FUSE Catalogue 2024
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>2024</strong>
Contents<br />
Introduction 2<br />
Donors 6<br />
Judges 8<br />
Through the looking glass: 2022 - <strong>2024</strong> 12<br />
by Caroline Field<br />
Emerging Category Finalists<br />
Madeline Cardone 44<br />
Hamish Donaldson 46<br />
Alexandra Hirst 48<br />
Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan 50<br />
Ember Satyn 52<br />
Carman Skeehan 54<br />
Established Category Finalists<br />
Kate Baker 58<br />
Clare Belfrage 60<br />
Annette Blair 62<br />
Mel Douglas 64<br />
Hannah Gason 66<br />
Katie-Ann Houghton 68<br />
Tom Moore 70<br />
Nick Mount 72<br />
Ian Mowbray 74<br />
Kirstie Rea 76<br />
Layla Walter 78<br />
Kathryn Wightman 80<br />
Credits 82
Introduction<br />
JamFactory is proud to present the<br />
<strong>2024</strong> <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize.<br />
The biennial <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize is a juried,<br />
non-acquisitive, $20,000 cash prize for<br />
established artists residing in Australia or<br />
New Zealand working in the field of glass.<br />
An additional prize – the David Henshall<br />
Emerging Artist Prize, comprising of $5,000<br />
cash and a professional development<br />
residency in JamFactory’s Glass Studio<br />
valued at a further $5,000, is awarded to an<br />
emerging glass artist. The <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize<br />
was established in 2016 and the winners of<br />
the established category to date have been<br />
Clare Belfrage (2016), Jessica Loughlin (2018),<br />
Cobi Cockburn (2020) and Matthew Curtis<br />
(2022). Winners of the emerging category<br />
to date are Alex Valero (2016), Ursula Halpin<br />
(2018), Madisyn Zabel (2020) and Bronte<br />
Cormican-Jones (2022).<br />
The <strong>2024</strong> <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize attracted a record<br />
101 entries from artists across Australia and<br />
New Zealand including a great many of the<br />
most accomplished and highly regarded<br />
artists working with glass in the region. This<br />
encouraging response made the short-listing<br />
of finalists more difficult than ever before.<br />
JamFactory is enormously grateful for the<br />
efforts of the <strong>2024</strong> judging panel: Rhana<br />
Devenport, Grace Lai, Aimee Frodsham,<br />
Matthew Curtis and Brian Parkes who<br />
assessed the applications and selected the<br />
twelve finalists in the Established Category<br />
and six finalists in the Emerging Category<br />
via video conference, and who have<br />
come together face to face in Adelaide to<br />
physically examine the finalists’ works to<br />
select this year’s winners.<br />
Information about the <strong>2024</strong> winners will<br />
be broadly circulated and available on the<br />
dedicated website fuseglassprize.com<br />
following a formal announcement on 9 May.<br />
The <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize provides a platform to<br />
encourage artists working in glass to push<br />
themselves and their work to new limits and<br />
to focus significant public attention on the<br />
importance of glass as a medium for<br />
contemporary artistic expression. Australian<br />
and New Zealand artists have established a<br />
global reputation for technical innovation<br />
and daring creativity in glass. The high calibre<br />
and broad range of formal, technical and<br />
conceptual approaches represented in the<br />
work of the 18 finalists this year continues to<br />
provide strong evidence of the strength of the<br />
practice in our region.<br />
The <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize is an important<br />
initiative for JamFactory and in 2021 we were<br />
thrilled to extend the program and launch the<br />
<strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Artist Residency, which is offered<br />
every alternative year of the Prize and aims<br />
to create significant opportunities for<br />
2
Carman Skeehan, Sunday Morning (detail), 2023<br />
Photo: Connor Patterson
Annette Blair, In stillness (detail), <strong>2024</strong><br />
Photo: Adam McGrath<br />
4
established, mid-career artists working in<br />
glass. The residency at JamFactory enables a<br />
selected artist to work with skilled assistants,<br />
take risks and experiment with new work<br />
using or incorporating hot blown glass.<br />
Alex Valero was the inaugural recipient of<br />
the Residency in 2021 and in 2023 it was<br />
awarded to Marcel Hoogstad Hay.<br />
In 2020 we expanded the <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize<br />
catalogue to include a major commissioned<br />
essay surveying developments in the field of<br />
glass art in Australia and New Zealand over<br />
the previous two years. The author of that<br />
essay was Margot Osborne, author of the<br />
landmark 2005 publication Australian Glass<br />
Today and we are confident that this biennial<br />
series of essays will form a valuable archive<br />
for students, artists, collectors and<br />
researchers in the years to come. In 2022<br />
we commissioned Powerhouse Museum<br />
Curator, Eva Czernis-Ryl to write the essay<br />
and this year we were delighted to engage<br />
Caroline Field, Curator of the Australian<br />
Catholic University Art Collection and<br />
passionate advocate for glass art, to compile<br />
a wonderfully comprehensive overview filled<br />
with spectacular highlights for the sector<br />
over the past two years.<br />
JamFactory is a unique not-for-profit<br />
organisation located in the Adelaide city<br />
centre and at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa.<br />
It is recognised nationally and internationally<br />
as a centre for excellence in glass, ceramics,<br />
furniture and metal design. JamFactory’s<br />
Glass Studio is the longest running hot glass<br />
facility in Australia and one of the largest<br />
and best equipped studios in the Southern<br />
Hemisphere. Associates (who are undertaking<br />
our unique training program) and staff,<br />
guided by current Studio Head Kristel<br />
Britcher, work together to design and make<br />
corporate awards and gifts, custom one-off<br />
commissions, architectural work and small<br />
production runs. Associates are also mentored<br />
in the development of their own work and are<br />
exposed to the many professional artists who<br />
use the facility to create their work. Through<br />
its Associate Training Program JamFactory<br />
has trained well over 100 glass artists from<br />
across Australia and around the world.<br />
This publication accompanies an exhibition<br />
of the same works at JamFactory in Adelaide<br />
from 10 May to 7 July <strong>2024</strong>; at the School<br />
of Art and Design Gallery at the Australian<br />
National University in Canberra from 8<br />
August to 6 September <strong>2024</strong>; and at<br />
Australian Design Centre in Sydney from<br />
3 October to 13 November <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
fuseglassprize.com
Donors<br />
Thank you to our donors and partners.<br />
The <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize is a truly shining<br />
example of how collective philanthropic<br />
support can create great opportunities for<br />
artists and add extraordinary value to the<br />
work of arts organisations. The prize<br />
evolved from conversations that began in<br />
2014 between passionate glass art collectors<br />
Jim and Helen Carreker and JamFactory.<br />
The prize launched in 2016 and was funded<br />
then, as it is now, entirely through private<br />
philanthropy and sponsorship.<br />
The Carrekers’ steadfast support has been<br />
ongoing. They gifted additional funds in 2020<br />
to enable significant evolution of the prize –<br />
including the development of the <strong>FUSE</strong><br />
Glass Artist Residency in the alternate years<br />
of the prize. The Carrekers subsequently<br />
provided further funds through Foundation<br />
SA to set up an endowment that will ensure<br />
this important residency component will be<br />
well supported until at least 2030.<br />
Along with the Carrekers, we also want to<br />
particularly acknowledge the ongoing<br />
support of the Hon Diana Laidlaw AM,<br />
another founding donor who has continuously<br />
supported the prize since 2016 and who has<br />
so helpfully assisted in enlisting additional<br />
donors for the prize. We also acknowledge<br />
the ongoing generosity and enthusiasm of<br />
David McKee AM and Pam McKee as well<br />
as Susan Armitage, Sonia Laidlaw,<br />
Maia Ambegaokar and Joshua Bishop<br />
and we warmly welcome new <strong>FUSE</strong> donor<br />
and long-time supporter of JamFactory<br />
Nicholas Linke.<br />
We are also very grateful for support since<br />
2020 from the David & Dulcie Henshall<br />
Foundation, who have generously<br />
supported the Emerging Artist Category<br />
of <strong>FUSE</strong> through the David Henshall<br />
Emerging Artist Prize – in honour of the<br />
late David Henshall who was so committed<br />
to nurturing emerging talent.<br />
The <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Artist Residency award<br />
noted above includes the presentation of a<br />
solo exhibition by the award recipient at the<br />
iconic South Australian house museum<br />
Carrick Hill, made possible by the generosity<br />
of Pamela Wall OAM and her late husband<br />
Ian Wall AM who began supporting the<br />
<strong>FUSE</strong> program in 2018.<br />
This generous group of donors has<br />
contributed funds for the prizes as well as<br />
the significant marketing and program<br />
costs, enabling JamFactory to continue<br />
to confidently promote this award as<br />
Australasia’s richest prize for artists working<br />
in glass. For artists, audiences and collectors<br />
who are drawn to glass, there are many great<br />
benefits arising from the continuing growth<br />
of this wonderful prize and we, once again,<br />
offer our sincere thanks to this group of<br />
visionary donors.<br />
JamFactory is also very grateful for the<br />
contribution of supporting sponsors – Sofitel<br />
Adelaide, The Louise luxury accommodation<br />
in the Barossa and Seppeltsfield Wines.<br />
6
Mel Douglas, Overshadow I, II, III (detail), <strong>2024</strong><br />
Photo: David Paterson
Judges<br />
Matthew Curtis<br />
Glass Artist<br />
2022 <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize Winner<br />
Matthew Curtis has developed a rigorous<br />
material-based practice, focussed on the<br />
shifting qualities of glass. His affinity,<br />
dexterity, and experience are extensive<br />
and experimental. He researches and<br />
experiments with unconventional<br />
approaches, extending traditional<br />
techniques. Curtis was introduced to<br />
glassblowing through an informal<br />
apprenticeship, assisting at Denizen<br />
Glass in Sydney in the early 90’s. Since<br />
then, he has exhibited extensively. His<br />
work is regularly curated into exhibitions<br />
and International Art Fairs. He is based<br />
in Queanbeyan, NSW, working from a<br />
home-studio where he and his partner<br />
Harriet Schwarzrock run a vibrant<br />
glassblowing studio.<br />
Rhana Devenport ONZM<br />
Director<br />
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide<br />
Rhana Devenport ONZM began her tenure as<br />
Director of Art Gallery of South Australia in<br />
2018. She was previously Director of the<br />
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2013-2018)<br />
and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye<br />
Centre (2006-2013), both in Aotearoa New<br />
Zealand. Devenport is a curator, writer and<br />
cultural producer whose career spans art<br />
museums, biennales and arts festivals. She<br />
has held positions with the Biennale of Sydney<br />
and Sydney Festival and was Senior Project<br />
Officer with the Asia Pacific Triennial of<br />
Contemporary Art at Queensland Art Gallery |<br />
Gallery of Modern Art from 1994 to 2004.<br />
Devenport was a Curatorial Advisor for the<br />
Aichi Triennale 2022: Still Alive. In 2017<br />
Devenport was the Curator for New Zealand’s<br />
Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia with Lisa<br />
Reihana: Emissaries. Internationally Devenport<br />
contributes actively to advisory and selection<br />
committees including the Mori Art Museum<br />
International Advisory Committee and the<br />
Taishin Arts Award, <strong>2024</strong>. In 2018 she received<br />
The New Zealand Order of Merit by Her<br />
Majesty the Queen for her contribution to<br />
arts governance.<br />
8
Aimee Frodsham<br />
Artistic Director<br />
Canberra Glassworks, Kingston<br />
Aimee Frodsham is the Artistic Director<br />
at Canberra Glassworks, a role she<br />
has held since 2018. Supported by<br />
the dedicated Glassworks team,<br />
she oversees the exhibitions, artist<br />
residencies, studio access, education,<br />
community engagement and<br />
commissioning areas, working closely<br />
with a team of independent skilled<br />
glass makers. Frodsham is a curator,<br />
producer and project manager with<br />
an expertise in glass making and<br />
contemporary Australia art, craft and<br />
design. After graduating from ANU<br />
Canberra School of Art in the late 90’s,<br />
she moved to London and began working<br />
at the V&A Museum and then at Tate in<br />
the role of Collection Planning Manager,<br />
a job that spanned all four of Tate’s<br />
galleries. Since returning to Australia<br />
in 2015, she has embedded herself in<br />
the glass making community at<br />
Canberra Glassworks.
