt to increase and extend his and others' understanding and use of social network analysis and visualisation theories and methods.
Artist CV
Parrellel to these activities Graham has pioneered a dry process for creating up to 4 tonne sculptures in compressed paper, a type of artificial wood, which he exhibits both inside and permanently outside in the weather. In response to questions on the permanency of these structures, he worked with a Mycologist and a fungi and bacteria Artist to infect one of his sculptures with these agents for biodegradation.
Corresponded with an Archaeologist from Ireland he developed creative ideas, and later participated together on a panel during the Dublin Biennale and co-authored a journal article for the Irish national ceramic arts journal. Assisted by an engineer, and after meeting with Italian 3D printing experts, Graham assembled and hacked a 3D printer so that it printed in paper clay during a residency within Perth Central TAFE ceramics studio. These and other projects are documented here.
In 2021 Hay concluded three quarters of a PhD on the professional and social patterns of his own studio practice, extending and modifying social network analysis and visualisation theories and methods. The research was an attempt to increase and extend his and others' understanding and use of social network analysis and visualisation theories and methods.
Artist CV