My interest is in the space between who someone is and who they think they are, an ongoing conversation with self. This work explores the space between the projected self and the internal self, and is made in two parts to emphasize a separateness. There is a conflicting duality, an expression of an unwillingness to connect in the two versions of self in this work.

The space between who someone is and who they think they are - an ongoing conversation with self. This work has an individual contemplating a close relationship with a lover, a relationship that requires trust in other than self.

Sculpted clay, fired and painted with enamel. 12 cm diameter.

Terracotta sculpted fired and painted with matt enamel. 50x40x18cm.

Carved clay, fired and oil painted

Sculpted terracotta, fired and with cold enamel,

Sculpted in clay, Glazed and then painted in cold enamel. 12x12x8cm.

Carved clay, fired to stoneware temperature, part glaze painted and part matt enamel over bare clay. 28x26x1.5cm. 

Sculpted clay, fired and painted with enamel.

“From historic paintings; a pair of table centrepieces in the English Staffordshire style. I am playing with convention to tell stories of NZ history. The flamboyant mercenary Von Tempsky fought in the New Zealand Land Wars and died in battle at Te Ngutu o Te Manu, Taranaki, in 1868. Fading cartoon soldiers fighting for the concept of Manifest Destiny.”

Presented in the form of a European porcelain table centrepiece, and to be viewed in the round, is the legend of “the Wild Hunt”, combined with the dream of a soldier at the end of WW2. The white stag and hare are chased by hounds, pursued and never caught.   

This diorama references the naive paintings of Arthur Boyd and the softpaste figurative ceramic collections in the Auckland and Sydney Museums. My ‘Paradise Lost” illustrates Milton's message from the Angel Michael to Adam and Eve after their fall. Find "a paradise within thee, happier far", no longer reliant on a God, they must become self-sufficient humans.

This is in a series works using themes from Western Movies to express a conservation message about the threat to our native birds from introduced species. Here the strapline from the movie “The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Bob Ford”, which I am referencing here, states “…But the greatest threat to his life may ultimately come from those he trusts the most”* Universal Pictures.

The Hoxne Hoard – a collection of Roman treasure dating from AD 409 – was unearthed in Suffolk England in 1992. I have emulated this ancient hoard to recreate an archaic context for my story, in ceramic and not silver. A panther, which escaped from our local zoo, and a scapegoat, are jewel boxes. Central to the group is an effigy, the King of the Birds. The stories are about Black Reef, an older and now disused name for my suburb of Westmere.

"Out of step, out of place, and their time was running out FAST"

Inspired by the Martin Brothers in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Four extinct or endangered species of bird native to New Zealand; Huia, Orange Wattle Kokako, Kahu and Kakapo as characters from the 1969 film "The Wild Bunch".

Kupe’s Dog, Joseph Banks’s Greyhound and Captain Cook’s Goat named Folly. All three were visitors to Aotearoa during the earliest days of human settlement and these clay figures celebrate historical events, they are silent and curious witness to extraordinary journeys and explorations.

Inspired by a wooden fetish dog seen in the Pacific Island collection in the Auckland Museum some years ago. I have been back since but could not find it again but the form and the toothy grin remained with me. It was to me an object with great symbolic power.

“Here I depict six soldiers from New Zealand history as a set of traditional Victorian toys. Two Rangers and their leader Von Tempsky are shown as a Magpie, a Rook and a Myna Bird, all birds introduced to New Zealand. Their adversaries are the Hau Hau, Maori guerrilla fighters fighting to regain their land and are shown as a Tui, Huia and a Kokako, all indigenous birds.”

Although toy soldiers are things of childhood, they always represented to me society’s acceptance of something that should be questioned or at least understood.

Colour stains on naive shapes make a bright shiny wood.

AFTER THE GOLDRUSH

When the circus left town, we had a parade,

the band played on and floats were made.

I looked sideways as they passed,

these bits and pieces they were the last.