Judges<br />
Grace Lai<br />
Curator of Applied Arts & Design<br />
Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War<br />
Memorial Museum, Auckland<br />
Guided by curiosity, Grace Lai is an art<br />
historian and curator interested in<br />
uncovering stories held by objects<br />
overlooked or dismissed by history.<br />
Positioning material culture as a decoder<br />
of the immaterial, her research seeks to<br />
untangle the complex web of connections,<br />
histories, and social structures inherited by<br />
objects in the hopes of addressing issues<br />
that remain relevant not only to museums<br />
and their collections but also to society<br />
today. Lai has published extensively<br />
on contemporary craft, with a focus on<br />
studio glass, contemporary jewellery,<br />
and surface design. In 2019, Lai curated<br />
Carried Away: Bags Unpacked, a survey<br />
of the carrier bags across culture and time.<br />
Currently, Grace is the Curator of Applied<br />
Arts & Design at Tāmaki Paenga Hira<br />
Auckland War Memorial Museum where<br />
she leads the exhibition, development,<br />
and research of a nationally significant<br />
archive of craft from Aotearoa New<br />
Zealand and abroad.<br />
Brian Parkes<br />
Chief Executive Officer<br />
JamFactory, Adelaide<br />
Brian Parkes has been CEO at<br />
JamFactory in Adelaide since April<br />
2010. He has overseen significant<br />
development of the organisation’s<br />
exhibition and training programs and<br />
substantial growth in its audience and<br />
operational budget. He is passionate<br />
about the social, cultural and<br />
economic value of contemporary art,<br />
craft and design and has worked in senior<br />
curatorial and commercial management<br />
roles in the Australian cultural sector<br />
for over 30 years, including stints at the<br />
Australian Design Centre, the Museum of<br />
Contemporary Art and the National<br />
Gallery of Australia. He has curated<br />
numerous exhibitions focused on<br />
contemporary Australian craft and<br />
design including the first national survey<br />
of contemporary design; Freestyle: new<br />
Australian design for living in 2006 and<br />
has remained active in mentoring and<br />
supporting emerging artists, designers<br />
and creative entrepreneurs over the past<br />
two decades.<br />
10
Through the looking glass: 2022-<strong>2024</strong><br />
by Caroline Field<br />
This article provides a brief chronology of<br />
events and achievements in contemporary<br />
glass art in Australia and Aotearoa New<br />
Zealand between March 2022 and March<br />
<strong>2024</strong>, the latter being the date of the<br />
announcement of the <strong>2024</strong> <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass<br />
Prize. The piece highlights the successes of<br />
outstanding glass artists during this period,<br />
as well as the introduction of innovative<br />
techniques in glass art, the major exhibitions<br />
and the rapidly evolving landscape.<br />
The United Nations (UN) declared 2022<br />
the International Year of Glass (IYoG), after<br />
the General Assembly approved a joint<br />
application by the International Commission<br />
on Glass, the Community of Glass<br />
Associations and ICOM Glass. 1 The opening<br />
ceremony, held at the Palace of Nations in<br />
Geneva between 10 and 11 February 2022,<br />
featured 30 esteemed speakers and was<br />
streamed globally. Receiving 3,100 views<br />
from 66 countries on the first day and 4,211<br />
views from 72 countries on the second, the<br />
ceremony included talks that centred on<br />
glass’s significance, including its role in<br />
fostering just and sustainable communities,<br />
its impact on art and history, recent scientific<br />
advancements and its representation<br />
in museums.<br />
Global activities associated with the IYoG<br />
celebrated glass across various fields,<br />
including historical and contemporary studio<br />
and public art glass, science, technology,<br />
architecture and sustainability. The IYoG<br />
steering committee highlighted the<br />
significance of this global recognition of<br />
glass in uniting artists, institutions and<br />
organisations worldwide. One notable event<br />
was the sixtieth anniversary of the North<br />
American Studio Glass movement, a<br />
commemoration that included a National<br />
Day of Glass event in Washington, DC. 2<br />
While the IYoG was a global success, the<br />
event planning in Australia, led by Dr<br />
Bronwyn Hughes, faced challenges due to<br />
time constraints caused by delays in the<br />
initial UN endorsement. Assembling resources<br />
and government funding for comprehensive<br />
programs in the Oceania region (Australia,<br />
Aotearoa New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia,<br />
Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the<br />
Philippines) proved difficult. 3<br />
At the local level, organisations continued to<br />
advance both the profile of glass art and the<br />
education of a new generation of glass artists.<br />
The newly appointed CEO of Canberra<br />
Glassworks, Elizabeth Rogers, set to work<br />
on goals and strategies that would boost<br />
the organisation’s performance in education,<br />
exhibitions, facilities and retail, while also<br />
fostering industry and public engagement.<br />
At the top of her agenda was establishing<br />
Canberra Glassworks as a premier hub for<br />
national and international contemporary<br />
glass art. Despite disruptions due to the<br />
legacy impact of COVID-19, she anticipated<br />
an exciting year, with the resumption of public<br />
programs and classes, the reopening of the<br />
Tom Rowney, Cherry Low Form - Tesserae Series, 2022<br />
Photo: Adam McGrath<br />
12
etail area and the reinstatement of<br />
the artist-in-residency program.<br />
Meanwhile, JamFactory, in Adelaide,<br />
continued to support and nurture<br />
contemporary glass practice. Under the<br />
leadership of Kristel Britcher, its Glass Studio,<br />
through its Associate Program, maintained<br />
a strong focus on career development and<br />
training for emerging artists and designers<br />
working in hot glass. Post-pandemic,<br />
demand has grown for bespoke commissions<br />
and the manufacturing and production of<br />
glassware. The biennial <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize<br />
and the related glass artist residency<br />
continues to be a strategically important<br />
program for the organisation.<br />
Glass also features prominently in<br />
JamFactory’s retail, exhibition and touring<br />
programs. One notable project was the<br />
14-venue national tour of the JamFactory<br />
ICON exhibition, Tom Moore: Abundant<br />
Wonder, spanning three years, which<br />
concluded in September 2023 and was<br />
viewed by more than 70,000 visitors<br />
across the country.<br />
Gabriella Bisetto, senior lecturer in<br />
contemporary art at UniSA Creative, noted<br />
a post-COVID slowdown in enrolments,<br />
prompting a suspension of Pilchuck Glass<br />
School scholarships. Nonetheless, sculptural<br />
practice graduates, particularly Sally Craven,<br />
demonstrated innovative glass approaches in<br />
the 2022 New Glass Review. Bisetto also<br />
highlighted the impact of the upcoming<br />
UniSA and University of Adelaide ‘merger’,<br />
resulting in course consolidation. Elective<br />
courses, including glass, are now offered<br />
only once a year instead of twice,<br />
temporarily reducing student enrolment<br />
in specific mediums. 4<br />
Andrew Lavery, co-director and co-chair of<br />
the Sydney College of the Arts, acknowledged<br />
the college’s resilience during COVID-19.<br />
Despite a move to new premises just before<br />
the pandemic, the college maintained<br />
teaching in all disciplines, including ceramics,<br />
glass and jewellery. Notably, there was<br />
unexpected sustained interest from<br />
international students, possibly driven by a<br />
desire to pursue degrees in a time of limited<br />
options. With online courses having been<br />
implemented, by 2022 the situation had<br />
improved, leading to financial stability. 5<br />
Jeffrey Sarmiento, a senior lecturer at ANU<br />
College of Arts and Social Sciences, arrived in<br />
Canberra in early 2022, after initially teaching<br />
online from the UK. Reflecting on 2022–23,<br />
he highlighted the transition from virtual to<br />
tangible outcomes, emphasising students’<br />
dedication to glasswork using traditional<br />
techniques such as glassblowing alongside<br />
more recent casting processes and digital<br />
technologies. Sarmiento has brought his<br />
expertise in digital technologies to teaching,<br />
for example, waterjet cutting and glass 3D<br />
printing, inspiring a new mindset in Australian<br />
glass artist students:<br />
From my experience abroad, UK and the<br />
USA, the influence of digital and fabrication<br />
technologies in glass has been impressive,<br />
JamFactory Glass Studio, Adelaide<br />
Photo: Connor Patterson. Courtesy of JamFactory<br />
14
16
and these areas are making big developments<br />
in Australian Contemporary Glass. With the<br />
new glass 3D printing machine produced by<br />
Maple Glass Printing, which enables glass 3D<br />
with recycled glass, this new technology is<br />
available to a wide range of practitioners –<br />
including students! 6<br />
Donna Kennedy, director at Glaas Inc,<br />
highlighted the global resurgence of warm<br />
and stained glass, confirming a partnership<br />
between Glaas Inc and Melbourne<br />
Polytechnic, which has received a significant<br />
Victorian Government grant, of $950,000.<br />
The Polytechnic’s courses, which cover<br />
various aspects – from safety to<br />
sandblasting, lead lighting to stained glass,<br />
painting on glass to preservation, heritage<br />
and innovation – were transforming the<br />
institution into a vibrant hub for glass art.<br />
Workshops and exhibitions with a First<br />
Nations focus are also offered. 7<br />
Canberra artist Mel Douglas had a remarkable<br />
year in 2022. In February, she was a finalist for<br />
the prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize<br />
for her work Deviation (2020). Her meticulous<br />
glasswork explored the fusion of drawing and<br />
three-dimensional objects to create an illusion<br />
of depth through cutting, kiln-forming and<br />
hand-engraving. She later travelled to Korea’s<br />
Seoul Museum of Craft Art as a Craft Prize<br />
finalist, taught at Corning Studio in New York,<br />
and showcased solo exhibitions at Traver<br />
Gallery, in Seattle, and Sabbia Gallery, in<br />
Sydney.<br />
In February 2022 Melbourne artist Holly Grace<br />
also launched a highly successful<br />
exhibition, A Lost Song, at Sabbia Gallery,<br />
her elegant, refined work exploring textural<br />
engraving and the transfer of imagery onto<br />
glass. The central concerns of the work were<br />
loss and discovery, reflecting recent cultural<br />
and environmental events. Jacqueline<br />
Bradley’s exhibition The Tender, held at<br />
Canberra Glassworks, inspired audiences with<br />
her wearable sculptures and performances<br />
exploring the human bond with nature<br />
through a series of installations. Her carefully<br />
crafted glass peaches were intricately<br />
designed, and focused on the symbolic<br />
representation of peaches across seasons,<br />
depicting their growth, decay and historical<br />
significance. This body of work was developed<br />
during her residency at Canberra Glassworks.<br />
Te Rongo Kirkwood, a Māori artist<br />
working in kiln-formed, cold-worked glass,<br />
presented her deeply moving work Te Rangi<br />
i totongia a Tamatekapua (2022) during the<br />
Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition on Waiheke<br />
Island, following her residency at New<br />
Zealand Glassworks Te Whare Tūhua o Te Ao,<br />
in Whanganui. Perpetual Guardian Sculpture<br />
on the Gulf adorned the awe-inspiring coastal<br />
walkway that overlooks Matiatia Harbour – a<br />
gateway to Waiheke Island. At just over two<br />
metres high, Kirkwood’s sculpture revisited a<br />
historical clash between Tainui and Arawa for<br />
control of Waiheke. The towering basalt<br />
formation, in four sections, incorporates a<br />
Māori worldview, which anchors tupuna<br />
(ancestors), whakapapa (existential links<br />
between all things) wairua (life force) and<br />
Jacqueline Bradley’s exhibition The Tender installed at Canberra Glassworks, 2022<br />
Photo: Brenton McGeachie
the relationship between the past, present<br />
and future. Encased red glass discs symbolise<br />
the conflict between Tainui and Arawa<br />
commanders, who were vying for control of<br />
their tribal groups iwi. Hoturua of Tainui and<br />
Tamatekapua of Arawa both claimed to have<br />
been the first to establish a sacred altar on<br />
the volcanic island, leading to a dispute.<br />
Hoturua defeated Tamatekapua, drawing<br />
blood and asserting Tainui’s dominance,<br />
resulting in the island being named ‘Te<br />
Rangi i totongia a Tamatekapua’ (the day<br />
Tamatekapua shed blood).<br />
In March, celebrated Canberra artist Kirstie<br />
Rea presented an extensive solo exhibition,<br />
The Breadth of Stillness, at Japan’s Toyama<br />
Glass Art Museum. The exhibition, which<br />
comprised recent work alongside a fourdecade<br />
retrospective, received funding from<br />
the Australia Council for the Arts and the ACT<br />
Government, as well as official support from<br />
the Australian Embassy in Tokyo and the<br />
Japan–Australia–New Zealand Association<br />
of Toyama. Featuring more than 50 glass<br />
sculptures and installations, the exhibition<br />
included pieces from The Folded Series,<br />
reflecting nature’s softness, and The Rake<br />
Series, illustrating farming’s impact on the<br />
land. These artworks underscore her respect<br />
for place and the interconnectedness of<br />
humanity and the environment. The exhibition<br />
was accompanied by a handsomely<br />
produced catalogue.<br />
New Zealand artist Vicki Fanning presented<br />
her mesmerising exhibition, Upon a Moment,<br />
at Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua, in<br />
Whanganui, in May 2022. The display featured<br />
three large-scale sculptures crafted from<br />
polycarbonate and flame-worked Borosilicate<br />
glass, inspired by designs from the Wanganui<br />
Glass Company dating to around 1922. Emma<br />
Bugden, strategic lead of Creative Arts at<br />
Whanganui & Partners, noted that Fanning’s<br />
work ‘was part of a growing trend among<br />
New Zealand glass artists exploring<br />
large-scale installations’. She added, ‘The<br />
district also witnessed a creative shift in the<br />
development of an indigenous glass language,<br />
