A sculptor’s massive studio is a sheddie’s dream
By Sarah Beresford
Photographs: Adam Croy
It’s tempting to think of Gregor Kregar’s work space as the ultimate humongous man cave. The 410-square-metre studio in a gritty industrial area of Auckland’s New Lynn certainly has all the “boy’s toys” to make the most avid sheddie happy.
Vises, grinders, table saw, and cut-off saw? Check. MIG and TIG welders and drill press? Check. Two electric and a gas-fired kiln? Check. You get the picture. This is a serious space set up to work on all manner of materials.
Gregor is a sculptor, and his studio reflects the scale and diversity of his work. He is comfortable working in a range of mediums, from polished stainless steel and bronze casting to ceramics and wood. “I like doing work where the process is very hands-on and I enjoy the challenge and variety of working with a range of mediums,” he says. “The materiality of the work is connected to specific ideas and the way to best realise them. So I may be tackling a work using glass or recycled wood and then be working on a polished stainless steel sculpture with LED neon lights.”
Significant pieces
His sculptures often capture the essence of familiar images presented in surprising ways that challenge our normal perceptions of objects, such as his series of gnomes, sheep wearing All Blacks’ jerseys and overall-clad workers varying vastly in stature. Then there are the monumental works destined for public spaces. The 6-7m stud of his “shed” allows him the space to work on significant pieces.
A recent commission is a case in point. In a corner of his studio is a model of a polished stainless geometric sculpture that seems like a major work in its present diminished form. But the finished piece is destined to be a whopping 6m and incorporates 200 LED RGB-controlled lights. It will be a show-stopping centrepiece for a commission from France. Gregor is heading there in December to install the work. Connecting all the lights alone is going to be a challenge. He does all this work himself.
“The wiring is incredibly complicated,” he says. “You have to get the polarity right, otherwise it won’t work. I get my work signed off by an electrician, and over the years, I’ve gained a pretty good clue as to what I can and can’t do.”
The vast area of his studio allows him to skip from one medium to another without having to juggle working spaces. Two long L-shaped benches framing one corner accommodate his saws, tools, vises and drill press. The kilns line another wall and are fronted by a large bench. Huge scaffold-like shelving towers up to the full stud height, allowing plenty of space to store materials without cribbing on the floor space.
He says that when working on his sculptures, he often pushes the boundaries of what he does with certain materials. “Sculptors will often do things that others don’t. There’s a tendency to push the idea of what can be done and approach things differently. Sometimes when you have very specific skills it can be a bit limiting in terms of how you approach material.”
Working with neon
Gregor says he has gained a lot of knowledge over the years of working with different mediums. The neon tubes he uses in some of his sculptures are a case in point. He works on the straight tubes, “bending” them into a variety of forms so that they seem at one with the sculpture that they are illuminating. “Pumping the neon is very skilled and complex work,” he says. “You are working with argon gas at 8000v so you have to be very careful. It’s best not to touch the wires at the end of each tube otherwise you’ll get zapped,” he says laughing.
A substantial, polished stainless steel dinosaur standing in the studio will be part of an exhibition at Gow Langsford Gallery later this year. “There’s a lot of work involved in making these sculptures,” Gregor explains. “They are so highly finished that people tend to think that a machine has made them. They often don’t realise the complexity and the cost involved in producing pieces. Some of my work involves processes such as lost wax casting. Others need to be welded, then there’s all the grinding and polishing needed to achieve the highly finished look.”
Gregor came to New Zealand from his native Slovenia more than 20 years ago. “I wanted to do my Master’s of Arts somewhere other than Europe or America. I was interested in Maori and Pacific culture, and I also used to do a lot of windsurfing so it seemed an obvious choice,” he says laughing.
Scale models
Up a flight of stairs in one corner of the studio is Gregor’s office-showroom, which features a selection of his smaller sculptures and his desk and computer. He does a lot of designing using 3D software when working on new projects, but he says nothing can beat the real thing when showing concepts to clients. “A lot of people have difficulty visualising things. I always make scale models because it’s really helpful for the client to understand what I’m creating, and it’s also good for me to work through the whole process.”
He likens working on large commissions to being an architect. “You have the creative process, but you also have to consider making the proposal, the budget, consulting structural engineers, getting sign off from council if it’s a large public work … there are a lot of factors to consider and juggle.
“At secondary school, I learnt furniture making, which I really enjoyed. The whole process of thinking of a concept and working with your hands to make it is really satisfying, and I guess that’s still kind of what I’m doing now.”
