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Conduit (Series 0 sold out | Series 1 in development)

2020 onwards

Slipcast stained stoneware, crushed reclaim from demolished homes, glaze, lustres and custom decals. Expanding dimensions.

Conduit is an iterative project based in supporting victim survivors of domestic abuse and family violence.

If you are in Australia and in immediate danger, call 000.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse/violence, nation-wide (AUS) counselling and support is available by calling 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. 

THE CONDUIT ONLINE STORE IS CURRENTLY CLOSED.

SERIES 0 - SOLD OUT (directing AUD13.5k to Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre).

SERIES 1 - IN DEVELOPMENT.

: Summary (2-minute read) -

Conduit involves the irregular release of limited-edition art objects [i], which can be bought as sets of four pieces. 90% of net income from this project (exc. tax & postage) goes toward an organisation supporting victim survivors of domestic abuse and family violence [ii].

Series 0 (300 pieces/75 sets of 4 [iii]) supported the work of Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre who are a frontline service providing crisis response and support to people escaping dangerous situations. Their work is critical in fighting this urgent and pervasive frontier of violence. Direct donations can be made via the link at the base of this page.

Each piece of a Conduit series is made from a custom material, which suspends crushed reclaim from demolished homes in stoneware clay. Like the material itself, each piece is made by hand. To incentivise collectorship and compound money raised, each series will be sold at a higher price than the last. Further, each series is a unique, non-repeatable colour range and approximately 50% of the pieces feature rare details through the use of precious metal lustres and custom decals.

When a collector buys a set from a series, they receive four randomised pieces from that series. At minimum, this set will contain 3 ‘Common’ and 1 ‘Uncommon’ piece from the series [iv]; with a meaningful chance of receiving rarer variants [v]. I am committing to this as an extremely long-term project, spanning the remaining length of my art practice, meaning Series 0 was the first of an indefinite amount.

This project is not intended as any kind of authoritative statement or solution to the issue of domestic abuse and family violence. At its core, it is a perpetual fundraising exercise with a central goal: generating funds for organisations that reduce the suffering of victim survivors. For stark perspective on the severity of this problem, I recommend you look - with discretion - through the Our Watch ‘Quick Facts’ page.

If you are interested as a collector, please read the fine print. 

: Fine print (3-minute read) -

This section provides details on what to expect and know before purchasing.

[i] Conduit series releases will happen irregularly, with consecutive series’ dropping within a range of minutes to years.

[ii] Each Conduit series will be sold at a higher price than the last. Any unsold sets of a prior Conduit series will increase to the same price as the new series the moment it releases. This raises the value of works owned by existing collectors, while having a compounding effect on funds raised with every release.

[iii] As handmade objects, slight variations in form, size, surface, tone and detail will vary piece to piece and series to series, including different concentrations and patterning from the crushed reclaim aggregate, slight warping of object walls and the likelihood of the glaze crazing over time (a crackling effect, which draws fractal constellations across the glassy surface of the piece). I embrace many of these details and conduct quality control at 5 key stages during production. Ultimately, if the piece is being sold/sent, it means I would like someone to live with it.

[iv] Main categories within each series are as follows: Ultra-Rare, Hyper-Rare, Mega-Rare, Rare, Uncommon and Common.

Rarer category pieces will feature customised surface details including hand-drawn elements, both minimal and maximal use of gold, platinum and other lustres, non-repeatable decals and special glazes.

Each Conduit Series may, but won’t always contain other small percentage categories including ‘Ash’, ‘Collage’, ‘Crystal’, ‘Evolution’, ‘Fossil’, ‘Galactic’, ‘Legendary’, ‘NFT’, ‘Secret’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Smoke’, ‘Special’ and others.

These occasional rare categories will exist in exchange for common pieces in the series.

New categories/variants will be introduced and withheld series to series.

Categories, the year the piece was made, as well as series and piece numbers are delineated by hand-written codes on the base of each piece e.g. ‘000-000-2022 C’ (for a common piece of series 0, piece number 0 from 2022).

A series specific category/code list will be released alongside the series itself.

There will also be extremely limited series, including collaborative (individual and institutional) iterations of the work released between primary series releases.

If trading or selling happens between Conduit collectors beyond a series release, this will not be the territory of the artist. It is highly encouraged that Conduit collectors direct a percentage of any profit toward an organisation actively supporting victim survivors of domestic abuse and family violence. If you have done this and only if comfortable, the artist would love to know: contact.

[v] Collectors are guaranteed that at least one of the four pieces in a set will be of the Uncommon category or rarer. Some sets will, but won’t always contain multiple rare pieces.

[vi] Series 0 was the first of an indefinite amount to be released over the course of my career.

As the intellectual property of the artist, the information above is protected by copyright and subject to change across the time-line of the project. The immovable detail is that 90% of the artist’s income will always flow toward organisations reducing the suffering of victim survivors of domestic abuse and family violence.

: Development (1-minute read) -

The idea for this project was initially planted in April of 2020 via the work of investigative journalist Jess Hill'; who continues to shine light on the breadth, complexity, urgency and terror of domestic abuse and family violence. In the concluding chapter of Hill’s 2019 book See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse, she states: “In every interview with [domestic abuse] experts, I’ve asked the same question: Why are we prioritising long-term attitude change, when the problem is so dire right now?” Hill then clarifies with great detail that this isn’t to diminish how critical attitude change is, but this quote and its context helped in setting the conceptual and actionable foundations of this project. The idea was further solidified through direct conversation with victim survivors along with further research/reading, all amplified by knowledge that this problem has greatly escalated during the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research and development phase of the project happened over 18 months, which found early support through Copyright Agency’s Emergency Action Fund for Visual Arts projects (Copyright Agency, Australia. April 2020), and included a two-month Creative Development Program residency at Testing Grounds (December 2020 - January 2021) in Southbank of Melbourne. During this development phase, the then titled ‘Culture of Violence’ project was quite different to what it became. The Conduit project is now being independently produced and released to serve the distinctive purpose of directing compounding financial support towards organisations who help victim survivors of domestic abuse and family violence.

I consider Conduit’s first series (Series 0) [vi] to be a proof of concept.

All photography by Grace Yu.

Conduit series 0 supported the work of Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre.