The 4 Men's Media Exhibition, "You prepare a Table...., and my cup overflows!"

I forgot to take photos yesterday at the opening of the exhibition in the Community Gallery in Dunedin, some of us are blessed with forgetful neurons, so I went back to Dunedin this afternoon on the bus, armed with camera, with the intention of making a record of my table full of pots, and taking a quiet look at the rest of the exhibition.

The Community Gallery is a space that is available for hire by individual artists, groups, and societies. Essentially it is an empty square shaped room, with a polished floor, white walls, some lights, and ... you do the rest. You find tables to display work on, you set up the show, look after it, and all that sort of thing. The basic cost is $200 a week, but then you have to keep feeding the power meter $2 coins throughout the day for the gallery lights, and you have to pay the Council lots of money for the privilege of parking the car somewhere.... so it all adds up quite quickly. It works best when you have a small group of artists to share costs. Louise Burnside from Gallery on Blueskin at Waitati, just North of Dunedin, kindly coordinated 4 of us to have the exhibition, and she and her friend Nicky Clarke (who works with her at Gallery on Blueskin) have been absolutely wonderful in giving their time to running the event.

My work was arranged on a long table. The array of work reminds me very much of how it all looks as the work comes out of the kiln. Some things are rather swamped visually in such an arrangement, but such a spread does have a festive look, rather like a table ready for a feast.

I have taken a series of photos that will walk you down the length of the table.

We won't stop and look at individual pieces, otherwise there would have to be an enormous number of photos, but we'll have time for a quick look at this bottle with poured glazes, and gaps of the toasted body of the pot showing through.

I tried to mass the basic colour groups together, with hot colours at one end of the table, and cooler ones at the other, but I did not stick rigidly to this idea.

So we make a procession through copper reds,

past some copper with some chun blue or violet,

on past golden shinos and iron browns,




past the odd hint of celadon green.


We stop for a cup of tea from an iron red teapot...


and slowly encounter the odd copper green, iron green, and chun.





An accent of strong rutile blue marks the nearness of the end of the table.

Then on to cooler blues at table's end.



On a small table in the window, are another collection of pots.

This sculptural pot with ash glazes that was from an earlier firing is by itself, nearer to where people come into the exhibition.

The other artists that took part, either made sculpture, such as this wall hanging by Jack Monaghan,

or painted. I am rather fond of the colourful pastels that Justin Morshuis has on show. Lovely colour, and interesting things going on.

Not many people through the exhibition today, but there were some more sales of paintings and a couple of pots. We are hoping for better attendance of the exhibition towards the end of the week when I am working at my wheel there.

Comments

Arkansas Patti said…
What a stunning display of your work Peter. I am blown away by the volumn and beauty.
Just know you will be a huge success.
Linda Starr said…
Hi Peter, what a beautiful display of all your work. The reds are so beautufil and that dark blue rutile at the end is wonderful too. I do like that sculptural pot and of course the drizzled glaze on the jug. I wish I could be there to see them all in person. I notice a little mark on some of the bowls near the rim, do you stamp/sign your work there?

Good luck with the sales. How do folks let you know they want to purchase. Do they get to take the item right away or do they wait till the end of the show?
Peter said…
Hi Patti,
Not sure how sales will go as not all that many people visiting the exhibition thus far, but friends have bought work. I'll be demonstrating with my potter's wheel for the next two days at the exhibition, so that might help bring people in.

Hi Linda,
The mark on some of the bowls near the rim is just a little self adhesive price label (black dot with silver writing). I have my potter's mark down at the foot of the bowl. Some people are leaving picking up work until the end of the show, and others are taking it right away, if it suits them better. There is so much work there that it doesn't matter too much if some is taken straight away!
JT said…
Hi Peter,

It looks really great! A lot of hard work gone into that firing all night, I'm glad it's turned out so well. Hopefully you get lots of interested people coming by.

One thing I noticed is that I can't find a website for the community gallery, and there is nothing in the odt about the exhibition either. I don't know if they normally come past, but maybe someone should drop them a call ;).

I'll have to give you another call sometime, maybe when mum and dad are here so they can tell how they got on meeting all the rellies in the UK.

Jeremy
Peter said…
Hi Jeremy, Welcome aboard my site, really lovely to hear from you! The Community Gallery is just a rentable space in Princes Street near the Octagon that the DCC make available for art and cultural type events, so no frills and no website come with it. I have heard disturbing news that the DCC want to turn it into something that makes them even more money and relocate the community arts thing to a less central location. (For those who don't know, the DCC is our City Council, bless their cotton socks and all who reside in them!). The ODT have been told about it....., but, as it is not an outbreak of swine flu, it is probably not newsworthy! Anyway, if they do anything about it at all it will probably be in Thursday's edition, when they do review some of the arts that are on exhibition. And, if they do review it I will be delighted and really thankful and will splash out and buy their newspaper!

Hope all is going well for you over in Germany. It will be good catching up with your Mum and Dad on their fleeting trip.

Best wishes to you and to Judith. Uncle P.
Pat - Arkansas said…
A wonderful display, Peter! Everything, and I do mean everything, is beautiful. I meant to say in my comment to the previous post how much I admired the bottle with the poured glaze, and I do like the iron red teapot very much. Methinks there is not a single item that I would not joyfully possess. Well done.

Hope attendance and sales pick up dramatically and that at the end of the week you can declare it a success.
Peter said…
Thanks Pat for your "Well done!" I am happy to report that things have improved and there were quite a lot more people through today and more sales. The sun was out, which really helped, and people also had the added curiosity of a potter working away just inside the gallery window! The bottle with the poured glaze was an experiment at the time, and I am interested with the possibilities that it suggests. It is nice to let the clay show through for the fire and ash to toast up, and the flowing look of the poured glazes does add some excitement. I will experiment further. I also want to try some really thick shino glazes next time.
megan saltzman said…
Hello, I´ve enjoyed your website, but how different it is too see and hold your Pottery in Person, Pete! This is Megan from Michigan, we met you last weekend at your show in Dunedin, where I especially fancied your crimson glazes. Once we´re settled in I hope to make a trip to see your studio and its surroundings.
Happy spinning,
Megan
Peter said…
Hi Megan,
How lovely to hear from you. It was really nice to meet you both at the opening. I'm glad you have discovered my blog site, welcome aboard! We would be delighted for you to come and see us. Pick a warmish day (if there is one available at this time of year!!), it is really worth having a look at the beach, and going to see some historic farm buildings near here. Waikouaiti is a special place with some nice scenery and interesting history. Best wishes to you both, Peter
megan saltzman said…
Pete, do you know of any community center or something in downtown Dunedin where they teach ceramics? Can you respond by email? meganazulejo@gmail.com

Thanks so much,
megan

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