FUSE Glass Artist Residency Catalogue 2021

GLASS ARTIST RESIDENCY
Alex Valero: The Study of the Sky
30 October 2021 - 30 January 2022
Wall Gallery, Carrick Hill

Contents
Introduction 2
Donors 5
The Study of the Sky 7
Shift, and Reassemble 10
by Lara Merrington
Presenters 23
Credits 24

Introduction
JamFactory and Carrick Hill are proud
to present the 2021 FUSE Glass Artist
Residency Exhibition.
Awarded biennially in alternate years to
the FUSE Glass Prize, the FUSE Glass Artist
Residency aims to create significant
opportunities for established, mid-career
artists working in glass. The residency at
JamFactory in Adelaide enables a selected
artist to work with skilled assistants, take risks
and experiment with the development of new
work using or incorporating hot blown glass.
Adelaide-based artist Alex Valero was
selected from a competitive field of applicants
as the inaugural recipient of the FUSE Glass
Artist Residency and we are grateful to the
three judges who assessed the applications
- venerated South Australian glass artist Nick
Mount, Head of JamFactory’s Glass Studio
Kristel Britcher and Carrick Hill Director
Tony Kanellos.
Valero has spent the last 10 years working
with glass. He graduated from the University
of South Australia in 2012 and completed the
Associate Program at JamFactory in 2014. He
currently works from an independent studio
in the Adelaide CBD.
As a local artist, Valero chose to undertake
his residency over three intense blocks in
March, August and September 2021. New
work developed through the residency is the
focus of this solo exhibition presented in the
Wall Gallery at Carrick Hill from 30 October
2021 to 30 January 2022.
The FUSE Glass Artist Residency has been
developed as an extension of the successful
FUSE Glass Prize. It provides a platform to
encourage artists residing in Australia or
New Zealand working in glass, to push
themselves and their work to new limits,
and to focus significant public attention on
the importance of glass as a medium for
contemporary artistic expression. The biennial
prize, which was established by JamFactory
in 2016, is a juried, non-acquisitive, $20,000
cash prize for established artists. An
additional prize – the David Henshall
Emerging Artist Prize, valued at $5,000,
is awarded to an emerging glass artist.
fuseglassprize.com
Grave (Intra & Ultra), 2015
rod colour. Photo: Anna Fenech Harris
2

Donors
Thank you to our donors.
The FUSE Glass Prize and Residency
program is a shining example of how
collective philanthropic support can
create great opportunities for artists and
add extraordinary value to the work of
arts organisations.
The prize evolved from conversations that
began in 2014 between committed glass
art collectors Jim and Helen Carreker and
JamFactory. The FUSE Glass Prize launched
in 2016 and was funded then, as it is now,
predominantly through private philanthropy
and sponsorship.
The FUSE Glass Artist Residency Exhibition
at Carrick Hill has been made possible by the
additional generosity of Pamela Wall OAM
and Ian Wall AM who have been committed
and long-term supporters of Carrick Hill. The
new purpose-built exhibition space, in which
this exhibition is presented, was named the
Wall Gallery in their honour.
The FUSE Glass Prize is supported by the
following donors; Jim and Helen Carreker,
the Hon Diana Laidlaw AM, David McKee AM
and Pam McKee, the David & Dulcie Henshall
Foundation, Pamela Wall OAM and Ian Wall
AM, Susan Armitage, Sonia Laidlaw, Trina Ross
and Maia Ambegaokar and Joshua Bishop.
The Carrekers’ steadfast support has been
ongoing. They gifted additional funds in
2020 to enable significant evolution of the
prize – including the development of the
FUSE Glass Artist Residency in the alternate
years of the prize. Most recently the Carrekers
have very generously provided further funds
to set up an endowment that will ensure this
important new residency component will be
well supported over the next ten years.
With this latest commitment, the Carrekers’
personal philanthropic support of FUSE has
become the most significant private support
in JamFactory’s history.
Alex at work in the Glass Studio
Photo: JamFactory
5

‘The time will come when diligent research
over long periods will bring to light things
which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even
though entirely devoted to the study of the sky,
would not be enough for the investigation
of so vast a subject... And so this knowledge
will be unfolded only through the long
successive ages.... Let us be satisfied with what
we have found out, and let our descendants
also contribute something to the truth... Many
discoveries are reserved for ages still to come,
when memory of us will have been effaced.’
The Study of the Sky
The long-term future has enormous
potential. In The Study of the Sky
Adelaide-based glass artist Alex Valero
engages with ideas relating to ‘longtermism’
– a school of thought examining the effects
of our actions on humanity’s vast future.
Informed by arguments made by Australian
philosopher Toby Ord in his book The
Precipice, Valero interrogates our
existential risk, the future we are failing
to protect, and humanity’s potential
within the cosmos.
Seneca the Younger, 65CE
Corrupted by Pekka Niittyvirta