with Māori artists like Te Rongo Kirkwood,<br />
Mike Crawford, and Claudine Muru shaping<br />
the industry’. 8<br />
In the same month, artist Matthew Curtis<br />
from Queanbeyan, New South Wales (NSW),<br />
secured the JamFactory’s non-acquisitive<br />
2022 <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize, and was awarded<br />
the major $20,000 cash prize. Margin (2022)<br />
impressed Judge Cobi Cockburn with its<br />
‘totemic sculptural’ form, showcasing a<br />
profound understanding of glass properties<br />
and a play of light, colour, and translucency as<br />
one moves around it’. 9 Another award-winner,<br />
Sydney-based artist Bronte Cormican-Jones<br />
won the David Henshall Emerging Artist<br />
Prize, receiving $2,500 and a JamFactory<br />
residency, for Sightlines (2020). An artist<br />
and writer, Cormican-Jones explores spatial<br />
dynamics in her sculptural installations and<br />
performances and is intrigued by materials<br />
such as glass for its transparency and lightreflection<br />
qualities, as well as its influence<br />
on architecture and perception of space.<br />
Vicki Fanning’s exhibition Upon a Moment installed at Sarjeant on the Quay, 2022<br />
Photo Michael McKeagg. Courtesy of Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui<br />
18
20
The funding support of IYoG has increased<br />
the global recognition of the biennial <strong>FUSE</strong><br />
Glass Prize. The 2022 <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass exhibition,<br />
featuring works from 18 finalists – including<br />
12 established and six emerging artists – was<br />
shown at JamFactory, in Adelaide, from May<br />
to July. It continued its tour at Canberra<br />
Glassworks from August to September,<br />
concluding at the Australian Design Centre in<br />
Sydney, from October to November.<br />
In June, Tim Edwards secured the 2022 Tom<br />
Malone Prize for Contemporary Australian<br />
Glass, with his captivating work Ellipse #8<br />
(2021). This prestigious award celebrates<br />
innovation, and Edwards’s winning work was<br />
acquired for the collection of the Art Gallery<br />
of Western Australia (AGWA). Artist Giles<br />
Bettison and judges from the AGWA,<br />
including foundation benefactor Sheryl<br />
Grimwood, foundation governor Elizabeth<br />
Malone and AGWA curator Robert Cook,<br />
lauded the work for its serene, yet powerful,<br />
presence, meticulous craftsmanship,<br />
and deliberate exploration of light<br />
and perception. 10<br />
Following her Canberra Glassworks residency<br />
in 2021–22, multimedia artist Patricia Piccinini<br />
exhibited her thought-provoking series<br />
A Miracle Constantly Repeated during<br />
Melbourne’s Rising festival, in June 2022.<br />
Known for exploring inter-species adaptation,<br />
ethics and biotechnology, Piccinini used glass<br />
to symbolise fecundity and germination.<br />
She described the bubbling glass forms as<br />
representing organic vitality, cellular division<br />
and the vibrant colours of new life’s<br />
brightness and beauty. 11 Piccinini worked<br />
closely with teams led by artists Annette<br />
Blair, Ngaio Fitzpatrick, Tom Rowney and<br />
Spike Deane.<br />
In July, as part of its annual ICON series<br />
honouring influential South Australian visual<br />
artists, JamFactory presented the remarkable<br />
solo exhibition Jessica Loughlin: Of Light.<br />
Curated by Caitlin Eyre, the exhibition<br />
featured Loughlin’s ground-breaking, fused<br />
kiln-formed glass sheets, whereby she<br />
experimented with opacity, translucency<br />
and geometric shapes to evoke shadow and<br />
reflection. Lauded for its restrained palette<br />
and focus on emptiness, light and space, her<br />
work reflects her 25-year journey as a studio<br />
glass artist. This exhibition, which also toured<br />
13 venues nationally, was accompanied by a<br />
comprehensive monograph on the artist,<br />
titled From Here, authored by Julie Ewington<br />
and Tina Oldknow and co-published by<br />
JamFactory and Wakefield Press.<br />
Quandamooka artist Megan Cope’s<br />
mesmeric kiln-cast glasswork, comprising 250<br />
pieces and titled The Tide Waits For No One<br />
(2020–21), was part of the survey exhibition<br />
Embodied Knowledge: Queensland<br />
Contemporary Art, held at the Queensland<br />
Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in August.<br />
The exhibition represented a platform for<br />
emerging and established contemporary<br />
artists and collectives, and addressed the<br />
themes of identity, heritage and history,<br />
effectively spotlighting the rich and diverse<br />
artistic culture of Queensland. Cope’s striking<br />
glasswork offered a profound exploration of<br />
Tim Edwards, Ellipse #8, 2021<br />
Photo: Grant Hancock
artistry and cultural significance. Spike Deane<br />
and Peter Nilsson worked closely with Cope<br />
to realise this body of work, which followed<br />
the artist’s Canberra Glassworks residency<br />
and exhibition Unbroken connection in<br />
May 2021.<br />
Cobi Cockburn delighted Sydney’s Sabbia<br />
Gallery visitors in September 2022 with her<br />
20 kiln-formed, cold-worked glass wall<br />
panels, collectively titled Silhouette. Hailed<br />
as an ‘existential hymn to our essence’, the<br />
exhibition stripped away superficiality to<br />
illuminate ‘what makes us human’. 12<br />
Cockburn’s panels, which played with light,<br />
line and transparency, were transcendent<br />
minimalist gateways to other dimensions.<br />
These intricately layered compositions,<br />
kiln-fused to perfection, hinted at innovative<br />
concepts and possible connections among<br />
imagined elements. Seamlessly traversing<br />
glass and diverse traditions, Cockburn’s art<br />
eloquently weaves confident, poetic<br />
reflections on the great depths of our<br />
worldly existence. The artist’s large-scale<br />
panels were also featured in Sabbia’s<br />
exhibition of new works by eight leading and<br />
emerging Australian and Indigenous artists<br />
for Sydney Contemporary 2022. Holly Grace’s<br />
glass installations, Tim Edwards’s dynamic<br />
sculptural glass, and whimsical glass vessels<br />
by Nyanu Watson and Cassaria Young Hogan,<br />
from Ninuku Arts, were also on display.<br />
In late October the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery<br />
| National Art Glass Gallery hosted a weekend<br />
focused on glass art. It included the opening<br />
of the exhibition Glass Chrysalis: Glass Art of<br />
Promise; the Ausglass AGM; an insightful talk<br />
by curator Grace Cochrane, exploring the<br />
origins of art glass in Australia and the<br />
ongoing influence of Ausglass on the local<br />
studio glass scene; and the launch of the<br />
long-awaited Vicki Torr retrospective. Glass<br />
Chrysalis celebrated the development,<br />
creativity and innovation of 11 outstanding<br />
early-career glass artists. Co-curated by<br />
Caitlin Eyre, Aimee Frodsham, and Michael<br />
Scarrone, this exhibition showcased evolving<br />
trends in contemporary studio glass.<br />
Importantly, it provided a platform for<br />
emerging artists to gain exposure, enrich<br />
their careers and highlight innovation and<br />
excellence in contemporary glass.<br />
Nicholas Burridge, Bronte Cormican-Jones,<br />
Louis Grant, Alexandra Hirst, Rita Kellaway,<br />
Mitch Mahoney (Boon Wurrung / Barkindji),<br />
Jessica Murtagh, Michelle Stewart, Nancy Yu,<br />
Shirley Wu and Sorcha Yelland each displayed<br />
a small selection of works produced within<br />
the past two years.<br />
Vicki Torr: A cutting edge honoured this<br />
influential artist, reaffirming her status as a<br />
revolutionary Australian glass artist. From<br />
functional forms to her acclaimed ‘double<br />
cones’, her distinctive pieces underscored<br />
her innovative practice during the late 1980s.<br />
She has received much acclaim, including<br />
the Women 88 Award from the Australian<br />
Bicentennial Authority, for her ‘funky’ raw,<br />
yet finely crafted, vessels. Her international<br />
recognition was cemented through exhibitions<br />
in New York and Japan. Although she passed<br />
away in 1992, aged just 42, Torr’s legacy<br />
endures through an art prize in her name<br />
Vicki Torr, Double Cone, 1991<br />
Australian Catholic University Art Collection (ACU). Donated by Declan Somerville, 2022<br />
Photo: Liam Somerville<br />
22
established by Ausglass, and her work is<br />
included in public collections and private<br />
galleries across Australia. The exhibition<br />
was curated by Caroline Field and supported<br />
by Ausglass and the Australian Catholic<br />
University (ACU).<br />
While many were disappointed that the<br />
long-anticipated Ausglass conference,<br />
planned to coincide with the IYoG, was<br />
delayed because of the pandemic, it was<br />
finally locked in for February 2023. Other<br />
news from Ausglass is the significant change<br />
to its board, which occurred in June that<br />
year. Treasurer Sheryl Grimwood is optimistic<br />
about the restructure, emphasising new board<br />
members’ commitment and their diverse skills.<br />
She acknowledges the volunteer nature of the<br />
organisation and intends to engage a broad<br />
range of members, from established<br />
to emerging artists, the aim being to tailor<br />
offerings for diverse representation and<br />
activities and to seek input for meaningful<br />
improvements. The next Ausglass conference<br />
is set for February 2025 in Poatina, Tasmania. 13<br />
Canberra’s Glassworks created glass artwork<br />
to meet the needs of various multidisciplinary<br />
artists, including for the marble sculptor Alex<br />
Seton for use in chandeliers crafted for his<br />
exhibition at the Lock-Up in Newcastle,<br />
NSW, an homage to Leonora Glassworks<br />
and post-Second World War club aesthetics.<br />
Seton, who was exploring new materials,<br />
found the fluidity of glass both challenging<br />
and invigorating during his mid-year residency
24
at Canberra Glassworks. In an interview with<br />
Judith Blackall, he expressed his excitement<br />
over the immediacy of glasswork compared<br />
with the slow, solitary process of<br />
marble carving. 14<br />
During her residency at Canberra Glassworks,<br />
Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist Consuelo<br />
Cavaniglia created an immersive installation,<br />
night changes things, you can’t see exactly<br />
how but you can feel it in your bones, in the<br />
unique Smokestack Gallery, attracting 20,000<br />
visitors. Through reflection, transparency and<br />
light, she explored sensuous colour optics<br />
using thin panels of kiln-formed glass. Her<br />
later exhibition, Through the door that holds<br />
you, held in October 2022 at the UNSW<br />
Galleries, was part of a series of exhibitions<br />
curated by José Da Silva, the director of<br />
UNSW Galleries. The series, a collaboration<br />
with the Canberra Glassworks artist-inresidency<br />
program and featuring work by<br />
Cavaniglia, Mel Douglas, Liam Fleming and<br />
Louis Grant, showcased contemporary<br />
glass art and explored perception, form<br />
experimentation and the fluidity of identity.<br />
Celebrating the accomplishment of the artists,<br />
the series offered substantial exhibition space,<br />
whichis rarely available to glass artists. 15<br />
In Canberra and Sydney, artists continued<br />
in their flourishing endeavours. Lisa Cahill<br />
focused on substantial architectural projects<br />
in her 170-square-metre Fyshwick studio. She<br />
worked on a significant artwork commission,<br />
Aurora Borealis – a site-specific installation<br />
spanning six metres, located at Atlanta’s Nobu<br />
Hotel, in the USA. Comprising 11 kiln-formed<br />
glass panels, the artwork elegantly mirrors<br />
the sweeping arcs of the Northern Lights. Her<br />
gallery representation in San Francisco and<br />
Pittsburgh was instrumental in her securing<br />
such an opportunity. Cahill also created an<br />
installation for Maison Vacheron Constantin’s<br />
Sydney flagship boutique on 104 King Street.<br />
Through techniques such as enamelling,<br />
etching, engraving and intricate glass layering,<br />
her iconic Maltese cross designs evoke<br />
Australia’s landscapes while echoing the<br />
luxury emblem of Constantin’s timepieces.<br />
Hannah Gason’s Arranging Light opened<br />
in October at Canberra Glassworks. Her<br />
collection of refined kiln-formed glass pieces,<br />
using transparent and opaque glass, marked<br />
a transformation in her practice, leading to a<br />
Canberra Critics Circle Award. Sydney-based<br />
Yuwaalaraay wirringgaa artist Lucy Simpson<br />
collaborated with Bundanon Art Museum<br />
and Glassworks to produce a series of<br />
exquisite kiln-formed glass pieces for<br />
Bundanon’s Siteworks 2022: From a Deep<br />
Valley. Simpson draws on her extensive<br />
Indigenous knowledge to explore natural<br />
materials, address environmental issues<br />
along river landscapes, and highlight<br />
continuity and exchange.<br />
Harriet Schwarzrock’s commissioned public<br />
artwork, Murmuration (2020), was celebrated<br />
at Canberra Museum and Gallery as part<br />
of the DESIGN Canberra Festival 2022.<br />
Schwarzrock collaborated with DJAS<br />
Architecture on the project, with close<br />
support from Canberra Glassworks and<br />
other specialists. The artwork features<br />
Consuelo Cavaniglia, untitled (ruby gold extra), 2022<br />
Photo: Russell Winnel. Australian Catholic University Art Collection (ACU)
around 900 blown-glass forms in a<br />
suspended, three-dimensional spiral,<br />
symbolising the natural spectacle of<br />
murmuration, whereby tens of thousands of<br />
birds create incredible shapes in the sky by<br />
merging and swirling in complex patterns.<br />
Installed in a prominent entry foyer space,<br />
the approximately eight-metre-long artwork<br />
creates an emotive, human place for public<br />
interaction beyond traditional art spaces and<br />
serves as a focal point for engaging building<br />
owners and patrons in the promotion of art<br />
in architecture.<br />
The New Zealand Society for Artists in Glass<br />
(NZSAG) recognised outstanding talent at its<br />
2022 end-of-year members show. Mike<br />
Crawford, a mid-career Māori artist, won<br />
the Lazelle Supreme Award ($3,000) for<br />
his exquisite cast-glass piece featuring the<br />
Kahu bird. Emerging artist Lisa Bate received<br />
the Murray and Denise Lazelle Merit Award<br />
($1,000) for her remarkable technical skill in<br />
deconstruction and reconstruction methods,<br />
while Vicki Fanning secured the Innovation<br />
Award ($500) for her captivating piece<br />
fairgroundunicorn, which used a blend of<br />
glass and silicon to achieve expressive results.<br />
