Archaeologies
of memory

“The generous vessel” is both body and architecture: a carrier of memory, language and belonging.

Born in Israel and based in northern New South Wales, Avital Sheffer began working with clay in 1995. Her hand-built forms draw on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean histories while remaining unmistakably contemporary.

Intricate surfaces are developed through a distinctive silk-screen-on-clay process, building layers of pattern that suggest maps, scripts and archaeological fragments.