Thrown in a humorous vein

By ANDREW CLIFFORD


An old white station wagon laden with banana boxes pulls up outside Masterworks' Viaduct gallery. Presumably, this must be ceramicist Paul Maseyk, who has driven from his Featherston home with an exhibition in his boot.

With hair tied back and sunglasses on his head, Maseyk, 31, ambles into the gallery with an armful of boxes, which he proceeds to forage through, unloading scrunched newspaper over the floor. Inside are the results of his six-week residency at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries, the Coromandel base of veteran potter and train enthusiast, Barry Brickell.

Now a popular tourist attraction, Driving Creek was started by Brickell in 1974, who turned it into a working pottery, brickworks and narrow-gauge mountain railway. One of New Zealand's most respected potters, Brickell gathers his materials from the surrounding hills of this property, ferrying clay and kiln firewood on the trains he helped to design, build and now drives.

Brickell also encourages others to make use of his extensive ceramic facilities, an open invitation that Maseyk took up after completing his studies at Wanganui Polytechnic in 1997.

"I'd just run into an American guy I met in Wanganui and he was living with Barry," recalls Maseyk, who was unsure of what to do after his studies and so ended up staying several years at Driving Creek.

"Barry takes in lots of people through his place - potters and stuff. This guy just suggested I come up and live there and make some work, so I did because I had nothing else to do. And Barry's place is, like, there's not too much pressure to make a living immediately. Everything is there to use."

Despite the age difference - Brickell turns 70 in October - and different style of working, the two struck up a rapport and have gone on to produce work collaboratively.

"He's just as young as me inside his head," considers Maseyk. "That's what he says too, so he's not an old crank or anything. He has a lot of laughs and it's no problem. I don't know if I can teach him too much but I think he likes me to go there and hang around every couple of years."

A successful Creative New Zealand grant application last year allowed Maseyk to return to Driving Creek in April. As well as appreciating Brickell's philosophical approach to using his environment in his work, Maseyk specifically sought to expand his technical expertise.

"I wanted to go back and make more work which was hand-built, as opposed to throwing it on the wheel. But I couldn't quite escape my wheel stuff so I took my wheel and made bottles. Barry likes a drink now and then so maybe that's where the bottles [I made] came from. But a lot of it is hand-built, which I'm quite happy with. He's renowned for coiling, which is building up with rings, and so I've done some coiled work too."

Looking for new forms beyond traditional dinnerware, Maseyk took inspiration from the objects around him and created an assortment of objects out of clay, including bottle openers, light bulbs, clothes pegs and milk bottles.

"It's a very rustic place and he makes the bricks and there's a lot of ironwork around so I just thought I'd use all the stuff there," Maseyk says.

Such a whimsical approach contrasts with the usually traditional craft world where humour is not always apparent.

"It's not too common," Maseyk agrees. "People get a bit uptight about the whole thing and they just sit down and make their cups and bowls.

"I can't do that for the rest of my life. I've really tried to get away from making cups and bowls and all of that because it's physically hard work and I'd like to just make my own sort of stuff."

Also a painter, Maseyk is just as enthusiastic about working on canvas as clay, although he hasn't had much opportunity to exhibit his paintings.

"I've actually got so many now that I don't know what to do with them. I need a dealer or someone. I've just got into this year's Wallace Award again with a painting so hopefully that will help me."

Exhibition

*What: Driving Creek Ceramics, by Paul Maseyk

*Where and when: Masterworks, 95 Customs St West, to Sep 18