Nothing Lasts – Sue Dawes

Nothing Lasts is a sculptural ceramics exhibition by Sue Dawes that reflects on impermanence, fragility, and the traces of human endeavour across time. Working with stoneware crank clay, Dawes hand-builds each piece using coiling and slabbing techniques, embracing the material’s openness and resilience through the firing process. A low-firing copper glaze adds subtle surface variation shaped by flame and chance.

The works draw inspiration from historical pottery fragments—enduring remnants of millennia of making—as well as from ruined and burnt-out buildings, which echo the vulnerability of human structures and lives. Dawes fires her ceramics using reclaimed wood in oil drums, a deliberately raw process that mirrors ancient pit-firing methods. The pieces remain constantly at the mercy of uncontrolled flames, an unpredictability the artist finds both moving and exhilarating.

Alongside the ceramics, Dawes presents accompanying two-dimensional material including drawings, diagrams, photographs, and written reflections. These works offer insight into her creative process and longstanding engagement with historical ceramic traditions, revisited through a contemporary lens.