Empire of Dirt - Writing about Ceramics opened last night at Objectspace in Auckland.

Bringing new voices and perspectives to the appreciation of ceramics, Empire of Dirt brings together 15 writers, some new and some familiar, offering new perspectives on ceramics in New Zealand. The selected writers were invited to select a ceramic work, and bring their own personal style and taste to the project. Including studio, mass produced and industrial ceramics, Empire of Dirt will expand your understanding of the breadth of ceramic production and consumption by adding new voices and perspectives to the critical conversation about the value and appreciation of ceramics in contemporary Aotearoa.

Martin Poppelwell is one of the 15. Curated by Doris de Pont.

my rubble

the curator has allowed me 5 more days to finish the text for this show.
after a conversation with her in person i explained that i didn’t collect pottery any longer
and nor did i regard what i made as a useful form for the ‘empire’ project. i was however
very interested in the notion of the language that orbits objects and in this case objects made
from clay. so this lead me to a significant part of my workshop where all the discarded pieces of
unfired work are biffed, launched, flicked and splattered..in time drying and becoming a healthy pile
of dirt.
this rubble is like a dusty dull beacon for me. it reminds one of all the practical attributes that the ‘clay’
material has. this lump of fragments are neither pottery or art, they are something else.
this is pretty much exactly where i want my thinking to be, a loose scribble of uncertainty.
above this pile is a wall totally covered in drawings and notes, lists, musings, cross outs, scribbles,
poetry and colour tests. these are the things that one has draped and wrapped over, around, through
and under pottery. it is this combination of dirt and diagram which i continue to build - kind of like
ongoing wonderings of the what if and why not. so why not list a small list of these musings
to find what the effect would be, each piled one upon the other, clay destined sound bites.

-national grid
-the idiots are back
-this show isn’t about laughter
-uphilldecline
-you tested positive for being negative
-fontana
-il sesso era buono i vicini era una sigaretta
-mad bad sad glad
-knocking off my own knock offs
-gave up punk for flower arranging
-exploits of the ante christ
-elias…elias..who is going to feed you
-lack of funding
-am i the only scoundrel and bunglar alive
-everyones doing everyone else
-thoughts that don’t tremble are frozen
-nothing of the month club
-peanut flavoured cashews
-there’s plenty more fish in the ocean,but my bait ain’t what it used to be
-subliterate manifesto
-good idea..you’re fired
-this one
-that one
-i used to be into jesus but moses had better tablets
-the last christian i knew of died on the cross
-now what
-my cheap lines aren’t that cheap anymore
-vice this, assistant that, deputy other thing
-if this is art i’m leaving
-creativity means not copying
-a must for any serious collection
-the 2 most common elements are hydrogen and stupidity
-leaving would be a good idea
…

Objectspace
8 Ponsonby Road
Auckland.