Penny Byrnes porcelain country girl wearing a gas mask, with chickens. Source: Supplied
LOOK closely and you'll see there's something amiss with each of the dainty porcelain figurines in Penny Byrne's collection.
Maybe it’s the sunglasses on the 18th century Beethoven-like figure playing the violin, or the machine gun and hand grenades next to the pair of lace-covered dancers doing a waltz.
Each piece is the work of Melbourne artist Byrne, who takes antique or vintage porcelain figures and uses skills honed during a 20-year career as a ceramic and glass restorer and conservator to give the figures a political or satirical edge.
The pieces are on show in Commentariat, an exhibition of Byrne’s figurine work at Deakin University Art Gallery. Byrne agrees many viewers do a double take when they see them.
"People think they look familiar, they look like things Nan had on the mantelpiece, and it’s not until you look a bit closer that you might see that a figurine is wearing a gas mask," she says.
Op shops and eBay are the artist’s usual sources of figurines. She looks for figures from the 1950s on, or mass-produced Victorian ornaments, and then sets about removing limbs, adding army helmets, or in other ways distorting the original ceramic.
But Byrne says she respects the original piece: "I still appreciate them for what they are. They are all part of the history of porcelain."
Deakin University Art Gallery, Building FA, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood
Until Saturday, free entry. Ph: 9244 5344 or visit deakin.edu.au/art-collection
