Ben Pyne is one of 14 artists, makers and designers exhibiting in How to make a home, a show exploring the small universe of home and the material politics of the objects and adornment we live with over time. We asked Ben four quick questions about their work in the exhibition and what makes a home, read his responses below.

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Objectspace: Can you briefly describe the material and making of your works in How to make a home?

Ben Pyne: All the works are formed with my extruder. The forms themselves are heavily influenced by the process of extruding, historically a process used to make more industrial ceramics like brick, pipes and electrical insulators. The resultant forms are a combination of what is possible and what I think makes sense when using that specific tool/process. Two lamps also feature elements of found rock or brick that are intended to point to what has inspired the aesthetic of each work. The pendant lamp is glazed with a basalt glaze, while the brick hearth components are glazed in a similar but lower-temperature basalt glaze.

OS: Can you share some of your thinking behind the works?

BP: The lamps simply started with a desire to make a ceramic anglepoise lamp – pure problem-solving. I had been wanting to move away from domestic ware and was thinking about alternative ceramic outcomes other than vessels. This happened to coincide with me making my extruder, which opened up more possibilities and shifted the forms I was trying to make. The brick/hearth work is more specifically related to how we create our environment; the physical materials and methods of construction that we use. The bricks were originally made to operate as a plinth to show my lamp works but their modular nature has meant I can reshape and reuse them in multiple iterations. This specific form comes from thinking and testing I've been doing around creating an actual hearth in our home that would sit in front of an old brick fireplace.

OS: How do you feel your work connects to domestic spaces and/or the way we adorn and dress them?

BP: My practice started by making functional tableware, on a domestic scale. But more and more I want to make works that create or influence a space; creating an atmosphere through material quality, light, texture, or pattern. If they don't relate to a specific space they function as models, maquettes or swatches for what could be. The ceramic medium is interesting because we use it to make objects used within as well as the buildings themselves. Where do the objects stop and the house begin? I see my research into basalt glazes and other local materials as part of this, it's my effort to generate materials that truly embody a unique sense of place.

OS: How to make a home posits  that what makes a home is the persistence of ‘things’ that inspire us to feel like we belong. Can you tell us about an object that has made, or does make, your home a home?

BP: I have a collection of orchids that currently sit outside the entrance to our house. I’ve had some of them for more than 10 years. Most of them live in pots I’ve made over the course of my practice, some early on, some much more recently. Whenever they flower, I bring them inside to admire the intricate blooms and enjoy the fragrance. Caring for something over time creates a deeper connection, whether it be a simple pot plant or a home. To me the orchids are a reminder of the complicated intersection between ‘nature’ and the human desire to shape, mould and create, which I often explore in my practice.

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More about Ben Pyne

Ben Pyne is a designer and ceramicist living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Pyne completed his Bachelor of Visual Arts at Auckland University of Technology in 2012, followed by an Honours degree in Art and Design majoring in Product Design in 2014. In 2023 Pyne completed a major new commission for Objectspace’s Courtyard Plinth titled Mantle Overturn. Recent exhibitions include CONFAB: A compilation of extraordinary objects at Anna Miles Gallery and Testing Ground at Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Pyne is a regular contributor of technical articles to Ceramics NZ magazine.