Justine Olsen, the curator of decorative<br />
art and design at Te Papa Tongarewa, the<br />
Museum of New Zealand, noted that, while<br />
the awards were modest in prize money, they<br />
served as crucial incentives for sustaining<br />
innovative glass art in the country. 16<br />
Sydney artist Spence Messih presented Minor<br />
Truths, a collection of large-scale works, at<br />
the Murray Art Museum in Albury, NSW.<br />
The works in the exhibition blended<br />
kiln-formed glass, intricately crafted jarrah<br />
armatures, text and audio to investigate the<br />
interplay between revealing and concealing in<br />
abstraction. Messih’s art explored language’s<br />
transience, power structures, physical forms<br />
– and truth itself – from personal experience,<br />
with Robert Cook commending both Messih<br />
and glass-maker Louis Grant for their mastery<br />
of the medium and explicitly queer viewpoint,<br />
and their ‘ability to unpack power dynamics’. 17<br />
A summer special issue of Art Monthly<br />
Australasia, subtitled Glass Now, was launched<br />
in December 2022 at Canberra Glassworks.<br />
Although the print run was 5,000, the<br />
magazine also has 47,000 Instagram<br />
followers and 100,000 readerships. Guest<br />
editor Aimee Frodsham enthused, ‘Glass<br />
seems to be having a contemporary<br />
moment’, 18 and she highlighted some<br />
outstanding international achievements. She<br />
noted Yhonnie Scarce’s exhibition at the Palais<br />
de Tokyo and the Aichi Triennale, recalling<br />
that the artist’s work Remember Royalty<br />
(2018) was jointly acquired by Tate, London,<br />
and the Museum of Contemporary Art<br />
Australia. She also noted that the Corning<br />
Museum of Glass’s international survey, New<br />
Glass Now, which travelled to the Smithsonian<br />
American Art Museum, included Australian<br />
artists Kate Baker, Mathew Curtis, Nadège<br />
Desgenétez, Judi Elliott, Jenifer Kemarre<br />
Martiniello (southern Arrernte), Blanche<br />
Tilden, Mel Douglas and Kirstie Rea. Baker’s<br />
digitally printed glass panel mounted on<br />
mild steel, Within Matter #1 (2020), featured<br />
prominently in exhibition promotion.<br />
26
The closing ceremony for the IYoG took place<br />
in early December at the Yasuda Auditorium,<br />
University of Tokyo, Japan. Arts writer Gina<br />
Riley observed:<br />
So, while it may initially feel like an anomaly,<br />
2022 – as the UN International Year of Glass<br />
– has been a catalyst to shift perceptions and<br />
shake up antiquated pigeonholing of glass as<br />
‘craft’. Adding to the community of Australian<br />
glass artists today – many of whom are<br />
internationally recognised – is a swag of<br />
contemporary artists choosing to work with<br />
glass to extend their practice, in an exciting<br />
blur that is triggering a re-emergence of the<br />
medium … It is a long way from the perceived<br />
bunkers of craft. 19<br />
Former Ausglass president Elaine Miles spoke<br />
of the success of the biannual Australian Glass<br />
Artists Association conference, held at the<br />
Australian Catholic University, Melbourne,<br />
in February 2023. Titled Futures Past, the<br />
conference 20 explored the futures and<br />
histories of glass and glass-making, and the<br />
dialogue between them. The conference<br />
centred on three main themes: history and<br />
tradition (First Nations, art history, critical<br />
discourse and Ausglass luminaries); modern<br />
technology and innovation (cross-disciplinary<br />
practice, the post neo-craft movement,<br />
rediscovery of light and neon, and<br />
digital applications); and future challenges<br />
in glass-making sustainability<br />
and responsibility.<br />
Keynote speaker Grace Cochrane presented a<br />
paper titled ‘Ausglass: and its “Futures Past”‘,<br />
which detailed the 45-year history of Ausglass<br />
up to the Futures Past conference. 20 Kirstie<br />
Rea honoured Klaus Moje’s impact on<br />
Australian glass art, emphasising his<br />
passion for the medium and his dedication<br />
to teaching. Gerry King paid tribute to Peter<br />
Kolliner for his role in advancing Australian<br />
glasswork. A panel discussed Cedar Prest’s<br />
ground-breaking work in stained glass and<br />
community arts. Prest herself delivered an<br />
engaging presentation<br />
on her practice.<br />
In other lectures, Steven Cole shared his<br />
extensive knowledge gained from neon<br />
workshops. Harriet Schwarzrock elaborated<br />
on her use of inert gases such as argon,<br />
krypton, neon and xenon, captured in<br />
illuminated heart-shaped blown glass. Blanche<br />
Tilden explored glass’s possibilities, including<br />
technology, modernism and cultural values<br />
in jewellery. Maree Clarke, a Yorta Yorta /<br />
Wamba Wamba / Mutti Mutti / Boonwurrung<br />
woman from northwest Victoria, discussed<br />
the reclamation of lost Aboriginal practices,<br />
as well as collaboration in producing art.<br />
Susanne Jøker Johnsen and Richard Whiteley<br />
offered international perspectives: Johnsen<br />
is directing the European Glass and Ceramic<br />
Context project at the Royal Danish Academy<br />
and Whiteley is serving as the Senior Program<br />
Manager at the Corning Museum of Glass.<br />
Additionally, Simone Fezer, a German artist<br />
and educator from the Academy of Fine Arts<br />
in Stuttgart, conducted a workshop and gave
28
a lecture at Monash University, demonstrating<br />
her expertise in crafting body-inspired<br />
blown-glass sculptures.<br />
During the conference Annette Blair<br />
was awarded the prestigious Vicki Torr<br />
International Year of Glass Prize for her<br />
installation A Quiet Afternoon in May (2022).<br />
This remarkable work formed part of Blair’s<br />
solo exhibition Quietly Spoken, held at<br />
Canberra Glassworks in 2022. Drawing<br />
inspiration from everyday objects, Blair<br />
transforms glass into flawless re-creations<br />
of items such as paintbrushes, oil cans and<br />
buckets, infusing them with memories and<br />
fixing them in time. The award celebrates<br />
the dynamism of the contemporary glass<br />
movement and the innovation and creativity<br />
of Australian glass artists. Blair received not<br />
only the non-acquisitive prize of $10,000 but<br />
also earned the 2023 People’s Choice Award,<br />
valued at $1000. Madeline Cardone won the<br />
Vicki Torr Emerging Artist Prize for Embodied<br />
(2021), with Liam Fleming receiving the Vicki<br />
Torr Memorial Prize for Transitory Vessel #1<br />
(2022). The Sabbia Gallery Exhibition Award<br />
– a two-year mentorship and a solo exhibition<br />
for glass artists with fewer than five years<br />
experience – was awarded to Rita Kellaway.<br />
With 300 attendees, the conference<br />
prompted numerous serious discussions.<br />
Holly Grace highlighted JamFactory’s<br />
importance but also noted the challenges<br />
it faces due to a lack of skilled students and<br />
no glass major at UniSA, compounded by<br />
COVID’s financial impact. ‘Becoming proficient<br />
in glass art’, she stated, ‘demands time and<br />
practice, with a need for technical training<br />
and precise coordination’. 21 Jeffrey Sarmiento<br />
credited ACT’s glass scene to Canberra<br />
Glassworks’s ability to engage in partnerships.<br />
He championed collaborations and diverse<br />
career paths for artists and students.<br />
Aimee Frodsham and Brian Parkes praised<br />
collaborations between non-traditional artists<br />
working in glass, such as Maree Clarke, Megan<br />
Cope, Patricia Piccinini and Alex Seton, and<br />
skilled glass-makers, bringing exciting new<br />
work to life. Andrew Lavery pointed to<br />
diverse elective courses that fostered<br />
interdisciplinary studies and self-discovery<br />
at the Sydney College of the Arts. Conversely,<br />
Clare Belfrage voiced concerns about<br />
evolving university roles impacting on the<br />
future of glass practice in Australia,<br />
emphasising the need for university support<br />
and individual skill development.<br />
Concurrently with the conference, Craft<br />
Victoria held the exhibition Interior<br />
Landscapes, which showed works by<br />
distinguished Australian glass artists Mr<br />
Donegan, Mrs Fatt (both from Ninuku Arts),<br />
Clare Belfrage, Brenden Scott French,<br />
Holly Grace, Jessica Loughlin and Kirstie<br />
Rea. Curated by Margaret Hancock Davis and<br />
Holly Grace, the exhibition explored diverse<br />
techniques and approaches inspired by the<br />
local landscape and cultural identity.<br />
On Sunday 26 February, New Zealand<br />
mourned the loss of esteemed glass artist<br />
Lyndsay Patterson in a motorbike accident.<br />
His death deeply affected many: he was<br />
described by Sarjeant Gallery as a ‘stalwart<br />
of glass in Whanganui’, 22 while AVID Gallery<br />
in Wellington noted ‘Such a tragic loss to the<br />
Philip Stokes, Hope Bug, 2023<br />
Photo courtesy of the artist
New Zealand arts community’. 23 A two-time<br />
finalist in the Ranamok Glass Prize and a<br />
recipient of the prestigious Thomas Glass<br />
Award from the Dowse Art Museum,<br />
Patterson created refined work and is<br />
represented in numerous public and private<br />
collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa<br />
and the Dowse Art Museum. Patterson was<br />
founder of Chronicle Glass Studio and Gallery<br />
in Whanganui, and spent years crafting<br />
glassware for the film The Hobbit.<br />
Across the period of review, renowned art<br />
glass-makers in New Zealand continued to<br />
produce exceptional work, such as Luke<br />
Jacomb at Masterworks Gallery Auckland;<br />
Philip Stokes, Emma Camden and David<br />
Murray in Whanganui; Leanne Williams and<br />
Jim Dennison from Chrystal Chain Gang;<br />
and Layla Walter and Claudia Borella at<br />
Avid Gallery, Wellington.<br />
In March 2023, Canberra Glassworks<br />
presented Tom Rowney’s outstanding artwork<br />
in Aventurine Spirit, curated by Caroline Field.<br />
Blending glass-blowing steeped in Venetian<br />
traditions with contemporary flair, Rowney<br />
conjured amazing textures and patterns onto<br />
simple shapes, transforming the everyday<br />
into objects of desire. Rowney won the 2023<br />
Canberra Critics Circle Visual Art Award for<br />
skilfully combining fantasy, virtuosity,<br />
creativity, fearlessness, colour and precision.<br />
Also held in Canberra in March was Kate<br />
Baker’s exhibition at ANU’s School of Art &<br />
Design Gallery. The exhibition, a component<br />
of her doctorate, offered a sophisticated<br />
exploration of human experience through<br />
suspended glass forms.<br />
In April, Chick Butcher presented 11 wall-based<br />
sculptures and a single standing work,<br />
fabricated from cast glass, steel and acrylic<br />
sheet, at Sevenmarks Gallery, NSW. Founded<br />
in December 2022 by Nina and Cesar Cueva,<br />
along with Chick Butcher and Cobi Cockburn,<br />
this innovative gallery focuses on<br />
contemporary art, including glass. Butcher’s<br />
solo exhibition, Vault, was comprised of a<br />
series of ‘unhurried studies’, derived from<br />
introspection, reflection and the passage of<br />
time. Butcher’s works emerge from a realm he<br />
terms ‘dark pretty’ 24 and blend rusted metal<br />
and reflective black glass to evoke both a<br />
high-security repository and a fortress of the<br />
artist’s suppressed emotions and experiences.<br />
A third-generation glass artist based in<br />
Binnalong, NSW, Peter Minson received formal<br />
recognition of his remarkable contributions to<br />
Australian lampworking in May 2023 from the<br />
Churchill Trust. Although he initially studied<br />
as a scientific glassblower, his practice has<br />
evolved to include artistic and functional<br />
works. His superb teapots, cups and glasses<br />
are a testament to his exceptional skill as a<br />
glassblower. Craft ACT commissioned author<br />
Nola Anderson to write a comprehensive<br />
essay on Minson’s intricate and delicate<br />
glasswork, the essay also noting his generous<br />
teaching support for fellow glass artists.<br />
30
Drew Spangenberg, Ensemble bottles, 2022<br />
Photo: Connor Patterson
Edward Waring’s exhibition Instinctive Travels at Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, 2023<br />
Photo: Simon Hewson. Courtesy Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney<br />
32
The Melbourne Design Fair, held at the<br />
Convention and Exhibition Centre in May,<br />
offered an abundance of local and<br />
international design excellence, with<br />
JamFactory presenting Drew Spangenberg’s<br />
stunning installation Ensemble bottles<br />
and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)<br />
including Jessica Murtagh’s blown-glass<br />
vessels. Canberra Glassworks presented works<br />
by Mel Douglas and Tom Rowney, as well as<br />
Lucy Simpson’s small-scale sensual casts of<br />
the freshwater mussel shell (or dhanggal). In<br />
the joint exhibition Versa at the Meat Market<br />
Stables in North Melbourne, designer Tom<br />
Fereday showcased limited edition modular<br />
tables, constructed from 70 per cent recycled<br />
glass and 30 per cent quartz sand. Fereday,<br />
with fellow designer Charlie White, aimed<br />
to transform end-of-life materials in this<br />
fascinating presentation. Coinciding with<br />
this popular event, Gallery Funaki, in central<br />
Melbourne, presented necklaces by Blanche<br />
Tilden, these made with combinations of<br />
coloured and transparent borosilicate glass,<br />
anodised titanium and silver.<br />
Mel Douglas also captivated global audiences<br />
with her seductively minimalist engraved glass<br />
forms at London’s 2023 Collect Art Fair,<br />
and at Luminance, an exhibition held at<br />
Caterina Tognan’s Arte Contemporanea in<br />
Venice during the Biennale Architettura 2023.<br />
In collaboration with American artist Nancy<br />
Callan, Douglas participated in a May<br />
residency at the Centre du Verre<br />
Contemporain, in Biot, France, creating<br />
stunning artwork that celebrates the interplay<br />
of form, pattern, balance and design.<br />
Adding to the momentum, arts writer Elli<br />
Walsh offered an extensive analysis of the<br />
artist’s practice in Artist Profile, fittingly<br />
titled ‘Reading between the lines’. 25<br />
Australia’s rich stained-glass legacy was<br />
celebrated at the May launch of Dr Bronwyn<br />
Hughes’s seminal publication, Lights<br />
Everlasting: Australia’s commemorative<br />
stained glass from the Boer War to Vietnam.<br />
As Hughes notes, stained-glass windows have<br />
served as enduring memorials to soldiers,<br />
with hundreds installed across Victoria, South<br />
Australia, Asia and beyond. Yet, despite their<br />
significance, many are now hidden or<br />
