Barry Brickell: his famous pots and railway

His Own Steam
The Work of Barry Brickell
By David Craig and Gregory O’Brian
Auckland University Press
RRP $85

Just before Christmas 2011 marked one of the remarkable events in the history of New Zealand cultural tourism – the celebration of the one millionth passenger on the Driving Creek Railway. 

The 2.6km railway has become a major tourist attraction on Coromandel Peninsula, benefiting Coromandel Town and the district. 

The railway is the creation of Barry Brickell, who originally built the line so he could move the clay he needed for his pottery from the hills above his workplace.

While he might be a great railway man, it is as a potter that he has had the most impact on New Zealand cultural life. For close to 35 years he has produced a steady stream of ceramic works from small cups to major commissions.

To coincide with a major retrospective of the artist's work at the New Dowse (May 4-August 11) a book has been published by Auckland University Press which provides an insight into the artist's life and work.

It includes essays by David Craig and Gregory O’Brian, who manage to go beyond the superficial accounts to provide an understanding of the creative instinct and the pursuit of a passion.

There is also a fine introduction by Hamish Keith, who has known Brickell since he began producing pottery in their shared flat in Auckland in the late 1950s.

For Brickell, life and art are intrinsically linked and both are concerned with the shaping and engineering of energy and forms. His Own Steam reveals the passions that fuel him, notably his staunch enthusiasm for trains and environmental restoration. 

The book outlines Brickell’s history and career and looks at the major themes and forms in his work, plus the influences which include Bernard Leach, the growth in the demand for domestic ware, the medieval grotesque, as well as Pacific and Sepik motifs.

It also investigates Brickell’s personal preoccupations with energy and engineering, and his concerns about the body and conservation.

Dozens of great photos illustrate his work, including his most well-known form, the "spiromorphs" – large-scale spiral creations built from coiled clay, which twist and unfold in curves that parallel the spirals of his railway.

Much of his work which looks like organic shapes is actually derives from the shapes and construction methods for boilers and engines so that it has strange combinations of the organic and industrial.

There are others which are strongly rooted in the forms of nature and wildlife which have an almost primitive quality to them.

The book acknowledges Brickell's collaboration with other artists and their influence on him, and his influence on them. It is peppered with the great names of New Zealand art: Ralph Hotere, Pat Hanly, Colin McCahon,  Michael Illingworth (who was famously ejected from Driving Creek) and Nigel Brown.

He even had a visit for the doyen of post-war pottery, Bernard Leach.

Because he lives on the Coromandel Brickell's impact has been subtle rather than overt and he has become almost symbolic of the man alone artist living in the bush, even though he is surrounded by activity.

As he says: “This is the trouble with being made into something you are not. I was put on a cultural pedestal on which I was not capable of standing. Time and time again I would fall off it, injuring myself and then I had to climb back up.

"I don’t want be elevated, I want to be a workman. Whether pots, the railway – it’s all the same thing.”