MOTHEROCK is an exhibition and launch part of Melbourne Design Week 2023 of a range of innovative and sculptural wine decanters designed by Canadian-born artist Claire Ellis in collaboration with award winning Melbourne Sommelier, Dom Robinson. Each decanter is slip cast using ceramic sink sludge and glazed in a range of experimental glazes developed using only Victorian rock industry by-products, restaurant, and studio ‘waste’. Each glaze highlights the individual qualities of local slate, basalt and granite, which are each naturally very close in chemistry to ceramic glazes. Rocks are the defining commonality in both ceramics and wine and the waste produced by stone industries is an elemental wonderland.

The exhibition and launch event features two forms and three glazes. To highlight both the functional and sculptural quality of the vessels, there is an exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery in Fitzroy as well as a restaurant launch event at Bar Romantica, Brunswick. The restaurant’s glass recycling is used in the glazes, eliminating the need for any virgin raw materials.

The launch dinner at Bar Romantica is on 21 May 2023 and bookings will open 21 April whilst the exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery is opening Friday 12 May.

Photography by Lillie Thompson