forgotten, tucked away in underused church<br />
buildings. While striking for their visual allure,<br />
these windows encapsulate extensive<br />
histories. Preserving these windows ensures<br />
that future generations will continue to honour<br />
those who fought for their country and<br />
will safeguard their memory for years<br />
to come. 26<br />
The 2023 Glass Art Society (GAS) conference<br />
took place between 7 and 10 June in Detroit,<br />
Michigan, bringing together the global glass<br />
community for four days. With more than 100<br />
presenters, the event incorporated lectures,<br />
demonstrations and special events at various<br />
locations, including the College for Creative<br />
Studies, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the<br />
Russell Industrial Centre. It was standing-room<br />
only for Jeffrey Sarmiento’s presentation on<br />
3D glass printing with the Maple Glass 3D<br />
Printer at the College for Creative Studies<br />
Campus. Elaine Miles highlighted GAS’s<br />
international reach despite its being primarily
focused on the United States. Initially linked<br />
with institutions and large companies such<br />
as the Corning Museum, Urban Glass and<br />
Pittsburgh Glass, GAS expanded its<br />
conferences to diverse locations like<br />
Amsterdam and Murano. In 2022, the<br />
conference was held online, which some<br />
found overwhelming, in that it resembled<br />
television viewing. 27<br />
Artist Edward Waring captivated viewers<br />
with his expertly assembled collection of<br />
found vintage crystal and glass objects in his<br />
exhibition at Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert,<br />
in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Working<br />
instinctively in his ‘crystal lab’, he achieved<br />
formal balance by rearranging dishes, vases,<br />
ashtrays and candleholders. Waring<br />
transformed these objects by introducing<br />
colour, painting the volume rather than the<br />
surface, and highlighting interior curves, the<br />
latter achieved by allowing light to play across<br />
the glass. Arts writer Chloé Wolifson noted:<br />
The melancholy contained within these relics<br />
from a fading way of life, makes way for a<br />
warmer nostalgia, in which they are literally<br />
filled with colour and brought to life. Once<br />
upended, functionality gives way to form,<br />
and the viewer is drawn to the details, where<br />
transparent ubiquity had previously rendered<br />
them with a sameness. 28<br />
34
In June, Elizabeth Malone, founder of the<br />
$15,000 acquisitive Tom Malone Prize for<br />
contemporary Australian glass artists,<br />
regretfully announced that the Art Gallery of<br />
Western Australia would no longer facilitate<br />
the award, which has been a vital national<br />
platform for Australian glass artists since<br />
2003. The Tom Malone Prize will continue,<br />
however, under Sheryl Grimwood’s patronage.<br />
The new model, which comprises a prize<br />
exhibition at Linton and Kay Galleries in<br />
Perth’s old art precinct and a five-year<br />
commitment, aims to generate and encourage<br />
sales for participating artists. Liam Fleming<br />
has recently been announced as the <strong>2024</strong><br />
recipient of the prize.<br />
Following her Soneva Fushi residency in the<br />
Maldives, where she joined a glass-recycling<br />
initiative, Clare Belfrage received a residency<br />
in northern NSW, immersing herself in the<br />
area’s natural environment. These experiences<br />
significantly shaped her exhibition In the Glow<br />
of Green, which opened at Tweed Regional<br />
Art Gallery in August. Belfrage’s captivating<br />
works were inspired by the patterns, rhythms<br />
and textures she observed on surface<br />
growths such as moss, lichen and bark, which<br />
reflected, in her words, ‘the intricate layers of<br />
time, life, and regeneration found in forests’. 29<br />
The exhibition, spanning two gallery spaces –<br />
one featuring wallpaper inspired by the green<br />
in her artwork – was arguably one of the finest<br />
installations shown in a regional gallery.<br />
Also opening in August 2023, 1001<br />
Remarkable Objects, at the Powerhouse in<br />
Ultimo, Sydney, featured various items<br />
from the institution’s collection deemed<br />
‘remarkable’ for their rarity, visual appeal,<br />
social and cultural history, or ability to evoke<br />
wonder – eschewing traditional labels like<br />
‘treasures’ or ‘masterpieces’. Curated by Leo<br />
Schofield and a curatorium comprising Eva<br />
Czernis-Ryl, Ronan Sulich and Mark Sutcliffe,<br />
this popular exhibition included outstanding<br />
works by renowned glass-makers and<br />
designers. It showcased works by Brian Hirst,<br />
Emma Varga, Nick Mount, Toots Zynski,<br />
Stanislav Libenský, Jaroslava Brychtová,<br />
Lino Tagliapietra, Bertil Vallien, Dick Marquis,<br />
Ingeborg Lundin, Philippe Starck, Timothy<br />
Horn, Carlo Scarpa, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello,<br />
Klaus Moje, Dale Chihuly and Tom Moore,<br />
as well as a lavish chandelier by Ken+Julia<br />
Yonatani, inspired by environmental<br />
degradation and global economic concerns.<br />
Working at a smaller scale is the Glassery, a<br />
collective of five artists from around Meanjin<br />
(Brisbane), comprising Christine Atkins, Jo<br />
Bone, Aaron Micallef, Lucy Quinn and Jarred<br />
Wright. The group continued its experimental<br />
work in scientific cast glass, despite their lack<br />
of a hot-glass facility. The collective’s recent<br />
exhibition presented an intriguing array of<br />
abstract sculptures, light installations,<br />
interdisciplinary artwork, and finely crafted<br />
design pieces, which toured from Brisbane<br />
to Maryborough, and then on to the Gympie<br />
Regional Gallery.<br />
In September, Ngaio Fitzpatrick, Matthew<br />
Curtis, Jacqueline Knight and Thor Diesendorf,<br />
along with Small Impact founders Gina Fairley<br />
and Scott Chaseling, showcased their work in<br />
the exhibition Aggregate: Perspectives in<br />
Recycled Glass, held at the Mixing Room<br />
Clare Belfrage’s exhibition In the Glow of Green at Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Alley Art Centre<br />
Photo courtesy of the artist
Gallery, at Thor’s Hammer, in Canberra. In<br />
the same month, Canberra Centre launched<br />
Hannah Gason’s striking glass installation<br />
Twelve Hours of Daylight. Inspired by<br />
the local flower festival, Floriade, this<br />
commissioned work, produced in partnership<br />
with Canberra Glassworks, consisted<br />
of transparent and opaque glass in which<br />
fused intricate patterning created layers<br />
and lines designed to capture nature’s<br />
transformation of the environment.<br />
Australian glass art was prominently<br />
represented by galleries during Sydney<br />
Contemporary 2023 in September. The event<br />
displayed the exceptional work of artists such<br />
as Jessica Loughlin, Clare Belfrage and Janet<br />
Laurence. At Sabbia’s stand, Nyanu Watson,<br />
from Ninuku Arts, enchanted viewers with<br />
her hand-blown and -painted glass vessels<br />
adorned with charming bird motifs; and, at<br />
Auckland’s Gow Langsford’s booth, Tony<br />
Cragg’s gravity-defying cast-glass Substance<br />
(2015) was in the spotlight.<br />
Also in September, the Art Gallery of South<br />
Australia presented Light and Colour, an<br />
exhibition showcasing Liam Fleming’s recent<br />
transition to sculptural glasswork, curated<br />
by Rebecca Evans, the gallery’s curator<br />
of decorative arts and design. After<br />
completing a residency at Canberra<br />
Glassworks and receiving the South Australian<br />
Guildhouse Fellowship for mid-career artists,<br />
valued at $50,000, Fleming immersed himself<br />
in a 2023 residency at the University of South<br />
Australia, where many of the exhibited works<br />
were produced. Evans noted that Fleming’s<br />
‘super, super elegant’ creations reflected<br />
their modernist influences. The larger pieces,<br />
in vibrant mid-century hues, took shape as<br />
intricately folded, mould-blown structures, as<br />
exemplified by his Trichrome (RGB) (2023)<br />
series. Fleming’s trajectory as a glass artist is<br />
worth following closely. 30<br />
Jessica Murtagh secured second prize, worth<br />
$10,000, in the inaugural MAKE Award for her<br />
etched ‘classical’ vessels, inspired by ancient<br />
Athenian ceramic amphoras depicting daily<br />
life. The MAKE Award celebrates innovation<br />
across the diverse fields of fashion,<br />
urniture, jewellery, woodwork, textiles and<br />
glass. Introduced by the Australian Design<br />
Centre, in Darlinghurst, Sydney, this biennial<br />
accolade recognises craft and design<br />
innovation nationally.<br />
Across the period under review, glass-makers<br />
have continued to produce exceptional work<br />
in New Zealand. In October, Masterworks<br />
Contemporary Art Gallery in Auckland<br />
presented Mike Crawford’s glass vessels<br />
in the form of abstracted birds and fish.<br />
Drawing from his vast experience and<br />
knowledge of wetland wildlife, Crawford’s<br />
exhibition celebrated an indigenous glass<br />
language among Māori artists in the country.<br />
Renowned Canberra artist Judi Elliott,<br />
acknowledged for her innovative use of<br />
colour in glass art, was honoured with a<br />
retrospective exhibition at Sabbia Gallery<br />
in November. The showcase highlighted<br />
the depth of her practice and featured<br />
kiln-formed sculptures, glass, ceramics and<br />
recent paintings inspired by her Enrico<br />
Taglietti home. Elliott’s work centres on<br />
36
architectural elements, portraying houses<br />
and walls through simplified geometric<br />
forms, vibrant primary colours and expressive<br />
textures. Originally a ceramic artist, Elliott<br />
was drawn to glass and undertook an<br />
Associate Diploma in Glass at the Australian<br />
National University’s School of Art. After<br />
graduating in 1985, she travelled to the United<br />
States to study at the Pilchuck Glass School in<br />
Washington. Her work is represented in public<br />
and private collections throughout Australia<br />
and internationally, including in the National<br />
Art Glass Collection in Wagga Wagga, the<br />
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the<br />
Düsseldorf Kunstmuseum in Germany and the<br />
Corning Glass Museum in New York.<br />
Timothy Horn’s large and ornate sculptures<br />
made an impressive contribution to the<br />
exhibition Fairy Tales, which opened in<br />
December at the Queensland Art Gallery<br />
|Gallery of Modern Art. His multidisciplinary<br />
practice explores the convergence of natural<br />
and artificial elements and includes the use<br />
of various materials, such as cast and blown<br />
glass, metals, transparent rubber and sugar.<br />
The distinguished glass collector Sandy<br />
Benjamin described the artist’s work as<br />
‘brimming with brilliantly executed,<br />
captivating ideas, which make his work<br />
irresistibly seductive and engrossing!’ 31<br />
The 2023 <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Artist Residency<br />
recipient, Marcel Hoogstad Hay, completed<br />
work at JamFactory’s Glass Studio in time<br />
for his solo exhibition, Sublime Scales, in<br />
November, at Carrick Hill in Adelaide. His<br />
innovative, experimental approach explores<br />
space and matter and uses traditional<br />
Jessica Murtagh, Modern Relic VIII, 2021<br />
Photo: Jesse Reagon. Australian Catholic University Art Collection (ACU)
Venetian cane techniques to create intricate<br />
patterns. Symbolising disrupted life paths,<br />
these patterns are influenced by quantum<br />
phenomena and the earth’s topography.<br />
His work, which challenges conventions,<br />
prompts consideration of humanity’s place<br />
in the universe.<br />
In another exciting development, Maree<br />
Clarke won the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for<br />
Urban Sculpture 2023 for her innovative glass<br />
renderings of natural indigenous elements.<br />
Her winning work, a glass canoe measuring<br />
between three and four metres in length and<br />
patterned with microscopic river reeds,<br />
reflected her extensive research and<br />
experimentation with glass. Clarke had spent<br />
two months studying river reeds and taking<br />
microscopic images of their cross-sections<br />
at the University of Melbourne’s School of<br />
Biomedical Sciences before travelling to the<br />
USA to further explore the reed cross-section<br />
patterns through glass during an artist<br />
esidency at Pilchuck.<br />
Additional insight into the ancient practices<br />
of the Kulin Nations comes from Clarke’s<br />
collaboration with Broached Commissions<br />
and Charter Hall in the creation of seven<br />
ethereal cast-glass branches, with the<br />
assistance of Spike Deane from Canberra<br />
Glassworks. These enchanting branches,<br />
suspended in the Australian Federal Police’s<br />
new headquarters in Melbourne’s Wesley<br />
Place Church forecourt, exude a haunting<br />
charm and are intricately embedded in<br />
cultural heritage.<br />
Annette Blair also undertook a residency at<br />
the Pilchuck School, balancing her personal<br />
artistic endeavours with the role of gaffer<br />
alongside Seattle-based glass artist Dan<br />
Friday. Also at Pilchuck School, Kirstie Rea<br />
taught a mid-year class titled ‘Transparent<br />
mirror’, covering kiln-forming, cold-working,<br />
found objects, construction and mixed media.<br />
The class explored how sheet-glass,<br />
kiln-forming and cold-working processes<br />
could reflect ideas and concerns about place.<br />
In a significant achievement, Scott Redding,<br />
the director of New Zealand Glassworks in<br />
Whanganui, secured Creative New Zealand<br />
funding of $48,000 for its <strong>2024</strong> internship<br />
program. Available only to New Zealand<br />
citizens and residents, this ten-month<br />
opportunity encompasses roles such as<br />
glass technician and teaching assistant and<br />
focuses on hands-on experience, safety<br />
training and assistance to professional artists.<br />
As New Zealand Glassworks enters its seventh<br />
year, it stands as a key centre for art-glass<br />
practice, nurturing innovation and<br />
sustainability. Redding highlights its crucial<br />
role in supporting the next generation of<br />
glass artists, particularly given the absence<br />
of glass-blowing education in New Zealand.<br />
Contemporary glass-makers had a strong<br />
presence in the National Gallery of Victoria’s<br />
Triennial 2023. Spanish artist and designer<br />
Jaime Hayon was represented by his striking<br />
Afrikando collection of seven glass vessels,<br />
