Australian Designer Peter Mclisky laser cuts fun and funky characters from raw steel in his Melbourne studio
Peter Mclisky
Peter Mclisky meets me outside his workshop on a sunny autumn afternoon in Melbourne. There's no one else around in what feels like a small industrial wasteland on the edge of town. He unlocks the cyclone fence gate that leads to his temporary space and takes me through a rather cold impersonal corridor and into a large room where instantly I feel the excitement of the little girl inside of me.
Creativity is swirling in the air. There are sculptures everywhere, roughly clustered into groups according to size or theme, all in various stages of transformation from raw steel to the quirky colorful characters for which Peter is known. There's loads of natural light and there's an old computer, actually it’s a very, very old computer and an aged timber workshop bench strewn with sketches and paint chips. There are boxes ready to be shipped out and some that are laying open with samples of Peter's new ideas and there's the painting booth with a hazchem sign on the door.
'Where is the metal cutter?' I ask, as I've been curious to see how Peter achieves such smooth, sharp edges and precise detail when working with such a tough unyielding medium as steel. That is somewhere else, I 'm advised. It’s too big and noisy for this space. It’s an industrial grade machine that cuts the metal using a high pressure water jet.
So this is where Peter spends his afternoons and evenings creating the little, and sometimes larger than life, sculptures that make us smile. Peter like many who attended art school in the mid sixties, has been influenced by Warhol, Litchenstein, Oldenburg, Pantone and Marimeko. His graphic design background and love of simple shapes and bold colors shine through in his fun and very funky sculpture range. Peter works with a number of finishes including blackened steel, hand painting and powder coating. He is best known for his shadow range and he creates all of his work to order.