Martin Maass knew it was time to leave South Africa when one of his best friends was killed by a gang of thieves. Five years earlier, Maass was shot at when he tried to save an old man's life. Nigel Benson meets an artist who came to New Zealand to be free.
Martin Maass has made a rainbow-coloured splash since he arrived in Dunedin less than two years ago.
The 32-year-old South African artist had only been in Dunedin for nine months when he won the 2007 Otago Art Society's Edinburgh Realty Premier Art Award last August.
His winning entry, The Key, told the story and reasons behind his emigration to Dunedin from Johannesburg.
Judge Les Cleveland described the painting as "magnificent".
"It showed tremendous feeling. It was almost ethereal," Mr Cleveland said.
The painting featured Maass as a handcuffed artist holding a New Zealand key.
"It was the first time I had done a self-portrait. I wanted it to be my introduction to Dunedin," he says.
"I had a beautiful studio in Johannesburg. It was surrounded by trees and birds and animals. But I had to look out the window through burglar bars. I didn't feel free as an artist to be creative. That's why I painted myself with handcuffs. What can an artist do with his hands behind his back?" he asks.
"In August, 2006, a very dear friend of mine was shot and killed in Midrand, Johannesburg. He was in his garage making a dining-room table and they just came in and shot him. They then tried to burgle his house, but they couldn't get inside. They'll take your life for a cellphone over there. It's getting worse, too.
"I've been shot at in South Africa. In 2001, I was coming over a hill in my car and saw a struggle. There were three black chaps kicking an elderly white man lying on the side of the road. I drove at them with my car and one guy shot two times at me. Both shots went through the car windows. I just went flat under the dashboard and then drove off," he recalls.
"It's ridiculous. That's the reason my parents didn't feel safe there. Part of the reason I came here was for safety reasons, too."
Maass' parents, Jacques and Irene Steyn, emigrated to Mosgiel from South Africa seven years ago.
He came to New Zealand to visit them in 2004, before returning to live in November 2006, with partner Brendan van den Berg (31), who is senior stage manager at the Fortune Theatre.
"We did a lot of travelling when we first got here. It was important to me to see what was happening with the art scene here. I was amazed. It's much more alive than in South Africa. Theatre is much bigger here, too," he says.
"When we first came over, we thought we'd go back, because we had another movie to do. But we love it here and decided to just leave it all behind. New Zealand is a very inspiring place to be an artist."
Two weeks ago, Maass won his second successive Edinburgh Realty Premier Art Award with Free to be Free, the second in a trilogy on his life journey.
"I finished it on Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday on July 18, so I put his cell number 46664 in it as a tribute," he says.
"I like to tweak things a little bit and give it a message. I need to leave some of my soul or a message in it, which will be discovered at a later date."
Maass grew up in Klerksdorp, in the Northwest Province, before studying graphic design at the Tswane University of Technology in Pretoria.
"The first drawing I remember doing was when I was 6 years old. I just fell in love with it," he says.
"But, I didn't do much art when I was studying. I fell in love with it again a few years ago and started to slowly get into painting and drawing again."
In 1999, he founded the Merzbau Studio Company in Johannesburg with van den Berg.
"We used ageing techniques to make houses and buildings look like they'd been there for hundreds of years," he says.
"We also specialised in things like gilding and murals and corporate signage."
By 2006, the pair had caught the eye of the television and movie industries.
"We started to freelance in the television and movie industry. I was a set designer on programmes like the BBC series Wild at Heart, the South African version of The Apprentice and Jozi H, which is a bit like Shortland Street."
A big break came when he and van den Berg were hired as scenic artists on the blockbuster movie Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
"He was really cool. He went out with me and Brendan and some friends one night so he could pick up on our South African accents. That was a really fun experience. His accent wasn't too good at the start, but by the end of the movie he felt like my brother."
The pair also worked on the movie 10,000BC, which was filmed in Cape Town, Namibia and Wanaka.
Maass is, by nature and design, a chameleon artist.
In 2000, he was commissioned to design a series of South African stamps and he has also designed shoes for South African fashion designer Clive Rindle and illustrated a book, Crazy about Cats.
"You are forced to be a jack-of-all-trades in South Africa. You are competing with 35 million people to make a living there.
"I've always done bits and pieces. I see myself as a versatile artist: From a stamp to a movie set. I like to explore all that and everything in between."
A recent work for the 2008 Hope and Sons Exhibition, Hope, was created by sprinkling natural and colour-treated human hair on a canvas.
He brings out a container filled with plastic pockets of finely-cut coloured hair.
"Feel it," he says.
It feels like silken water.
"My favourite medium is acrylic. I love working in acrylic. You can dry-brush, or use it as washes. It's a fabulous medium to work with."
Maass works as a visual merchandiser at designer homeware company Acquisitions in Dunedin and is also the graphic designer for the company's 10 New Zealand stores.
"I don't want to go back to South Africa, except to visit. South Africa is a very beautiful country. The contrast in landscapes is beautiful. I'm a leaf blowing in the wind. But, I want to make New Zealand my home now."
Maass is working towards his first solo exhibition, which he hopes to complete later this year.
He also has the third painting in his Key and Born to be Free trilogy planned for next year.
"You'll have to wait and see what that's about," he smiles.
The 2008 Edinburgh Realty Premier Arts Awards exhibition, featuring Maass' winning entry Free to be Free, is on at the Otago Art Society's Art Station until the end of August.
Free to be Free, by Martin Maass.Free to be Free, by Martin Maass.The aged look around this window on a house in South Africa was created by Maass, as part of a business he ran there.Imaginary friends in a young boy's bedroom
painted by Maass.Martin Maass in his Dunedin studio. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