manufactured in 2017 by Nason Moretti. Swiss<br />
artist Franziska Furter’s Haku, a large-scale<br />
installation of thousands of hand-threaded<br />
Selinda Davidson, Tali Tjuta, 2021<br />
Photo: Andre Castellucci
glass beads, emulates ethereal swathes of fog.<br />
Two of Jessica Murtagh’s sandblasted glass<br />
vessels from her Modern Relics series<br />
(2020–21) were prominently displayed, while<br />
three of Selinda Davidson’s hand-worked<br />
glass vessels, created during the artist’s<br />
mentorship with Clare Belfrage at<br />
JamFactory’s glass studio, also featured.<br />
Inspired by traditional mark-making and<br />
tjukurrpa (ancestral stories), Davidson’s<br />
textured linear paintings on glass are the<br />
result of her extensive experimentation with<br />
the medium as a cultural form of expression.<br />
Renowned Melbourne-based glass artist Ruth<br />
Allen continues to provide essential support<br />
to prominent contemporary artists such<br />
as Darren Sylvester. Her assistance was<br />
instrumental in creating the vibrant and<br />
shimmering suite of snowmen’s glass heads<br />
for Sylvester’s highly anticipated exhibition,<br />
The Heads of Snowmen, held in February<br />
<strong>2024</strong> at Neon Parc, Brunswick, Melbourne.<br />
Sylvester actively participated with Allen<br />
throughout the production process. 32<br />
Heralding the new year, curator Clothilde<br />
Bullen commenced the exhibition program<br />
at the Art Gallery of Western Australia with<br />
a major show of Yhonnie Scarce’s glass and<br />
mixed-media works. Titled Yhonnie Scarce:<br />
The Light of Day, the exhibition was a<br />
component of the <strong>2024</strong> Perth Festival.<br />
A Kokatha / Nukunu artist, Scarce is<br />
renowned for her stunning glass installations<br />
that tease out Australia’s nuclear-testing past<br />
and the impact of colonisation on Indigenous<br />
communities. Her glass yam installations,<br />
combined with historical imagery, illuminate<br />
the dehumanising effects of colonisation and<br />
the legacy of nuclear activity at Maralinga<br />
and Woomera, South Australia – Scarce’s<br />
birthplace. The monumental scale of these<br />
works, with oversized glass yams suspended<br />
to resemble grand chandeliers, highlights the<br />
sublime beauty of glass while telling a very<br />
dark story.<br />
While 2022–23 began with some<br />
challenges to the glass-art ecology, largely<br />
a consequence of the pandemic, this<br />
review demonstrates that the sector gained<br />
momentum and included many stellar<br />
achievements of which it can be rightfully<br />
proud. Without doubt, the expressive<br />
medium of glass continues to inspire its<br />
accomplished practitioners and engage<br />
a dedicated following.<br />
The author is grateful to the following<br />
individuals, who generously shared their<br />
knowledge and information: Gabriella Bisetto<br />
of UniSA; Emma Bugden and Scott Redding;<br />
Grace Cochrane; Robert Cook of AGWA;<br />
Eva Czernis-Ryl of Powerhouse Museum;<br />
Rebecca Evans of AGSA; Aimee Frodsham of<br />
Canberra Glassworks; Anna Grigson of Sabbia<br />
Gallery; Sheryl Grimwood of Ausglass;<br />
Bronwyn Hughes and Donna Kennedy of<br />
Glaas Inc; Andrew Lavery of Sydney College<br />
of the Arts; Aaron Micallef; Elaine Miles;<br />
Justine Olsen of Te Papa Tongarewa, the<br />
Museum of New Zealand; Brian Parkes of<br />
JamFactory; Jeffrey Sarmiento of the ANU;<br />
and artists, Ruth Allen, Kate Baker; Clare<br />
Belfrage, Annette Blair; Lisa Cahill; Hannah<br />
Gason, Holly Grace; Brian Hirst, Jacqueline<br />
Knight, Jessica Murtagh and Kirstie Rea.<br />
Caroline Field is Curator of the Australian<br />
Catholic University Art Collection.<br />
40
1<br />
ICOM – International Council of Museums.<br />
2 See https://ceramics.org/event/national-day-of-glass/,<br />
accessed 30 June 2023.<br />
3 Bronwyn Hughes, interview with author, 16 October 2023.<br />
4 Gabriella Bisetto, email to author, 26 October 2023.<br />
5 Andrew Lavery, interview with author, 9 October 2023.<br />
6 Jeffrey Sarmiento, interview with author, 2 October 2023.<br />
7 Donna Kennedy, interview with author, 16 October 2023<br />
8 Emma Bugden, email to author, 6 December 2023.<br />
9 ‘Queanbeyan artist wins major glass prize’, Canberra<br />
City News, 13 May 2022, https://citynews.com.au/2022/<br />
queanbeyan-artist-wins-major-glass-prize/, accessed 20<br />
December 2023.<br />
10<br />
Giles Bettison, Elizabeth Malone & Robert Cook, ‘Judge’s<br />
comments’, Contemporary Australian Glass: The Tom<br />
Malone Prize 2018–2022, Art Gallery of Western Australia,<br />
Perth, 2022, p. 120.<br />
11<br />
See Brooke Boland, ‘Care and love with Patricia Piccinini’,<br />
Vault Australasian Art & Culture, no. 44, November 2023 –<br />
January <strong>2024</strong>, pp. 42–7.<br />
12<br />
Robert Cook, https://sabbiagallery.com/exhibition/<br />
cobi-cockburn-3, accessed 3 October 2023.<br />
13<br />
Sheryl Grimwood, interview with author, 21 December<br />
2023.<br />
14<br />
Judith Blackall, ‘New directions: artists who have recently<br />
taken their practice somewhere different’, Art Collector, no.<br />
103, January–March 2023, pp. 160–3.<br />
15<br />
José Da Silva, email to author, 21 December 2023.<br />
16<br />
Justine Olsen, interview with author, 13 November 2023.<br />
17<br />
Robert Cook, interview with author, 25 October 2023; see<br />
also, ‘Being “mediumed”: Louis Grant and Spence Messih’,<br />
Art Monthly Australasia, no. 334, Summer 2022, pp. 100–7.<br />
18<br />
Aimee Frodsham, ‘Welcome to Issue 334’, Art Monthly<br />
19<br />
Gina Fairley, ‘Exhibition review: Consuelo Cavaniglia, Mel<br />
Douglas, Liam Fleming, Louis Grant: four exhibitions that<br />
shift the perceptions around the medium of glass, pushing it<br />
to the front of contemporary making’, Arts<br />
Hub, 19 October 2022, https://www.artshub.com.au/news/<br />
reviews/exhibition-review-glass-artists-2587323/, accessed 7<br />
February <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
20<br />
Grace Cochrane, ‘Ausglass: and its “Futures Past’’: a history<br />
to celebrate the 45th year of Ausglass and its 21st Futures<br />
Past conference in 2023’, https://ausglass.org/<br />
ausglass-history-reflection, accessed 10 October 2023.<br />
21<br />
Holly Grace, interview with author, 6 October 2023.<br />
22<br />
Seargent Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui,<br />
Instagram post, 3 March 2023.<br />
23<br />
Lyndsay Patterson (1959–2023), AVID Gallery, https://www.<br />
avidgallery.com/artist/lyndsay-patterson, accessed 22<br />
December 2023.<br />
24<br />
Chick Butcher, interview with author, 23 April 2023.<br />
25<br />
Elli Walsh, ‘Reading between the lines: Mel Douglas’,<br />
Artist Profile, no. 62, pp. 66–72.<br />
26<br />
Bronwyn Hughes, interview with author, 16 October 2023.<br />
27<br />
Elaine Miles, interview with author, 18 November 2023.<br />
28<br />
Chloé Wolifson, ‘Edward Waring – instinctive travels’,<br />
Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert, 14 July – 13 August 2023,<br />
https://gallerysallydancuthbert.com/exhibitions/43/<br />
overview, accessed 30 December 2023.<br />
29<br />
Clare Belfrage, interview with author, 25 May 2023.<br />
30<br />
Rebecca Evans, interview with author, 10 October 2023.<br />
31<br />
Sandy Benjamin, interview with author, 20 December 2023.<br />
32<br />
Allen, Ruth, interview with author 2 February <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Australasia, no. 334, Summer 2022, pp. 12–14.
Emerging Category Finalists
Madeline Cardone<br />
Madeline Cardone lives and works on<br />
Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. She gained<br />
a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) and a<br />
Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship from<br />
the Australian National University’s School of<br />
Art and Design, Canberra in 2021. Cardone is<br />
primarily trained in glass, and engages with<br />
other mediums such as ceramic, drawing,<br />
metal and performance. Her current<br />
trajectory explores architectural theory<br />
and phenomenology, with a particular<br />
interest in shadow, light, space, and the body.<br />
Cardone often works to develop experimental<br />
and unconventional ways of making with<br />
her materials, with an inherent sensitivity<br />
towards subtle surface and refined form.<br />
My work meditates on the notion of ‘glass<br />
as skin’, but is further concerned with<br />
conveying an embodied experience of<br />
space and bodily memory. I am interested in<br />
the idea of the body as a mould for space and<br />
creating a dialogue between form and spatial<br />
phenomena; an object that brings shape<br />
particularly to spatial qualities of shadow,<br />
palpitating, enveloping, ambiguous and<br />
mysterious. The work plays with sensory<br />
as well as material tensions through the<br />
use of black glass: between the tactile and<br />
intangible, lightness and weight, moment and<br />
memory, movement and stillness, the familiar<br />
and the alien, control and non-control. This<br />
connects to my current approach to kiln<br />
forming - how non-control is as<br />
uncomfortable as it is freeing.<br />
44
Nero, <strong>2024</strong><br />
kiln formed glass, 150 x 35 x 330 each panel<br />
Photo: Bridie Mackay
Hamish Donaldson<br />
Hamish Donaldson comes from a lineage of<br />
glass artists. His grandparents are glass<br />
engravers and his parents, uncle and brother<br />
are glassblowers. Donaldson has been around<br />
glass all his life. Gaining his early training in the<br />
family’s studio before completing JamFactory’s<br />
Associate Program in the Glass Studio,<br />
Donaldson has also undergone masterclasses at<br />
the Pilchuck Glass School, USA; Glass Furnace,<br />
Turkey; Canberra Glassworks and JamFactory.<br />
Donaldson is now based back on the<br />
Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, working in and<br />
out of the family studio. He produces a range of<br />
production and art works that take inspiration<br />
from the natural world and the deeper<br />
mysteries lying within it that can remind us of<br />
our deeply connected and interwoven oneness.<br />
Donaldson’s work evolves through a dialogue<br />
with the natural forces underpinning life and<br />
brings forth emanations of the forces that are<br />
working beyond our perceptual field. He takes<br />
inspiration from temple structures and the<br />
lineages across the globe that use these<br />
spaces to invoke and commune with the<br />
unseen, as well as the vibratory nature of<br />
matter beyond our means of perception.<br />
Using cymatics, the study of visible sound<br />
and vibration, as one way of bringing forth<br />
such unseen realities to our attention,<br />
Donaldson illuminates the beauty of the<br />
intricate patterns, depth of complexity and<br />
harmony holding our reality together.<br />
46
Lazuli, <strong>2024</strong><br />
blown and solid glass, 180 x 180 x 540<br />
Photo: Kevin Gordon
Alexandra Hirst<br />
Alexandra Hirst is an emerging Adelaide<br />
based artist living and working on the<br />
traditional lands of the Kaurna people.<br />
While obtaining her Bachelor of Visual Arts<br />
(Sculpture) from the University of New South<br />
Wales, she was exposed to glassblowing<br />
through an international exchange program<br />
and was instantly drawn to the materiality<br />
and collaborative nature of glass craft. Hirst’s<br />
work spans glassblowing, glass casting and<br />
installations, and are heavily inspired by<br />
repetitive patterns, cycles of the natural world<br />
and emotional connection. In her work, she<br />
combines the fast-paced and heated<br />
excitement of glassblowing with the slow,<br />
labour intensive and meditative task of<br />
etching and carving into glass. Hirst’s practice,<br />
which began as a reflection of her<br />
surroundings, has evolved into an aesthetic<br />
and emotive lens for the projection and<br />
reflection of her personal experience that<br />
explores themes of non-verbal expression,<br />
meditation and therapy. The transparency<br />
and optical qualities of glass makes it the<br />
perfect medium to explore these themes<br />
along with repetition and layering.<br />
Much like the steadfast resilience of rocks<br />
shaped by the relentless force of water, we<br />
mark and mould ourselves by the currents of<br />
our environment. These lines, meticulously<br />
carved into soft, organic blown glass forms,<br />
act as tangible reminders of the unseen<br />
influences that shape our perceptions,<br />
actions, and emotional landscapes. Each<br />
line is a journey we traverse, echoing the<br />
complexity of our ever-changing landscape.<br />
Just as the glass reflects and refracts light,<br />
so too do we reflect the traces of<br />
our environment.<br />
In 2019, Hirst completed her Masters in Glass<br />
at the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland,<br />
where she learned to incorporate digital<br />
technologies with traditional glassblowing<br />
and casting techniques.<br />
Her 3D printed cast glass artworks, Building<br />
Blocks, 2020 and Fractals, 2022 were<br />
finalists in the emerging artist category of the<br />
<strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize. Following her Masters, Hirst<br />
undertook JamFactory’s Associate Program<br />
in the Glass Studio, where she now works as a<br />
glassblower while she continues to grow her<br />
artistic practice.<br />
48
Leading Lines, 2021<br />
hand blown glass, carved and fire polished, 600 x 300 x 400<br />
Photo: Connor Patterson
Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan<br />
Born on Gadigal land (Sydney) and raised<br />
on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land (Canberra),<br />
Emeirely Nucifora-Ryan completed a<br />
Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) at the<br />
Australian National University’s School of<br />
Art and Design in 2018. In 2019,<br />
Nucifora-Ryan participated in Richard<br />
Wheater’s Neon Green Futures Masterclass<br />
at the Canberra Glassworks where she<br />
developed her passion for neon. Although<br />
her practice uses a variety of materials,<br />
Nucifora-Ryan is drawn to glass, as she finds<br />
a sense of wonder in the properties of glass<br />
through its ability to refract, reflect, and<br />
transmit light. The inert nature of glass<br />
allows it to house noble gases and<br />
through the process of cold cathode<br />
lighting (CCL) it can create a variety<br />
of effects.<br />
This body of work was created over seven<br />
months. My aim was to produce a circle of<br />
bent glass every day from the time I was<br />
chosen to exhibit to the time of installation,<br />
allowing time for the tubes to be bombarded<br />
