Danielle Thiris
(b. 1974, Adelaide. Lives and works in Melbourne)

Danielle Thiris is a ceramic artist with Cypriot and Greek heritage. Using South Australian terracotta clay, Thiris hand-builds her works using a combination of prehistoric techniques, including coiling, pinching and carving. Prehistoric vessels, ritual objects, identity and nature are dominant themes in her practice.

Growing up, Thiris observed her late grandmother/yiayia perform daily religious ceremonies that often involved sacred vessels, scents and objects. Witnessing these rituals left a lasting impression on Thiris’s art practice, which frequently explores how the values of the user become imbued in objects over time.

Souvlaki whispers, 2023, is a conjoined vessel that pays homage to three ancient pots: a German drinking vessel (c. 1400); a Chinese Neolithic cup (c. 1800 BCE); and a Greek Kylix pot (c. 500 BCE). With a reverence for history, humanity and culture, this hybrid work is a celebration of the universal language of pots and the human impulse to create vessels to carry and hold – whether for utilitarian, spiritual or aesthetic purposes.

Souvlaki whispers continues Thiris’s practice of creating conjoined vessels and is a response to Italian painter, sculptor and architect Salvatore Fiume’s ceramic sculptural works. Through this piece, Thiris sought to understand how and why Fiume’s works were conjoined, and in so doing discovered a rich international history of multi-component pots.

Thiris holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia and a Bachelor of Textile Design from RMIT University. She has exhibited at Craft Victoria, NGV Melbourne Design Week, School of Clay and Art, Brunswick, and Nexus Arts, Adelaide, and her work appears in the Australian Catholic University Art Collection. In 2017 she was awarded the Bendigo Pottery Award Spring Sculpture Prize.