Chronos approaches Australian ceramics through the lens of long time. Beginning in 1933 — the earliest ceramic piece in the MAG&M collection — the exhibition traces how ceramic practice contains and transmits decades of cultural change. Clay is presented not simply as a medium shaped in a moment, but as matter that frames time itself.

Drawing on the thinking of Australian theorist Elizabeth Grosz, ceramics can be understood as a way of giving form to duration, stabilising forces that are otherwise diffuse, slow, and difficult to grasp. Fired clay fixes time, even as it registers its passage.

Works are arranged in close proximity within the display, compressing years of practice into a shared field. Viewers are required to adjust their position in front of the case, leaning in, stepping back, and shifting laterally as relationships between works come into focus.

On display 21 March 2026 – 14 March 2027.