'If you haven't got anything to say, don't open the bag of clay' might
sound a bit dramatic, but then dramatic theatrical displays are John
Parker's forte. His work encompasses writing, designing exhibitions,
theatre sets and costumes, as well as throwing exquisitely formed pots,
and he brings the same design philosophy and approach to it all.
Everything Parker creates is about three dimensional images in space.
Take the design of the Pharaohs exhibition at Auckland Museum - he loved
the objects and brought an appreciation of the makers to his design of the
space, which was conceived as a series of vistas with individual
backgrounds. He created an unusual context for the works, with an element
of risk, surprise, drama and theatricality, to reflect the theatricality
he perceived of the Egyptians. And so it is with his pots, where he sets
up similar dichotomies.
Parker's pottery output is project based, and he moves easily between
design projects.
Rather than feeling fragmented Parker sees a pause as a gestation period, one that gives him time to stand back from his pots and re-evaluate them. He used to feel guilty about these blocks of time of not making but soon realised that in fact he was taking his potting more seriously by not rushing in and churning out a lot of work. This way he experienced a certain freedom to make work that might not be commercially acceptable, and then working to deadline provided the adrenaline rush on which he thrives.
Stark, minimalist and referencing the industrial, the
pots in his exhibitions are dramatically lit still life clusters of
practised, precise, spare shapes. His pots are beautifully formed,
strongly based on simple geometry, elegantly glazed and detailed, and they
tease out notions of functionalism. They seem to bear no relationship to
the mainstream of New Zealand ceramics. His aesthetic sensibility and
philosophy bear more relationship to the European design movements of de
Stijl and the Bauhaus than to Bernard Leach and Hamada who influenced a
number of his New Zealand contemporaries.
Recent work is white, an arbitrary decision that coincided with painting
his house white. Maybe it was no accident - white seems to dominate his
environment and apparel, so why not his pots? It fits with his philosophy
of wanting to pare away the inessentials, of taking risks and, according
to Parker, expresses a certain bloody-mindedness. He wants to remove
unnecessary tricks to get closer to understanding the concept of the bowl
as the container, the vessel, and keeps finding new things to do and new
simplifications.
theatrical, penetrating, reflecting, creating playful shadows, with
qualities evoking the architectural qualities of his theatre designs. He
loves the idea of fakery, of playing intellectual games, and enjoys making
clay to look as if it could be plastic or powder coated aluminium. That
never denies his mastery of clay and an ability to create beautiful works.
Helen Shamroth