Kate Fitzharris

Ōtepoti Dunedin

Kate Fitzharris has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Dunedin School of Art and lives in Ōtepoti/Dunedin. She works primarily with clay and is interested in how this very wild material is so bound up in our domestic lives.

"I love how clay can dress itself up as almost anything whilst also carrying its history of giant mountains worn down to the tiniest pieces.

In many cultures, stories tell of the first people being formed from clay. Clay is also very much entwined with our domestic lives, as functional ceramic objects and figurines on our mantelpieces.

My current body of work considers clay’s materiality and the way that objects that we live with partake in our lives: they witness our most private moments and store our memories; the meaning and attachments we place on them; how they provide us with companionship and somehow reveal us to ourselves."

Kate has held several residencies including at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui and Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan. Recent projects include: Suite 2023 (Dunedin Public Art Gallery), The Commons (with Dunedin Dream Brokerage & Dunedin Botanic Gardens, 2021) and Things Don’t End At Their Edges (Sarjeant Gallery, 2019).