By Liz Hobday in Melbourne

ARTIST Janet Fieldhouse is still trying to get her head around the unveiling of her public sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia.

“Each time I think about it, it blows my mind out, because it’s something you don’t really think of doing,” the ceramicist told AAP.

The large-scale bronze titled Sister Charm makes Fieldhouse the first Torres Strait islander artist represented in the NGA’s sculpture garden.

The Kalaw Lagaw Ya/Meriam Mir artist usually makes intricate ceramic works incorporating feathers and weaving, and the sculpture is based on a series of small charm or protector dolls she made for shows in Cairns and Melbourne.

Charms are usually a hidden or taboo subject, Fieldhouse explains, but she tells anyone who asks that her versions are made with love and joy.

She had never considered making them on a larger scale, until in 2021 curator Tina Baum suggested her for the second commission in the NGA Art Makers series.

“It made absolute sense that something like this would be wonderful as a public art sculpture,” Baum told AAP.

Part of Baum’s agenda was also to expand the limited number of Australian artists with the experience to take on big public commissions.

“You get the usual artists that have done it, they get chosen all the time and they produce incredibly beautiful important works,” Baum said.

“But we’ve got to deepen that pool and give experience to others.”

When Fieldhouse arrived at the Brisbane foundry tasked with supersizing her sculpture, she had a 25cm maquette in her luggage.

She didn’t realise she would have to make up to 20 more iterations of the form before it was scanned, replicated in foam, and finally poured in bronze.

The commission has already been career-changing for Fieldhouse, with an upcoming international project still under wraps.

Sister Charm sits close to Lake Burley Griffin in the sculpture garden, in a spot that has extra significance for the artist.

It’s positioned near a carved aluminium sphere titled Eran 2010, by Thainakuith ceramist Thanakupi, who was Fieldhouse’s mentor in Cairns.

Thanakupi made the leap to large-scale public art, and more than a decade later, her student has too.

Some of Fieldhouse’s best-known ceramic works incorporate experimentations with balance – she tests them by jumping up and down in galleries, which has been known to reduce curators to tears.

It’s all about finding a sweet spot, she explains, and with a move into the daunting realm of large-scale commissions, Fieldhouse has found herself travelling between cities, and even needing a calendar.

Perhaps it all means finding a fresh sweet spot in her work? Even after a two-year process, the commission is just sinking in, she admits.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t expect, but it’s the journey that was really interesting,” she said.

Baum wants to invite visitors to the Canberra gallery to check out the garden and its new artwork.

“Come and sit and be in its positive presence up on this little grassy hill, which is a really beautiful spot.”

Sister Charm will be on show throughout 2024, after which the NGA has the right to acquire the sculpture.