and filled with inert gas. This work allowed<br />
me to practise the skill of bending glass into<br />
a particular form, tracking my progress from<br />
April through October. A circle is understood<br />
to be the hardest shape to bend - an<br />
experience that the earliest circles I bent<br />
are testament to. Focussing on this one<br />
shape, my aim was to capture the progress<br />
of daily practice and document the reality<br />
of a working artist: the empty spaces<br />
representative of the days when life got in<br />
the way of that practice.<br />
The pure quantum of light created by the<br />
scale of the combined pieces produces a<br />
version of the Ganzfeld effect. By denying the<br />
viewer any blue light, the emitted hues can<br />
vary, causing the eye to doubt what it sees.<br />
The resulting piece Processed, July 2023<br />
explores how process and ritual contribute<br />
as a journey does to the final destination,<br />
where a tangible sensory experience can<br />
be afforded through profound and<br />
disciplined introspection<br />
50
Processed, July 2023, 2023<br />
glass, neon, transformers, high tensile cable (HTC), 2100 x 120 x 1500<br />
Photo: Brenton McGeachie
Ember Satyn<br />
Ember Satyn is an emerging contemporary<br />
visual artist living and studying on Kaurna<br />
Country. She completed her Bachelor of<br />
Contemporary Art at the University of South<br />
Australia and is currently undertaking her<br />
Honours in Creative Arts. In her practice,<br />
Satyn investigates the texture and<br />
distortion of the human form through glass.<br />
She is drawn to the intensity, physicality and<br />
unusual characteristics of glass, and integrates<br />
plaster and casting to push her explorations of<br />
the materiality of glass and the human body.<br />
Perceptible explores the human form,<br />
abstracting it through glass to create<br />
uncanny mildly familiar forms. These textured<br />
lifelike pieces are created through mould<br />
blowing into casts taken of the artist’s wrists.<br />
By transforming the body into a glass object<br />
and segmenting it, it can be defamiliarised.<br />
The unusual shapes and irregularities of the<br />
wrist become more visible when seen on<br />
these hollow forms. The texture of the skin<br />
pores and the lines from where the palm<br />
folds become obvious blemishes on the clear<br />
glass. Through the transparency of glass,<br />
direct replications of the human body can be<br />
turned into imperceptible unhuman objects.<br />
The translucent, luminous appearance of the<br />
glass, devoid of colour enables the pieces to<br />
maintain a ghostly, unreal quality.<br />
52
Perceptible, 2023<br />
mould blown glass, 155 x 170 x 60<br />
Photo: Pippy Mount
Carman Skeehan<br />
Carman Skeehan is a glass artist and<br />
maker living in Adelaide. Having completed<br />
JamFactory’s Associate Program in the<br />
Glass Studio in 2023, Skeehan has hit a<br />
milestone in her work, elevating her artistic<br />
practice. Guided by meticulous creative<br />
process, Skeehan centres her work on the<br />
art of storytelling through glass, exploring<br />
the intersection of narrative and materials.<br />
She draws inspiration from early oil painting<br />
and still life arrangements, creating a unique<br />
likeness in glass materials. Skeehan’s work<br />
is an exploration of these elements,<br />
seamlessly blending them to create<br />
unique and compelling pieces of art.<br />
Sunday morning challenges viewers’<br />
perceptions of reality, inviting them to<br />
explore the intersection of memory and<br />
material. It is poised to be unique, questioning<br />
the make and material of each piece,<br />
captivating audiences and redefining<br />
the boundaries of glass art. This still life<br />
transcends the conventional boundaries of<br />
blown glass art. Each piece becomes a frozen<br />
moment in time, inviting viewers to explore<br />
the relationship of memory, material and<br />
narrative, and challenging their perceptions<br />
of handmade blown glass.<br />
54
Sunday Morning, 2023<br />
blown glass, solid glass colour, enamel paints, 600 x 320 x 250<br />
Photo: Connor Patterson
Established Category Finalists
Kate Baker<br />
Kate Baker is a contemporary artist whose<br />
practice merges photo, print and moving<br />
image technologies with studio glass.<br />
A PhD Candidate of the Australian National<br />
University’s School of Art and Design, her<br />
practice is based in Sydney. Baker’s work has<br />
been widely exhibited both nationally and<br />
internationally including at the Smithsonian<br />
American Art Museum, USA; Corning<br />
Museum of Glass, USA; Toyama Museum of<br />
Glass, Japan; Palm Springs Art Museum, USA<br />
and New Mexico Museum of Art, USA.<br />
Both a finalist and winner of national and<br />
international art prizes, scholarships and<br />
grants, Baker’s artworks are featured in<br />
collections globally.<br />
The maternal gaze embodies its own poetry<br />
of love and longing. Saturated in intimacy, the<br />
bond between mother and child transcends<br />
material reckoning. In this series, I merge<br />
the inky veil of the digital image with the<br />
reflective material of silver glass mirror<br />
to capture and abstract light, thereby<br />
bringing into being that which is<br />
otherwise beyond vision.<br />
58
Untitled (André), <strong>2024</strong><br />
digitally printed silver glass mirror, 730 x 30 x 1100 each panel<br />
Photo: the artist
Clare Belfrage<br />
Clare Belfrage has maintained a distinguished<br />
arts practice for over 35 years. Her detailed<br />
and complex glass drawings on blown glass<br />
forms reflect the high-level skill and innovative<br />
approach to her craft that makes her one of<br />
Australia’s most renowned artists in this<br />
medium. Inspired by nature and its various<br />
rhythms and energies, Belfrage’s exquisite<br />
sculptural objects express her fine attention to<br />
detail, a fascination with pattern and rhythm<br />
and deep connection to the natural world.<br />
Belfrage has received several prestigious<br />
awards including the inaugural JamFactory<br />
<strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize in 2016 and the Tom Malone<br />
Glass Prize, Art Gallery of Western Australia<br />
in 2005 and 2011. She was the featured artist<br />
for the 2018 SALA Festival and celebrated as<br />
one of South Australia’s most influential artists<br />
working in a craft medium through<br />
JamFactory’s ICON series, presenting a solo<br />
exhibition, A Measure of Time, for a three year<br />
national tour. Belfrage continues to exhibit<br />
extensively and is represented in major public<br />
collections throughout Australia, USA and<br />
Europe including the National Gallery of<br />
Australia, Canberra; Corning Museum of<br />
Glass, USA; Tacoma Museum of Glass, USA:<br />
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark; Castello<br />
Sforzesco Museum, Italy and Nijima Glass<br />
Museum, Japan.<br />
This piece was made in response to a research<br />
period spent in the rainforests of Eastern<br />
Australia. In a dim light that glowed green,<br />
the vibrancy of surface growths and<br />
coverings, particularly moss, lichen and bark<br />
are astoundingly beautiful. It is about the<br />
layering of time, the life, death and decay,<br />
and re-generation that is ever present in<br />
the rainforest landscape. Expressing our<br />
connection to the natural world is as<br />
important as ever, but perhaps with a new<br />
kind of urgency attached. I am moved and<br />
inspired by forces in nature that are quiet<br />
and gentle, powerful and profound.<br />
60
In the Glow of Green Collection, 2023<br />
blown glass with cane drawing, sandblasted and pumice polished, 1590 x 350 x 440<br />
Photo: Pippy Mount
Annette Blair<br />
Annette Blair is a glassmaker based near<br />
Canberra, where she works of out the<br />
Canberra Glassworks as well as her home<br />
studio in Burra, New South Wales. She is a<br />
maker who has dedicated her 24 year<br />
practice to refining technical processes in<br />
order to celebrate the beauty and movement<br />
of glass as a material, while also exploring<br />
connections with people, place and the<br />
narratives of objects. With a broad skill-set,<br />
Blair also works regularly as a gaffer,<br />
fabricating glass works for other high-profile<br />
artists as well as traveling to teach<br />
glassblowing and glass painting nationally<br />
and internationally. Completing her Bachelor<br />
of Arts (Honours) at the Australian National<br />
University’s School of Art in 2004, Blair then<br />
relocated to Adelaide where she completed<br />
JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Glass<br />
Studio. Returning to Canberra in 2008, Blair<br />
works with a talented team of glassblowers<br />
and continues to grow her diverse practice.<br />
In stillness explores the residues of passing<br />
time and our connection to people and place.<br />
Referencing familiar, functional objects which<br />
are often overlooked, I celebrate their life of<br />
purpose, the quiet stories held within, and the<br />
traces left behind by people who may have<br />
lived with and used these objects. Building up<br />
layers of glass enamels and rust, I honour the<br />
imagined narratives of these objects and their<br />
decay, while further exploring the potential of<br />
the medium by utilising and expanding upon<br />
traditional glass-working techniques. I employ<br />
both control and surrender to the material<br />
when creating these works, using heat and<br />
material knowledge to engage with the work<br />
while allowing the glass to have its own voice.<br />
The malleability and permanence of the<br />
material allows me to reimagine these forms<br />
while at the same time preserve them.<br />
62
In stillness, <strong>2024</strong><br />
blown, cold worked, enamelled and rusted glass, 490 x 470 x 330<br />
Photo: Adam McGrath
Mel Douglas<br />
Mel Douglas has worked as an independent<br />
studio artist since 2000. In 2020, Douglas<br />
was awarded her PhD from the Australian<br />
National University for practice-lead research<br />
investigating how studio glass can be<br />
understood through the aesthetics of<br />
drawing. In addition to winning the 2014 and<br />
2020 Tom Malone Prize, a prestigious award<br />
through which a work is acquired each year<br />
into the collection of the National Gallery<br />
of Western Australia, Douglas has received<br />
several major awards including the Ranamok<br />
Glass Prize in 2002 and Glasmuseet Ebeltolft’s<br />
International Young Glass Award in 2007, as<br />
well as her selection as the Art Group Creative<br />
Fellow at the Canberra Glassworks. In 2019,<br />
Douglas’ work was the inaugural acquisition<br />
for the National Gallery of Australia’s Robert<br />
and Eugenie Bell Decorative Arts and Design<br />
Fund. Her work is held in the private<br />
collections and public institutions both<br />
nationally and internationally, including the<br />
National Gallery of Australia; Corning Museum<br />
of Glass, USA; Chrysler Museum of Art, USA<br />
and Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark.<br />
Objects and drawings are often thought of<br />
as two separate entities. My work explores<br />
and interweaves the creative possibilities of<br />
this liminal space, where the form is not just a<br />
support for drawing, but a three-dimensional<br />
drawing itself. Using the unique qualities of<br />
the material, and the rich potential of mark<br />
making on and with glass, I am using line<br />
as a way to inform, define and enable<br />
three-dimensional space.<br />
Overshadow I, II, III, <strong>2024</strong><br />
framed glass drawing on hand rolled glass<br />
770 x 50 x 500 each panel. Photo: David Paterson<br />
64
Hannah Gason<br />
Hannah Gason is a visual artist living and<br />
working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country.<br />
Since graduating from the Australian National<br />
University’s School of Art and Design in 2015,<br />
Gason has been working from her studio at<br />
the Canberra Glassworks. She has exhibited<br />
both nationally and internationally, holding<br />
solo exhibitions at the Canberra Glassworks<br />
and Drill Hall Gallery as well as featuring work<br />
at Sydney Contemporary. Gason has also been<br />
commissioned to create large-scale works in<br />
public settings, such as an installation for the<br />
Canberra Centre to coincide with Floriade,<br />
and a painted ground mural in response to<br />
Frank Hinder’s ceiling mosaic for Design<br />
Canberra. Her glass work was included in<br />
Canberra’s Enlighten Festival, in 2020, with a<br />
light projection on Parliament House. Gason’s<br />
work is housed in the Australian Parliament<br />
House Art Collection, Australian National Art<br />
Glass Collection and Australian National<br />
University Art Collection.<br />
My practice is an exploration of perception<br />
and space through glass, colour and light.<br />
I am interested in subtle shifts of colour,<br />
repeating patterns and contrasts between<br />
flatness and depth that occur around changes<br />
in light. I am fascinated by the materiality<br />
of glass and the way in which is interacts<br />
with light through qualities of transparency,<br />
opacity, surface texture and form. My<br />
practice has consistently explored these<br />
qualities through carefully arranged<br />
compositions, layering of glass and<br />
considered light application. Light has the<br />
unique ability to both articulate and create<br />
an illusion of space. I create works that<br />
contain tonal variations and colour contrasts<br />
that suggest subtle movement and illusions<br />
of a three-dimensional space.<br />
The Shaping Light series features illuminated<br />
sculptures that convey an illusionary space<br />
and perspective using glass, colour and light.<br />
Kiln formed and architectural glass panels<br />
consist of geometric forms and repeating<br />
patterns that shape and hold light within the<br />
work. The circular motif is used throughout<br />
the layers and the forms gently touch and<br />
align when viewed from a single point. As<br />
viewers interact with the illuminated works,<br />
the textures and forms create a constantly<br />
shifting view of space and perspective.<br />
Shaping Light V, 2023<br />
glass, aluminium frame, LED lighting, 75 x 260 x 365<br />
Photo: Rohan Thomson<br />
66
Katie-Ann Houghton<br />
Katie-Ann Houghton is an artist, designer<br />
and maker who works between Canberra<br />
and Sydney. Her contemporary works are<br />
inspired by early twentieth century design<br />
and embody a decade long passion for<br />
traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques.<br />
