A Spark of Life - James Greig, Potter, Man of West and East

This edition of the 1987 Inspiration series on Kiwi artists looks at potter James (Jim) Greig, and his search for the “spark of life” found in clay. The Peter Coates-directed documentary visits Greig’s Wairarapa studio to interview him and his wife Rhondda, also an artist. Greig’s influences are surveyed: the work of Kiwi potter Len Castle, nature, orphanhood, and Japan (where his work achieved renown). The film captures the visceral process of making large works for a Wellington City Gallery exhibition. Greig died of a heart attack, aged 50, while this film was being made.

I have always approached my work as an imaginative adventure of exploration — trying to develop living forms which point to the “life in life” in flowing movement. All the manifold forms in living nature arise from movement — there are no fixed forms there — all is in living metamorphosis...

– Greig expresses his artistic philosophy in a 1980 piece for a Wairarapa Arts Centre exhibition

Key Cast & Crew

Jeremy Stephens

Narrator

Paul Gorsuch

Editor

Peter Coates

Director, Producer, Writer

Yuzo Eguchi

Camera - Japan

Sue Alexander

Composer

Malcolm Bremner

Sound Mix