When US born sculptor and blacksmith Pete Mattila (BCA Hons 2010, MFA 2013) forges steel into art he witnesses transformation – and it is the magic of that that has kept him so passionate about his craft.
“It’s like a little journey we’re taking in the studio … I love seeing this material transform in front of me – this hard, rigid thing that, through making and moving, becomes active and dynamic,” Pete said.
“All the tool work and gestures that are then applied are locked into it as it becomes rigid again. There’s a vocabulary of steelwork that is constantly being explored. A dialogue. When we see rivets in work, for example, that’s communicating connection. It’s the same with other joins.
“You’re seeing how everything is put together.”
After first training as an industrial blacksmith and welder at Ultimo TAFE in Sydney, Pete enrolled in Contemporary Art and then a Master of Fine Art at the University of Tasmania. He now has a Hobart studio, Mattila Studio Battery Point, producing works for exhibitions as well as private commissions.
Pete has also lectured at the University and, later this year, will travel to Pennsylvania where he will run a masterclass at the Centre for Metal Arts. Only one blacksmith is chosen to teach this masterclass course each year.
"To be invited overseas to teach this course is really motivating," he said.
Talking with Pete, it is impossible not to see the sculptures he makes in a new light. The pieces seem to speak of an industrial past at the same time as they speak of the ultra-modern. Pete describes the phenomenon of two time scales converging as the story of knowns and unknowns. The knowns are the skills and tool work that go into a piece, while the unknowns, the stretching of boundaries, are the modern component.
Pete isn’t averse to stretching himself as an artist. He recently collected charcoal from burnt old-growth forest and smelted it with iron ore from Tasmania to make steel. He then made time capsules, each containing collected fragments of the charcoal and the iron ore that the outer casing was made from.
“I also made a bloom of steel out of sludge from the Queenstown river, a collaboration with chemist Brenda Mooney, an alumna of the University, and James Rhys Harvey,” he said.
“It’s about taking a damaged site and transforming it into something.”
Another project Pete was also involved in was a performative artwork relating to the gun buy-back scheme, in which he took disused firearms and fused them together. Gun Metal Records was performed in New Orleans.
Another highlight of Pete’s career to date has been seeing students he has mentored make their own art and take off in their careers. When asked if he has advice for art students or recent arts alumni, he says one of the things he told himself that was helpful was to let go of the expected.
“The University educational environment allows the time to explore; it’s about keeping one foot on the ground and one foot dipped ‘out there’,” he said.
"You go to university to explore, to learn and to be confonted. Remember why you're there."
He recalls showing a piece of sculpture to a lecturer who promptly turned the artwork upside down and asked, “What do you think of that?”
“That type of creative practice really stretches you as an artist,” Pete said. “Be open-minded to critique. Tap into your creativity.”
At the recent ECHO Festival at Swansea, Tasmania, Pete unveiled a sculpture of two black swans. It was the first time he made realist sculpture, evidence he is taking his own advice and trying new things.
And why has Pete chosen Tasmania as a place to live and work? It’s simple. “I love this island,” he said.
First published in Alumni and Friends eNews.
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Top of page: Pete Mattlia. Image Credit: Peter Whyte