Shift,
and reassemble.
by Lara Merrington
To what ends will our minds
take us? Might we comprehend for
example that perhaps, the biggest
threat to humanity; is us?
In his infamous dystopian novel 1984 George
Orwell writes “He who controls the past
controls the future. He who controls the
present controls the past.” As humans we
are aware of time as it pertains to our own
sense of being: a past, present and future that
our minds can grasp. Presently, we might be
aware of the signs of climate emergency, of a
global pandemic, or of our increasing reliance
on digital technologies. Dictated by actions
of the past, the true consequences of these
events are still to come in the future. And our
present minds? Well, they are struggling to
comprehend.
Previous page: Before These Virtues There Is One Which Is Nameless, 2021
blown and coldworked glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
They Built The City Over The Graves, 2021
blown glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
10

In his latest solo exhibition, The Study of the
Sky, Adelaide-based artist Alex Valero
extends on the complexity of these ideas.
His physical reinterpretations, made
predominantly in the timeless medium of
glass, are a narrative tale of humanity,
time, cause and effect.
Valero first became fascinated by the medium
of glass and the challenges of working with it
through his studies at the University of South
Australia. Completing his Visual Arts degree,
with a specialisation in glass, he went on to
progress his skills in studio and production
work as a JamFactory Glass Studio Associate
in 2013–2014. A passion and skill for
experimenting with surface saw him win the
FUSE Glass Emerging Artist Prize in 2016
with his work Grave (Infra & Ultra), which he
followed up with his first solo exhibition A
Grey Mirror at JamFactory in 2017. He used
glass as the primary vessel for what would
be an ongoing exploration into the human
psyche, alongside installations of sketches,
digital media, sculpture and light.
Valero is the inaugural recipient of the FUSE
Glass Artist Residency. During his residency
at JamFactory’s Glass Studio in 2021, Valero
was afforded the freedom to experiment
and develop these previously explored
techniques. Experimenting with materials
in unconventional ways and pushing and
combining techniques, he was able to use the
glass workshop to incite new curiosities and
perspectives. Valero is an artist that has now
become recognised for his experimental
approaches and technical versatility in glass.
It is his inquisitive mind that is a key element
in the continuous drive to expand the
possibilities of the material.
Shifting from the intimate contemplations
of the mind of his earlier work, in The Study
of the Sky Valero’s practice expands and
explores bigger concepts of a collective
mind, paired with more complex installations.
His deep interest in philosophy and science
informs the objects, installations and images
on display, acting as monument and
memento to the chaotic yet utopic
possibilities of humanity.
Victory Over Craft, 2015
hot formed and coldworked glass. Photo: the artist
13

At the outset of the exhibition stands a
configuration of small, solid glass obelisks.
Representing a speculative set of virtues
we might adopt for the future survival
of civilisation, they are made from two
cylindrical, blown glass forms fused
together, one inside of the other. Their
outer surfaces are cut away with the lathe
in the cold-working process, to reveal new,
inner surfaces, or to make vulnerable the
virtue of our more honest behaviours perhaps.
In a more literal approach, the three wall
mounted tablets Before These Virtues There
Is One Which Is Nameless similarly suggest a
set of rules for humanity, however these are
informed by the past. The Litany of Tarski, the
Litany of Gendlin, and the Twelve Virtues of
Rationality are formulations on the imperative
to love truth over falsehood.
Moving through a sort-of disjointed
chronology, the exhibition starts to evoke
a David Lynch-like scenography–a surreal
sort of alternate reality. Yet, for all of Valero’s
scientific interest-it is not science fiction he
is channelling here. Speculative realities,
notions of collapse and resurgence, are not
far from our present and past realities. There
is a sense of being a witness, or maybe a
pawn, in something bigger than us. Are
we on the edge of it, or has it already
taken place?
Megaannum Conference, 2021
blown and coldworked glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
14

Alex at work in the Glass Studio
Photo: JamFactory
The Built The Graves Over The City, 2021
blown glass. Photo: Grant Hancock

