Hawkesby, O’Connor & Storm: Playing with Fire

Celebrating 50 years of the Auckland Studio Potters, a suite of three exhibitions combines to put clay back on the map for the 21st century. Accompanied by the publication of a new Creative New Zealand-funded book to mark ASP’s 50th birthday, the glorious Art Deco foyer of Gus Fisher will showcase the work of Graeme Storm, who has been a working member since ASP’s inception. Gallery One is devoted to Denis O'Connor's past in pottery (1973-1983), while Gallery Two features the work of fellow "clay poet" Peter Hawkesby in an exhibition curated by ceramics enthusiast and collector, Richard Fahey.

Better known now as the proprietor of Alleluya Café in St Kevin’s Arcade in Karangahape Road, Hawkesby was a radical ceramicist in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He extracted his clay from Te Matuku Bay Marine Reserve on Waiheke Island and fashioned weird vessels from it which were functionally useless. His double cylinder stacked Incinerators (burnt hollow men) looked to the abstract expressionists of the West Coast of the USA for inspiration, and have gone down in history as marking a decisive break with the transplanted English pottery tradition which had previously reigned in Aotearoa.

Sculptor Denis O’Connor is now renowned for his large-scale public and private sculptural commissions, which often reference the complex specificities of cultural histories embedded in a site. The centrepiece of this exhibition is the long-abandoned potter’s wheel which once dominated his life, with an array of outstanding pieces loaned from The Dowse Art Museum and Auckland Museum surrounding it.

Storm began making pottery and building kilns at his parents’ Orakei home in 1956. He worked as an Arts and Crafts adviser for the Education Department, then from 1959-60 studied at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London and travelled extensively in Europe, the United Kingdom, North America and Japan. In 1971 he established a pottery department at Auckland Teachers’ College, now part of The University of Auckland. His long-standing interest in colour in high-temperature is explored in this exhibition, curated by John Parker.

In association with Auckland Arts Festival, March 2 – March 20, 2011.

Saturday 12 March, 12pm midday – 12am midnight
As part of Auckland Arts Festival’s White Night, the Gus Fisher Gallery presents a spectacular, late-night kerbside demonstration of a raku kiln-firing, along with talks and refreshments. www.aucklandfestival.co.nz/white-night.aspx

Saturday 19 March, 1pm
Pottery collector and connoisseur, Stuart Newby, discusses the early work of Denis O’Connor.

Saturday 26 March, 1pm
Writer and gallerist, Anna Miles, talks about the shifting role and significance of ceramics in New Zealand.

Saturday 2 April, 1pm
A screening of the 2003 video portrait of senior potter Len Castle, produced by Darcy Lange as the last of his Artists at Work series. 61 minutes, free.

Saturday 9 April, 1pm
Ceramic artist John Parker talks to Graeme Storm about the works in the exhibition.

Saturday 16 April, 1pm
Exhibition curator Richard Fahey discusses the iconoclastic pottery of Peter Hawkesby.

Saturday 23 April – Tuesday 26 April
The gallery will be closed for Easter weekend and re-opens Wednesday 27th April.

Saturday 30 April, 1pm
A screening of the 2006 documentary Stones on My Tongue, which looks at the work and influences of sculptor Denis O’Connor, from his early beginnings with ceramics to more recent projects. Directed by Graeme Tuckett, 50min, free.

All exhibitions and events are free and take place at the Gus Fisher Gallery unless otherwise noted.

Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm

Event listed by gusfishergallery

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