Dr Ray HEARN (1943- ) Born Stawell, Victoria Ray Hearn graduated from the Ballarat School of Mines Technical Art School with a Diploma of Art (Ceramics) in 1970, followed by an Master of Fine Art from Regina Canada in 1976. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Northern Territory, Darwin in 2003, with field work, exhibitions and teaching in Thailand since 1996. He has completed his MA in art curatorship from the University of Melbourne, with a thesis on Sidney Nolan and Ned Kelly.From Above and beyond function: Ray Hearn explains the reasons behind his useless ceramics:- "End Game suggests a climax of a tactical and intellectual struggle, in ceramics or chess, but it is also about beginnings and endings, for in chess the king can never be captured--one game ends and the board is reset so the next can begin. I made this piece at the start of my PhD work, acknowledging then that as there were once potters so too there are potters today--and tomorrow. The ceramic pieces were all collected in Tanon Suthep, one of Chiang Mai's streets. The board is a fragment of white tiles from a pharmacy building being remodelled, the bowl is a broken fast food noodle bowl from the ubiquitous street stalls, and the new small blue and white jars purchased from a market stall. Typical of my work, the objects are familiar--they might be just like ones we have at home today, had but threw away only yesterday, or objects we might purchase tomorrow. Clay lives on, and the ceramic 'game' starts again too. As it transpires End Game is about my own work too. All research degrees require an end--a thesis must reach a conclusion, and like a game of chess, start again. The sculptural potential of clay is unlimited, and in theory functional clay wares' aesthetic potential unlimited too, from a classic Song celadon to Arneson's genital encrusted teapots (which I first saw illustrated in Craft Horizons 1971). West Coast funk with its kitschy teapots and cups were vehicles for sculptural objects never meant to be drunk from, and a genre of useless functional wares emerged. Nothing could be more useless in a practical sense than a work of art, especially a painting--yet most craftwork has a passing reference at least to function." ( https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Above+and+beyond+function%3A+Ray+Hearn+explains+the+reasons+behind+his...-a0172598257, accessed 07 February 2018:)ray hearn, ballarat school of mines, ballarat technical art school, alumni, ceramics