Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.10.1991, Page 6

6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur4. október 1991
Vancouver artist Gordon Thorlaksson
by Sandor Gyarmati
Vancouver potter Gordon Thorlaks-
son has achieved a distinction few of
his peers in the West can claim. A
talented artist, he has leaped over for-
midable political barriers to show his
work in China and reveal his Western
approach to classical Chinese pottery.
“This is just one example of how one
individual, by himself, can do some-
thing fairly substantial,” said Thor-
laksson when I interviewed him in his
beautifully preserved old Shaughnessy
home. We talked of how he managed
to open the eyes of Chinese potters to
Western methods, and of his philoso-
phies of art and soul and the intricate
threads that bind them.
The 53-year-old Vancouver
artíst, receivedhis trainingat
San Jose University. But he has
been inúuenced most by the
Sung dynasty scholar potters of
China, with their high-shoul-
dered pots and luscious, high
temperature glazes.
His own work, an elegant display of
contour, colour, and style, is now on
permanent display in China. How this
came to be is an interesting story. It
began in 1985 with then Mayor Mike
Harcourt’s goodwill mission to China
for the twinning of Vancouver with its
sister city of Guangzhou (Canton)..
Harcourt took with him several of
Thorlaksson’s donated works to
present to Cao Yun-ping, Secretary-
General of the People’s Municipal
Govemment of Guangzhou.
Local potters were so impressed with
their rich colours and lustrous glazes
that Thorlaksson was invited to dis-
play more of his work. So, in 1987, he
was able to retum to China to visit
Guangzhou University.
For this arrangement, Thorlaksson
gratefully acknowledges the assistance
of Joanne Mah, Director of Intercultural
Training and Educa-
tional Consultants
(ITEC), and currently a
counsellor at the Emily
Carr College of Art and
Design. A member of the
Harcourt mission, Mrs.
Mahhad, ofcourse,seen
the presentation pieces
and recognized the Sung
influence in them.
She paid Thor-
laksson a high compli-
ment, saying, “Gordon,
my roots are in
Guangzhou and I want
to take you back there to your roots.”
And she did, by helping to arrange the
visit to Guangzhou University, and later
(in March 1988) by sponsoring with
her husband a pre-gallery showing of
Thorlaksson’s work at ITEC’s office in
Hong Kong prior to his exhibition at
the Alvin Gallery.
In Guangzhou, Thorlaksson re-
ceived celebrity treatment, meeting
university and media notables, includ-
ing Gao Yong-jian, head of ceramics at
the Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts,
and Shan Bai Qin, Deputy Director of
the Literature and Art Department of
the Guangzhou Daily, and Vice-Presi-
dent of the Guangzhou Chinese Paint-
ing Association.
Potters were eager to gain informa-
tion about Thorlaksson’s unique mul-
tiple firing technique that employs suc-
cessively higher firing
temperatures to give
each glaze its special
character. They were
also intrigued by another
innovation: his ceramic
pot stands. Instead of
seeking out an artisan to
carve wooden stands for
him, as Chinese potters
have done for centuries,
Thorlaksson makes his
own from clay. His aim
is to create a two-part
sculpture: potand stand
as ideal complementary shapes in the
poetic bringing together of two proc-
esses.
Thus Thorlaksson was able to help
the Chinese potters rethink the old
classical style, which had been dis-
mpted through years of political and
cultural upheaval.
He would like to inspire others to
explore their own feelings and ap-
proaches, in the Westem way of look-
ing at tradition.
But he is quick to say that he prefers
not to be copied. “I would encourage
people to explore their own way. If
they want to approach it from some
aspect ofmy own wayofworking, then
that’s great. But I sure would not want
to con people into following me. That’s
just my way,” he insists.
Thorlaksson is an artist who sees
pottery as more than a
technical process. For
example, he uses the
human female form as a
model for his pots. The
results are shapely
pieces that convey a
sense of warmth and a
seductive quality.
“It’s a celebration of
a joyous form,” re-
marked Thorlaksson.
He attempts, with great
success, to create sen-
suous pieces that peo-
ple will wantto touch and caress. “Most
potters make pots,” he says. “I make
parts of people.”
In a ftirther effort to pour his soul
into the creative process, Thorlaksson
listens to music while making each pot.
He insists that music helps his fingers
dance with the clay and create beauti-
ful lines.
A former track star, Thorlaksson
represented Canada in the 1959 Pan-
American Games, running alongside
the legendary Harry Jerome in the 100-
yard dash and the 220. Nowadays his
exceptional energy and restless mind
are leading him to explore more fully
the range of his artistic talents.
An avid jazz and rhythm and blues
fan, he has shifted from merely listen-
ing to music to performing it. Under
the stage name Gordon T. Lane, he
plays the bass trumpet with different
bands in Vancouver nightclubs. Re-
markably, he has been playing the in-
strument for only about four years, yet
he is aggressively creating his own op-
portunities in this new field.
When asked about his
combining ofmusic and
pottery, Thorlaksson
responded, “They work
wonderfully together in my soul
and don’t fíght. Ilove looking
forward to when I’m doing
both equallyin terms of tíme. ”
Never one to settle, he is determined
to further his music career. “That’s how
my whole life has been. I simply go at
something hard, determinedly, and be-
lieve that if you stick at it some oppor-
tunity will present itself. It always does. ”
His evolving plans include the pos-
sibility of setting up a winter pottery
studio in Califomia, maybe in a small
town along the old Forty-Niner Trail.
There he could fulfil his ambition to
build gas, oil, wood, and salt kilns to
experiment with the different effects
they produce. And he could work out-
doors in the fresh air, too. “I’ve been
breathing chemicals, dust, and fumes
from the various ceramic processes for
too long,” he says.
He would also like to retum to China
to hold pottery workshops, thus giving
something back to the tradition he has
drawn upon so fruitfully. As he says,
“Once yoú have established a base of
rapport, the gates of China will always
be open to you!”
If you listen to Gordon Thorlaksson
with ears open, you sense a desire to
cut through the usual
artist’s jargon to a more
universal truth. He hates
the idea of giving up and
dismisses cynics and
doubters.
“There is a lot of emo-
tion and risk. Sure you’ll
have all sorts of people
coming at you from all
directions telling you
that you’re wasting your
time, and questioning
whatyouare doing. That
is because they don’tfeel
the direction you are going in, and
can’tfeel the excitement about the pos-
sibility of a possibility. Sooner or later
all those doubters fall by the wayside.”
Courtesy of the Pacific Rim
Magazine.
w * w
Gordon Thorlaksson was bom in
Winnipeg. His father was the late
Lorenz Halfdan Thorlaksson.