Dog Dragon and Jerry Wedd Exhibition: Port Elliot in the Fleurieu Peninsula Region of South Australia

The last time we caught up with John Beach of Dog Dragon fame, Lisa was shown around a couple of tin sheds in the industrial estate of Port Elliot.

Things have changed a bit since then - you'll now find Dog Dragon behind a classy little shop-front on Port Elliot's main street. Inside is John's latest hoard of Indonesian furniture and artefacts collected during his 20-year love affair with our northern neighbour.

But it seems he just can't get away from working in a shed because out the back there's a new corrugated iron number which houses some of the amazing pieces John's brought back. Among them is an old teak Indonesian lesong as John explains:

“It's basically a rice mortar that was used in Java. It obviously used for a very long time because the hole they pounded the rice in to get their rice flour has actually been worn right through the bottom of the lesong. It’s a very old piece. I've seen them around for years but I've never known what to do with them until now. We've leveled off the top and put a piece of plate glass on the top of it and hey presto we’ve got a really unusual coffee table.”

As a young surfer John would head to Indonesia in search of the perfect wave and over time he became increasingly fascinated with the Indonesia's many and varied islands, the people and their way of life.

“If I wasn't surfing I was out wandering around gathering information and looking for ideas. Then my family and myself went to work in Indonesia teaching English for a year and when we got back we started this sort of business bringing in furniture and artefacts.

He still heads north four or five times a year and always come back with fascinating pieces like some heavily decorated shields.

“They are from Irian Jaya and they are called Tamen - it's a shield that you’d hide behind in a tribal war of some sort. The symbols on the front have a meaning. They are made of terracotta clay, pigs fat mixed with soot and what’s called kaolin which is shells that have been heated in a fire and ground up. They add a bit of water and paint it on. It's lime I suppose.”

The Dog Dragon showroom is worth a visit anytime - even if it's only for the wonderful aroma of teak but from next month there's an added attraction - the local ceramics of near neighbour and fellow surfer Jerry Wedd.

Jerry, a seven-time South Australian surf champion has also fallen under the spell of the south coast and in his next door studio he works away on his internationally recognised designs.

Jerry' one the Mambo artists and his quirky motifs on t-shirts and in clay have a lot in common.

“Since I started being encouraged to do purile childish drawings on the back of T-shirts by Mambo I started to think pottery and ceramics are things that have similar kinds of functions in lots of ways. They're part of your everyday life so I started to put pictures of people in their underpants or that kind of thing on my work.”

Jerry's bold and sometime outrageous style means he has a big following. He's known for his wit and laconic observations of the Australian way of life. But it seems things may be changing.

“I'm painting this with pure cobalt which looks brown but actually comes out blue. I've been doing a lot of work where I'm kind of taking the mickey out of old fashioned pottery.”

The colours may not be as bright and the designs a little less outrageous than in the past but don't worry, the Jerry Wedd sense of humour is ever present.

“I’m using the same kind of motifs that I've always used. But it's almost as if I'm trying to slip them under the door. I've always liked the idea of people looking at a piece of work and going 'oh isn't that lovely’ and then they get closer and go oh yuck.”

“You can only just see that here - that's a thong. The beauty of this very traditional glaze is that the colour pools and you get little details. I like that idea so I can reintroduce Australian icons and other kinds of things - there's a frangipani on the other side of this pit.”

Jerry Wedd and four other potter friends will exhibit their work at Dog Dragon from Sunday May the 4th. The showroom is at 55 North Terrace, Port Elliot. Contact John Beach on 8554 2388. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au