Glowing invitingly, the grouping of chalices
filled with uranium glass are a tempting,
yet ominous invitation to drink. That
poisoned apple analogy taps into a human
weakness for short-term desire over long
term fulfilment. More broadly, there is a
reference towards our unstable futures in
direct relation to our consumerist present.
Like the grand overseer of the exhibition,
Red Noise, a galaxy of kilnformed hexagons,
is both commanding in scale, and in its
reference to our place in the cosmos. Moving
us out of the mind and back to the physical
body, it is a reminder that we are but dust in
an unfathomable expanse. Waste, reiterates
this feeling. Great Waste arranged upon the
wall resemble the collage of images seen in
the Hubble Deep Field. Lustre beseeches
darkness. Despair is cloaked in glimmerings
of hope. A distorted reflection of the self
in another time perhaps? Or a glimpse into
another reality? Valero is referencing Nick
Bostrom’s concept of Astronomical Waste.
The final work, providing some relief, brings us
back to earth and our roots, Ghost Procession,
an egg-shaped vessel signifies our debt to
past generations.
Ultimately, Valero asks us to question our
human part within a chaotic contemporary
world. Far from the Orwellian dystopia of
1984, instead he proposes suspicions for
humanity’s potential to flourish, should we
think about it right. Motivated by a concern
for the long-term future of humanity, he
provides us with small monuments for larger
contemplations. Do we have an obligation
to be good ancestors or stewards of our
biosphere? What is the potential for the
long-term future of humanity? Can we shift?
Reassemble? And if so, are we up to
the challenge?
Previous Page: Red Noise, 2021
cast and kiln-fired glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
Hivemelt, 2021
blown and coldworked glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
20

Presenters
JamFactory
JamFactory is a unique not-for-profit
organisation located in the Adelaide city
centre and at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa.
It is recognised nationally and internationally
as a centre for excellence in glass, ceramics,
furniture and metal design.
JamFactory’s shops, exhibitions, public
programs and touring exhibitions promote
the best Australian craft and design talent.
All purchases made from JamFactory directly
support our training and exhibition program.
JamFactory’s Glass Studio is the longest
running hot glass facility in Australia and one
of the largest and best equipped studios in
the Southern Hemisphere. Associates and
staff, guided by current Studio Head Kristel
Britcher, work together to design and make
corporate awards and gifts, custom one-off
commissions, architectural work and small
production runs. Associates are also mentored
in the development of their own work and are
exposed to the many professional artists who
use the facility to create their work. Through
its Associate training program JamFactory
has trained well over 100 glass artists from
across Australia and around the world.
Carrick Hill
Carrick Hill is a significant South Australian
cultural icon and tourism attraction. It
comprises a major heritage building, being
the previous home of Sir Edward and Lady
Ursula Hayward, now an exquisite house
museum displaying an internationally
significant art and furniture collection.
The house sits within a 40 hectare estate,
part landscaped and part native bushland;
with original subsidiary buildings such as
stables and eclectic sculptures scattered
throughout the rambling grounds and
gardens; The property is located close to
the city of Adelaide, in the Adelaide foothills,
with spectacular views stretching to Gulf
St Vincent.
Carrick Hill is fortunate to be one of the
few period homes in Australia to survive
with its original contents almost completely
intact and its grounds undiminished. The
collection contains many significant
architectural and decorative glass objects
including items from Tiffany and Lalique.
In 2021 a new exhibition space – the Wall
Gallery – was created in the loft of the main
house as part of major renovations
COMM, 2017
hot sculpted and coldworked glass. Photo: Grant Hancock
23

First Published in Adelaide, Australia in 2021.
Published to coincide with the 2021 FUSE Glass
Artist Residency Exhibition, The Study of the Sky,
shown at the Wall Gallery, Carrick Hill, Adelaide
from 30 October 2021 - 30 January 2022.
Published by JamFactory, 19 Morphett Street,
Adelaide SA 5000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means
without the prior permission in writing from
the publisher. Please forward all enquiries to
contact@jamfactory.com.au
© JamFactory, 2021
Copyright for texts in this publication is held by
JamFactory and the authors. Copyright on all
works of art featured belongs to the individual
artist. All images, unless otherwise credited,
are courtesy of the artists. Copyright for
photographic images is held by the individual
photographers as acknowledged.
ISBN 978-0-6483290-9-1
Exhibition Curator: Rebecca Freezer
Essay: Lara Merrington
Catalogue Designer: Sophie Guiney
JamFactory supports and promotes outstanding
contemporary craft and design through its widely
acclaimed studios, galleries and shops. A unique
not-for-profit organisation located in the
Adelaide city centre and Seppeltsfield in the
Barossa. JamFactory is supported by the South
Australian Government and recognised both
nationally and internationally as a centre
for excellence.
JamFactory acknowledges the support of the
South Australian Government through the
Department of Innovation and Skills and the
assistance of the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy,
an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory
Governments. JamFactory’s Exhibitions Program
is also assisted by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council.
JamFactory gratefully acknowledges the
generous donors of the 2021 FUSE Glass Artist
Residency; Jim and Helen Carreker
and Pamela Wall OAM and Ian Wall AM
and the FUSE Glass Prize; Jim and Helen Carreker,
the Hon Diana Laidlaw AM, David McKee AM
and Pam McKee, the David & Dulcie Henshall
Foundation, Pamela Wall OAM and Ian Wall AM,
Susan Armitage, Sonia Laidlaw, Trina Ross and
Maia Ambegaokar and Joshua Bishop.
JamFactory also acknowledges the generosity
of the supporting sponsors and presenting
partners for the 2021 FUSE Glass Artist Residency:
24