The Sydney Teapot Show combines claywork and tea culture in a popular annual exhibition. Elisabeth Johnson, curator at the Kerrie Lowe Gallery, speaks with me about what to expect.

It’s 2019 and I’m peering closely at a ceramic sculpture of a dodo wearing a white wig, tricornered hat, blue waistcoat and a green jacket. The piece, by artist Ariel Bowman, is a nod to the officious character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland who proposes the (entirely satirical) Caucus Race in which everybody runs around however they like and everybody wins.

The curious thing about the dodo is that it’s a teapot, and other than a hole in its beak that acts as a spout, I can’t really see how it might work as one. But that’s the beauty of the Sydney Teapot Show – it’s art as much as it is about pouring tea.

The Sydney Teapot Show has a substantial history, started by the Inner City Clayworkers Gallery in Glebe more than 30 years ago. When it closed, the Kerrie Lowe Gallery in Newtown inherited the show and has grown and shaped its trajectory since – with pause in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

“It’s a Sydney institution,” says Elisabeth Johnson, curator at Kerrie Lowe Gallery. It fit well with the gallery’s mission to exhibit and promote work by contemporary Australian ceramicists, becoming an important show for them. “People do come and travel from other states for it. We always have it during [Sydney] Craft Week too.”

It’s also bigger because the Newtown gallery has more space than its Glebe counterpart did. Up to 300 teapots are on display in any given year, a “huge undertaking” to curate and a significant drawcard for collectors. “We do get teapot fanatics,” says Johnson of the keen buyers who are some of the first to claim ownership of many of these pieces.

So, what can you expect? Everything from classic teapot shapes in fabulous glazes to weird and wacky animal forms. In the past there have been award sections for themed teapots ranging from archaeology (sponsored by a heritage management consultancy) and literature (sponsored by a book store) to botany as well as Best in Show. But you can leave those categories to the expert judges – anyone who visits is entitled to vote for their favourite across the whole exhibition as part of the People’s Choice Award.

And for those who want something more practical, yes, there is also a section for the best pouring teapot.

Johnson admits a preference for wood-fired ceramics but recognises the fun inherent in a show of this nature. “I love the decorative things that people do for the teapot show,” she says. “Potters continue to find new ways of expressing things. It’s fascinating, really.”

Her own tea habits are fairly traditional – she drinks black tea from fine white china – though she does mention an interest in teapots that started with her grandmother’s teaset. “When I was very small, my grandmother had a very fine terracotta teapot, a small teapot and a set. So I started off loving that from about four years old.”

Today, she sees it as part of an evolution from the swinging billy to an artform, one that brings people together to share a cuppa. “Teapots have always been important in Australia and it’s fun to see people experimenting with the whole concept.”

This article originally appeared in AUSTCS enews 12 September 2022. Mailchimp no longer allows external links to the original newsletter.