We beat our chests

and cried out loud,

the Tui’s head looked dead not proud

”Flowers for the Manukau Harbour”. In the tradition of immortalising people and place in a ceramic form I have based my work on a C19th Nileware jug in blue to hold a tribute of flowers for those lost at sea on the Manukau Harbour. I have repurposed a traditional jug form and added raised sprigs. In this beautiful landscape there is danger. The fishing boat that replaces the Egyptian Dhow of the original jug is the vessel named the “Thistle” which was lost crossing the Manukau Bar in 1953. CJ.

LUNA PARK: The Lost World. Luna Park is a name that is shared by currently operating and defunct amusement parks.  A Luna Park once existed on the Waterfront of Auckland City in the 1930's before moving to Australia. A set of ceramic toys representing a fantasy world now gone from NZ. CJ.

Doubtless Bay 1769: Captain Cook’s ship the Endeavour and Jean Francois Marie de Surville’s ship St Jean Baptiste.

Opoutama, Cook’s Cove, Tupaia’s cave and the ship the Endeavour with the hole in the rock through to Uawa, Tolaga Bay, and which Joseph Banks called an “extraordinary natural curiosity …far superior to any contrivances of art” Te Kotore o te Whenua.

A ceramic poem. Every element tells a story, each part is a verse.

The Interviewer asked the Ex-inmate what life was like on the inside: “Ah, you know like the rest of the world, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.”

This reference to the classic Sergio Leone movie inspired me to make another work in my series using Western Movies to explore themes of conservation, cultural appropriation and the human condition.

Chuck Joseph 2016

Chuck Joseph

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN – Tui, Huia, Kokako, Kereru, Piwakawaka, Karuhiruhi, Kotare. Here they stand - the last line of defence.

This group of seven gunslinger birds uses the last ditch defence of a small village in the sixties movie “The Magnificent Seven” starring Yul Brynner, to emphasise their plight. 
The figures are constructed of thrown paper clay bodies with additions, and are lidded containers in the manner of the Martin Brothers “Wally Birds”, acknowledging  their tobacco bird jar forms. These are modern day  treasure containers to store keepsakes, feathers, and souvenirs of the disappearing fauna. Many small details add to their stories; cards, flowers patterns and bones etc.
Does the Tui led group win their battle? Only we can truly decide this...but note that two of the group are already extinct.

The Wild Bunch, Four souvenir bottles by Chuck Joseph. "Out of step, out of place, and their time was running out fast"

Cats and Birds - Gunslingers all.

The Ruru is the native owl of Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Glaze painting the Tui - a warrior from his work "TOY SOLDIERS: Von Tempsky and The Hau Hau."

Punk Rococo Vessels: Stewart Island/Rakiura, The Hole in the Wall at Uawa/Tolaga Bay, and Cape Reinga. Three places that are close to my heart. LR.

Taranaki. Bowl by Chuck Joseph, glaze painted by Louise Rive.

One panel of a three panel bowl. Painted from the viewpoint of the crest of the hill looking down to where Captain Cook anchored his ship the Endeavour in 1769. 

2 Sisters in Western Springs.  Hand made and glaze painted ceramic. Louise Rive.

Tile, hand made and glaze painted.

The space between, as photographer Diane Arbus described, who someone is and who they think they are. It is an ongoing conversation with self.

Sculpted paperclay, gesso and cold paint. 36 x 37 x 18 cm.

Central is the Premier Award winning  "The Space Between", flanked by two other works by Louise Rive, "Three Women" and "Art Diary" in the Portage Ceramic Awards 2014 Exhibition.

White earthenware clay with stains painted into glaze and fired to cone 4.

30 x 28 x 20 cm

Beauty seen is not forgotten.

Stains painted into glaze, fired to cone 4. 23 x 40 x 20 cm

The Wild Bunch Souvenir Bottles. 

"Out of step, out of place, and their time was running out FAST" Huia, Orange Wattle Kokako, Kahu and Kakapo as characters from the 1969 film The Wild Bunch

Paperclay, cone 4 glaze and stains. 40 x 50 x 10 cm.