FIRING AWAY
The latest work by ceramicist Mervyn Gers is an artistic journey into large-scale, artisanal projects
Four large photographs depicting significant periods in the history of Cape Town’s transport system adorn the walls of the Myciti bus station in adderley street. Mervyn gers was selected to decorate the station, using only its windows as his canvas. What made this commission noteworthy is the fact that Mervyn specialises in pottery, and so he followed an innovative process: printing old photographs on ceramic tiles, firing them and then installing them.
This was not his first move in a new direction. although renowned primarily for his bespoke handmade dinnerware, he has undertaken many different projects, his most recent being with celebrated chef david higgs, who asked Mervyn to create wall tiles for Marble, his new restaurant in Johannesburg. ‘subway tiles served as our inspiration,’ Mervyn says, but, because of their thickness, his creations are probably closer to wall cladding. ‘If you look at the tiles, you’ll see that they stand out from the walls – they are very textured.’
Mervyn made four moulds, resulting in tiles with different façades. The clay was then pressed into the moulds and handpainted in a majolica style. ‘once the raw glaze is on the tile, you paint onto it with an oxide. Then when the oxide melts into the tile, you get washes that are darker and lighter, so every tile is completely different,’ he explains.
While on a trip to Japan last year, he was inspired by tiny handmade tiles that covered an entire gallery space – giving him ideas for the future. ‘It was incredible and I just thought, “It would be lovely to be able to do something like that.”’
mervyngers.com