Biography of Jeff Thomson

Colourful, life-like, corrugated iron elephants, cows and other animals; decorated letter-boxes, elegant, origami-like iron birds and an HQ Holden car clad in corrugated iron: these are just some of the objects created by New Zealand artist, Jeff Thomson. 

Thomson has changed the popular perception of corrugated iron, and it is now seen, not just as a building material, but as an art form as well.  ‘He has almost single-handedly taken corrugated iron off the roof and put it on the wall and the pedestal’ (1).

Born in Auckland in 1957, Thomson has always shown an interest in art, and according to his mother, could make anything out of anything from an early age.  Thomson was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was six. He showed an aptitude for art and sculpture, and made model boats out of cornflake packets and working model submarines out of wood.  In the seventh form he built a concrete sculpture in the grounds of his school, Westlake Boys High in Auckland.  The sculpture is still there.

Thomson completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam in 1981, having spent 1980 travelling around the South Island.  It was during his many walks around rural New Zealand that he started decorating letter-boxes, which led him in turn to make corrugated iron animals – the first being a cow made out of red corrugated iron.  He exhibited this cow, and other letter-boxes, in his Roadside Farms exhibition at the Bowen Galleries, Wellington, in 1984.  This led to a commission to make a corrugated iron penguin – his first three-dimensional corrugated iron animal.

In 1982 he attended Auckland Teachers College and taught at secondary schools until 1986, when he became a full-time artist.

In 1985 Thomson released a herd of corrugated iron elephants into Albert Park, and later the elephants, and other corrugated iron animals and objects, were seen in Wellington’s Civic Square.  These events had the trademark of Thomson’s popularism and sense of humour, and created a great deal of media interest.

During 1987 and 1988 Thomson took a number of workshops in Australia and New Zealand with school students and the wider community.  In 1988 he exhibited at the World Expo in Brisbane, as well as in Melbourne’s Heide Park and the Museum of South Australia, Adelaide.  More recent exhibitions include solo shows in Sydney, Auckland and Wellington.

In late 1988 Thomson took part in the National Art Gallery’s Painted Zoo exhibition at Shed 11, running workshops in making corrugated iron animals next door in Shed 12.  During this time he acquired a corrugating machine which enabled him to create many different shapes, including three-dimensional ones.

Thomson’s work has been described as ‘unashamedly popularist’, and given the crowds who have turned up to see his work, there is no doubt his work is popular.  It has been seen in a variety of places; on country gateposts, in solo shows, at exhibitions both here and overseas, in public parks, and with his HQ Holden, out on public roads. 

Thomson is an accessible, theatrical and dynamic artist, with a leg-pulling sense of humour who is seemingly ‘in touch’ with many New Zealanders. ‘Thomson’s work has an energy and originality that couldn't get much closer to grass roots.  What’s more people liked it! It wasn’t obscure or dependent on current art theory for understanding’ (2). As critic John Perry says, Thomson is the ‘undisputed Corrugated Iron Man of Australasia’ (3). 

Thomson has experimented with different materials including wire netting, paper, plastic and tin cans. He has used many different techniques including building, layering, curving, welding and brazing (soldering with an alloy of brass and zinc).  More recently Thomson has attempted to extend the boundaries of iron, using an industrial roller to produce rounded and three-dimensional forms. What next?  ‘The most intriguing question now is whether he will continue to tussle with corrugated iron or move on, leaving the ripples behind him’ (4).

References

(1) Perry, John F. (1992). Foreword/Four Words: the corrugated iron man in Brimer, Richard. editor. Jeff Thomson: any old iron. Auckland: Icon Publishing. np.

(2) Rowe, Neil. (1992). Jeff Thomson: 10 Years (Ir)on. Brimer, Richard. Editor.
Jeff Thomson: any old iron. Auckland: Icon Publishing. np.

(3) Perry, John F. (1992). Foreword/Four Words: the corrugated iron man in Brimer,
Richard. editor. Jeff Thomson: any old iron. Auckland: Icon Publishing. np.

(4) Binney, D H. (1992). Back To The Roof Where It All Began in
Brimer, Richard. editor. Jeff Thomson: any old iron. Auckland: Icon Publishing. np.

Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (2001).