What is Ceramic Break?

Ceramic Break is a sculpture park located on a pastoral property in northern New South Wales, 15 km from the town of Warialda on the Bingara Road or 25 km from the town of Bingara on the Warialda Road.  This area of NSW and southern Queensland is known as the borderline region.  Ceramic Break is about 150 km directly south of Texas, QLD.  The name Ceramic Break refers to a place in the sculpture park where people are encouraged to bring a ceramic and break it, as a way of participating in creating an art work.

How do I get there?

 The Sculpture Park is about an hour drive from Moree and Inverell or two hours from Armidale or Tamworth.  It is a convenient 7 hour drive from Sydney, 5 ½ hours from Brisbane or 14 from Melbourne.  The nearest airport is Moree with a daily service from Sydney.  There is also a “countrylink” train from Sydney Central to Tamworth and onto Moree.  Or a bus meets the train in Tamworth and goes directly to Bingara or Warialda.  Countrylink, with the bus connection, takes 9 hours from Sydney to Warialda.  Car rental facilities are available in Tamworth and Moree.

There are many motels in Moree, some close to the famous hot springs.  Bingara and Warialda both have a campground, a motel and pub accommodation.

A view of the Gallery area of the Sculpture Park

 Why Is Ceramic Break?

          These fowl themes seem to haunt Ceramic Break Sculpture Park.  It all started on August 16, 2003 our "unofficial" opening event Australia's Biggest Chook Show where the "chook" turned out to be the Allosaur in Gallery 1. The Chook Show was followed 2 years later by Australia's Biggest Duck Show. Dare I foreshadow a future event- Australia's Biggest Goose Show?  I fear that I've already said too much.  The first priority must be to survive the duck show unscathed.

Allosaurus in Gallery 1

 Gallery 1

PIE IN THE SKY - Ceramic Break Sculpture Park 2013

It's eight years down the track.  Australia is now a paranoid fascist dictatorship with the strings being pulled by the godless corporateocracy.  Ceramic Break is being investigated.  A debate is raging whether the sculpture of John Howard after Greenough is unAustralian.  The proletariat is F *#%ed!

      A large sculpture near the front gate lures people into the park and showers profanities when it's asked stupid questions.  From the parking lot, a 7 minute walk through the "Parade of Heroes" brings you to the gallery area of the park.  The Parade now consists of about 10 bronze sculptures commemorating famous or infamous people, events or animals or anything else deemed appropriate.  Biff!, the first sculpture visitors see on The Parade was unveiled during Australia's Biggest Duck Show, August 20, 2005. Other sculptures include:  the aforementioned John Howard (unveiled during Australia's Biggest  Chook Show in 2003), After the Pommy Attack of 2004, Jah Lastafali, The Flower of Burma and more.  The Parade is 2 years away from completion.

      The central area of the park is still dominated by the Salvador Dali image of A Flaming Giraffe, installed 2005.  The giraffe is lit up at nighttime functions on a regular basis.  Kerry Cannon views these flaming sessions as proof that he is somehow on the right track even though it is obvious that the Australia Art Intelligencia still hates his guts.  The now not so new gift shop (opened 2005) is a big hit, the hottest selling items are autographed key chains featuring Kerry's pornographic images.

      Gallery 1 is still the biggest draw card for the park featuring the allosaur.  Regular changing art exhibitions  of sculpture and paintings in Galleries 1, 2 and 3 are still the bread and butter of the park.   Two years ago The Tiger Club (2002) an installation of bronze, fibre optics and mirrors sold for a record 1.3 million dollars.  This is only a bitter twisted memory now as the whole pot was squandered during a dirty weekend at The Crown Casino.

       In memory of the valiant class struggles of the 20th century, The Proletariat Garden was initiated in 2005.  The first sculpture in the garden, Piñata, won Kerry international acclaim at the Florence Biennale in 2005.  The garden seems a bit red eight years later and toeing the correct political line in these uncertain times is taking its toll on the artist.

      The pathway to the gazebo (opened 2005) contains some of the most popular sculpture in the park.  Sex for whatever reason seems to be still considered a good thing in Australia and the pinkish gazebo is very popular especially with couples escaping the oppressive antiterrorist dictates.

      A 10 minute walk up the hill from Gallery 3 takes you to the base of the volcanic cone.  A sculpture walk of 14 sculptures was just completed this year!  The sculpture walk circles around the base of the cone and joins the other walk to Ceramic Break.  It almost killed him, but Kerry did it.  Good job mate!  The first sculpture Icarus installed 1999 is still Kerry's favorite, but he also contends that The Venus of Elphinstone (2001) and Little Ears (2002) aren't half way bad.

      Ah!  Ceramic Break is a rather uninspiring mound with some rock outcrops.  This participatory artwork has created a small artificial hill of broken bits of ceramic pots and is still the most popular activity at the park.  The first ceramic pot was broken by Shaunda Tsosie (Miss Navajo Nation 2002-2003) on August 14, 2003, now it's open slather for anyone who wants to follow suit.

Kerry's original specifications for the pots have been followed to the letter by our busloads of happy tourists:

"I don't want coffee mugs or porcelain turkeys smashed at Ceramic Break.  The ceramics should be fairly large and nice and capable of holding water.  These are the kind of ceramics that clay artists break after their exhibitions when they don't sell so that what they do sell maintains its value.  The ceramic should be something you really like that's going to hurt a bit when you smash it into bits."

      The crowds are slowly gathering for the "official" opening celebrations.  The next 10 years should be interesting.

      Welcome to Ceramic Break Sculpture Park.

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