7 Mar 2021

Laurie Steer - not your average ceramics

From Standing Room Only, 2:27 pm on 7 March 2021

From adorable dead mouse bowls to ridiculously tiny-handled and hyper-spiritual "zombie buddha mugs", Mt Maunganui-based ceramicist Laurie Steer has a lot of fun in his studio.

At the moment he's putting the finishing touches to a dinner service from hell, where bowls leak, plates spill, and there are menacing spikes and knobs in places you certainly don't expect.

It's called The Abundance of Water and it's going on show at the Tauranga Art Gallery, where Laurie hopes it will provoke conversations about consumption and excess.

As Laurie Steer tells Lynn Freeman, he worked for several years with the late Barry Brickell at his renowned pottery in the Coromandel.   Both artists shared an irreverent approach to ceramics:

The Abundance of Water is revealed at the Tauranga Art Gallery on March 12.