Odes on Grecian Urns

摘要

Paul Maseyk was accorded his first solo exhibition, It's all Greek to Me, in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, in 2006. By this time Maseyk had been practising, studying and apprenticing in ceramics for about ten years. His early work in wood-fired stoneware, dipped in glaze, had evolved into an aesthetic of drawing with slips on terracotta until 'gradually the decoration got more complex, anal, out of hand'. Then he hit upon the 'vague' idea of making his own versions of world pottery: mediterranean vases, mediaeval pots, Asian porcelain. Why not start with ancient Greece? For Maseyk, naming is an important part of the process of individual pieces and collections. His vessels are sometimes driven by a title, such as A Day in the Life of P. Bateman (the protagonist in the novel American Psycho), or a name will arise from the kernel that inaugurates the imagery on a particular pot. The appellations are never casual; they are purposeful and loaded. So what are the parameters, literally and figuratively, of It's all Greek to Me?