Yellow cake, 2024

Yellow cake is part of a recent body of work that started with the idea of making paintings using ceramic materials and processes; clay as canvas and glaze as paint. With these basic guiding frameworks, I allowed all different aspects of my life to come into my making, attempting to not filter or control too much. With a practice that draws on personal history, nostalgia, memories and stories, my work often looks back while also reaching out in multiple directions. I’ve been working with clay for quite a few years, and always in an experimental and playful way. I’m intrigued by clay’s physical transformations that occur beyond my control, and I often add other materials into or on the clay to further encourage unexpected outcomes. Yellow cake incorporates a range of collected materials from my local area, small touches of the landscape such as sand, dirt and rocks that are mixed through the clay and glazes. I have an ongoing affection for and connection with the land around me, having grown up in the country and maintained contact with the bush and natural areas as much as possible. The treatment of our landscape and surrounds through mining, energy production, travel, construction and growth is a complex and concerning thought that underlies my daily life and my kids’ futures. My practice is iterative and self-reflexive, and approached with a long-term view of slowly building, shifting and continuing. I like to recycle elements of past work; ideas, themes and approaches circle back and inform new works, and physical objects, materials and items get repurposed, added to and changed to gain new life and meaning. Yellow cake became a focus on surface and finish, an attempt to create a bold and bright glow, a radioactive lustre. The work is predominantly ceramic-based with a touch of enamel spraypaint, a throwback to my distant graffiti past-life.

Tom Freeman was born in Margaret River, WA in 1985, and lives and works on Whadjuk Noongar land in Fremantle, WA. Freeman graduated from Curtin University in 2007 with a BA (Fine Art), and his practice spans various forms of painting, ceramics and sculptural installation. His work has been acquired by numerous collections, including the Art Gallery of WA, John Curtin University, City of Fremantle, Queensland University of Technology, and St John of God Health Care.
Freeman’s art practice is primarily grounded by a fascination and exploration of materials and processes. His work traverses both 2D and 3D processes across many varied materials, guided by an investigative playfulness and the enjoyment of discovery. Every outcome is filtered through the ongoing experiences of the artist, and the physical capacity and limitations of their hands and body. The works are imbued with touch and history, social awareness and emotional connection.