Houghton’s design philosophy is based on<br />
the idea that the objects we use every day<br />
should engage our senses and bring us joy.<br />
Designed and handcrafted by Houghton,<br />
KAH aims to challenge the culture of mass<br />
consumption by creating work with innovative<br />
design and handmade quality. With a range<br />
designed to be both practical and functional,<br />
KAH aims to change the conventional<br />
expectations of tableware, and have<br />
us view each piece as both a piece of<br />
contemporary design and an object of use.<br />
BUILT TO emerged from memories of the<br />
architecture in Harajuku, Japan, with long<br />
windows that mirrored the light from the<br />
clouds. These six objects capture and distort<br />
light, and as the viewer moves around the<br />
body of work create a relationship of intrigue<br />
to the vessels. Inspired by the reflections on<br />
tall glass buildings, this work serves as a<br />
sanctuary of serenity and contemplation in a<br />
world of constant motion and noise. Light is<br />
my accomplice in the pursuit of representing<br />
the relationships happening across space,<br />
and conversations taking place between<br />
architecture, art and design. Light is brought<br />
in to play by the shapes of these objects. Like<br />
architecture itself, this work interacts with its<br />
environment, inviting viewers to contemplate<br />
the interplay of light, form and space.<br />
68
BUILT TO, <strong>2024</strong><br />
blown and cut glass, 1000 x 450 x 300<br />
Photo: Adam McGrath
Tom Moore<br />
Tom Moore is a glass artist based in Adelaide.<br />
His time is divided between working within<br />
the hot glass community at JamFactory, from<br />
his own home studio and at the University<br />
of South Australia as an Adjunct Research<br />
Fellow, where he is undertaking practical<br />
investigations in glass focusing on hybrid<br />
life-forms, humour and the anthropocene.<br />
Moore’s work has been featured in exhibitions<br />
at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney;<br />
Gallery Of Modern Art, Brisbane; National<br />
Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Art Gallery<br />
of South Australia, Adelaide. He was the focus<br />
of JamFactory’s ICON series in 2020, which<br />
was celebrated through a major national<br />
touring exhibition, Abundant Wonder, and<br />
has received a number of awards for his<br />
glass artworks.<br />
This group of glass characters are the result<br />
of continued exploration into representational<br />
blown glass. They are influenced to varying<br />
degrees by vessel-making traditions,<br />
making particular reference to historical<br />
figurative bottles. Two of the five are<br />
theoretically usable as containers, though<br />
intentionally impractical, ludicrously delicate<br />
and not dishwasher safe. The others, though<br />
partially hollow, depart from the utilitarian<br />
vessel altogether. They continue to function<br />
as mischievous ornaments that might provoke<br />
curiosity about the cultural legacy of craft<br />
processes. These objects demonstrate<br />
respect for and dedication to ancient<br />
decorative techniques developed in Venice.<br />
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to<br />
learn and practice these methods and am<br />
conscious of how lucky and unlikely it is to<br />
be working in this way on this land. The<br />
antipodean nature of glassmaking in this<br />
country is central to the reason that I make<br />
characters with their legs in the air. Of course,<br />
I also find them delightful companions.<br />
70
Dandy Lion among the Antipodes (Handsome Duckling, Sweet Boots,<br />
Quadravian Cyclops, Dandy Lion & Kohl Canary), 2022 & 2023<br />
glass, silver leaf and HXTAL epoxy to attach the stoppers to the bottle toppers<br />
1300 x 230 x 405. Photo: Grant Hancock
Nick Mount<br />
Nick Mount was among the first generation<br />
of artists to be introduced to glass in<br />
Australia in the early 1970s. He went on to<br />
establish Victoria’s first private hot glass<br />
studio and subsequently developed an<br />
internationally renowned arts practice that<br />
continues to reach new levels of technical<br />
and artistic achievement today. Mount’s<br />
longevity as a leading glass artist and<br />
designer is testament to his virtuosity with<br />
the medium and intuitive ability to let it<br />
speak for itself. Founded in the historic and<br />
cultural traditions of the Venetians, inspired<br />
by the collaborative nature of studio glass<br />
and cultivated by the local and international<br />
glass community, Mount’s work tells a<br />
uniquely Australian story. It is a story of<br />
partnership and persistence, industry and<br />
innovation, experimentation and growth. In<br />
the traditions of the studio glass movement,<br />
Mount is an advocate for communal training<br />
and production. He has a reputation for being<br />
a generous mentor and regularly collaborates<br />
with a team of highly skilled glassblowers.<br />
In a career spanning almost 50 years, Mount<br />
has made a significant contribution to the<br />
development of studio glass as an artistic<br />
medium in Australia and is celebrated as a<br />
master of his craft.<br />
I intend my work to be recognised for its<br />
homage to the techniques of hand working<br />
in hot glass. For the value of making by hand<br />
and for the contemporary statement I can<br />
make through concentration on sculptural<br />
compositions. Lean In is a composition<br />
referencing figurative abstraction. A small<br />
vessel sits votively at the foot of a pair of<br />
supportive forms characterised by their<br />
intimacy. Positioned companionably on a<br />
charred timber plinth they wear their crests<br />
as a symbol of serenity and dignity, shining<br />
for the makers and their cultural history.<br />
Lean In, 2023<br />
blown glass, cane, murrini, surface worked, charred oak base<br />
320 x 210 x 650 Photo: Pippy Mount<br />
72
Ian Mowbray<br />
Ian Mowbray’s addiction to glass started<br />
in the mid-70s and hasn’t left.<br />
1981 - leased workshop in JamFactory, SA.<br />
1989 - established Moto Glass with<br />
Vicki Torr, SA.<br />
2002 - established World Glass in<br />
Melbourne, Vic.<br />
2022 - setup glass workshop with<br />
Yvette Dumergue, Vic.<br />
Mowbray’s glass making has two parts:<br />
1. How to realize an object in glass.<br />
2. To make objects in glass that hopefully makes<br />
the viewer question and think about the subject<br />
matter, opening dialogue.<br />
Racer 502 Cirrus is a 1.1 replica of a paper<br />
glider designed by Dr. Yasuaki Ninomiya.<br />
His paper gliders held the record for the<br />
longest flight in 1980. This glass replica will fly<br />
with sufficient thrust on takeoff. The reason<br />
for making a glass version of Dr. Yasuaki<br />
Ninomiya’s paper glider is two-fold:<br />
One – the challenge of replicating the grace<br />
and elegance of a paper glider in glass.<br />
Two - understanding that the flight won’t end<br />
well. Will the proud owner launch the glass<br />
glider into the air to see how far it will fly?”<br />
The Subjects and Collections of work<br />
Mowbray has engaged in and created are:<br />
“Panacea for the Addle Mind”<br />
(Spikey Glass Objects).<br />
Masculinity and the meaning off<br />
(Plunged Glass Blocks).<br />
Gender and especially the areas in between<br />
(Plunged Glass Blocks).<br />
The home and the domestic realm<br />
(Snow Domes).<br />
The family “Family Souvenirs”<br />
(Specimen Jars).<br />
Venereal diseases (Petri Dishes).<br />
Conquering the fear of handling glass and its<br />
fragility (Spines).<br />
Will you destroy one off expensive piece of<br />
glass to satisfy curiosity? (Gliders).<br />
These subjects have always intrigued Mowbray<br />
and making the work is a very cathartic process.<br />
74
Racer 502 Cirrus, <strong>2024</strong><br />
glass, 235 x 201 x 40<br />
Photo: David McArthur
Kirstie Rea<br />
As an independent artist, Kirstie Rea’s<br />
work over the past 35 years has investigated<br />
her exploration of the Australian bush<br />
environment beyond the urban fringe. At<br />
the core of this investigation lies a desire to<br />
seek an understanding of our often-tenuous<br />
connections to place. Walking in these places,<br />
seeking solitude and distance from the<br />
everyday, Rea has drawn on her photography<br />
and writing to inform her making. Recent<br />
years have seen her turn to spending<br />
considerably more time in the garden,<br />
where the delights of seasons and nature,<br />
of growing and producing, have given her as<br />
much reward as the bush walks of previous<br />
years. Inspiration from the interconnectedness<br />
within nature, alongside simple garden<br />
narratives, are embedded in recent works.<br />
Having established her studio in 1987<br />
following her graduation from the Australian<br />
National University’s School of Arts with<br />
a Bachelor of Arts (Visual), Rea has<br />
continued to develop her practice and<br />
become internationally recognised and<br />
respected for her works in glass. She was a<br />
lecturer in the Australian National University’s<br />
Glass Workshop from 1987-2003, and was<br />
the inaugural Creative Director at Canberra<br />
Glassworks. Teaching and mentoring have<br />
played a major role in Rea’s arts practice.<br />
She has taught in her field of kiln formed<br />
glass and cold working techniques across the<br />
world since 1987. Rea’s glass practice has been<br />
recognised by awards such as the Ausglass<br />
Honorary Life Membership Award (2009),<br />
artsACT Creative Arts Fellowship (2004),<br />
CAPO Fellow Award (2014), Canberra<br />
Glassworks Fellowship (2016), Klaus Moje<br />
Glass award and, most recently, a World<br />
Crafts Council Asia Pacific Region, Craft<br />
Master Award (<strong>2024</strong>).<br />
Complexity and variety nourished with effort<br />
and return, a reminder of the importance for<br />
daily connections to our natural world. This<br />
work abstracts the awe and surprise that is<br />
found in nature, in the garden, things that<br />
delight and offer us a sense of wonder.<br />
To flourish 6, <strong>2024</strong><br />
folded glass, painted wood frame, 90 x 230 x 980<br />
Photo: David Paterson<br />
76
Layla Walter<br />
New Zealand born artist Layla Walter has<br />
maintained a full-time career in glass since<br />
1998. The technical capacity in her work is due<br />
in part to fifteen years of experience working<br />
for glass casting pioneer Ann Robinson. Walter<br />
has a Bachelor of Design – 3D Glass from<br />
Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland,<br />
New Zealand (1994-1998), where Elizabeth<br />
McClure was her first tutor in glass. Justine<br />
Olsen, Curator of Decorative Art and Design,<br />
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa<br />
wrote: “The visual simplicity of Layla Walter’s<br />
forms belies complex conversations around<br />
New Zealand’s history, our environment and<br />
the importance of people and place”. Walter<br />
has a solo exhibition at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney,<br />
in May <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Walter’s work is held in both distinguished<br />
private collections, notably those of Sir Elton<br />
John and Sir Peter Jackson, and in public<br />
institutions such as the Auckland Museum<br />
and Te Papa Tongarewa. Her work is held in<br />
museums, galleries, and cultural embassies<br />
around the world including in Australasia,<br />
Africa, Europe and USA. Walter has also<br />
been invited to teach, demonstrate, and talk<br />
about glass casting and New Zealand glass<br />
in Australia, America, Canada, Germany,<br />
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and New Zealand.<br />
Most recently, the work Emily’s Hydrangea<br />
has been featured in FLORA, which is<br />
published by Te Papa Press. In 2019,<br />
Walter represented Aotearoa at the First<br />
International Festival of Handicrafts in<br />
Uzbekistan. Since then she has established<br />
Mahi ā Ringa - Craft New Zealand Aotearoa<br />
and is currently working with World Crafts<br />
Council Australia and is vice president of the<br />
World Crafts Council - Asia Pacific Region -<br />
South Pacific.<br />
Having cast glass for 30 years, this work<br />
reflects a recent jump in my technical and<br />
conceptual practice. Supported by Creative<br />
New Zealand, I worked out a way to avoid<br />
wax in the design stage, eliminating the need<br />
for wax steam out and enabling both the<br />
moulds and glass artworks to go up in scale.<br />
Moulds could now made in two parts to give<br />
greater access to the internal walls of the<br />
vessel, so I can apply pattern in a new way<br />
and introduce the human form for the first<br />
time into my work at scale. At 460 mm across<br />
and up to 45 kilograms in the casting, these<br />
are the largest I have made.<br />
The seed to these advancements happened<br />
due to alternate thinking space and lack of<br />
studio access during the 2020 COVID<br />
lockdowns, when I utilised basic materials<br />
at hand like playdough to make body<br />
impressions. There is a surreal nature to the<br />
over-scaled flowers and allusive body parts<br />
floating on the inside of this glass bowl,<br />
which are befitting of the disjointed<br />
experience and suspension of life as usual<br />
which lockdowns provided. It took two years<br />
to test the evolution of my process. Layla<br />
Dahlia is the result and a new starting point.<br />
78
Layla Dahlia, 2023<br />
Reichenbach 45% lead crystal, cast glass, 460 x 460 x 365<br />
Photo: Fotoarte
Kathryn Wightman<br />
Kathryn Wightman’s journey with glass began<br />
in 2000 during her time as a student at the<br />
University of Sunderland, England. There,<br />
she earned a Bachelor of Arts (Glass and<br />
Ceramics) in 2004 followed by a Master<br />
of Arts (Glass) in 2005. Wightman’s dedication<br />
to her craft earned her a Craft Council<br />
placement in 2006, where she contributed<br />
to establishing a creative practice. This<br />
experience fuelled her pursuit of a PhD<br />
focusing on integrating glassmaking and<br />
printmaking processes, which she completed<br />
at the University of Sunderland in 2012 with<br />
funding from the Arts Humanities Research<br />
Council in England.<br />
Following her research, Wightman shared her<br />
expertise as a visiting lecturer at the University<br />
of Sunderland and worked as a glassmaker<br />
at the prestigious National Glass Centre in<br />
Sunderland. In 2012, she made the significant<br />
move to New Zealand, taking on the role of<br />
Glass Lecturer at the Wanganui Glass School.<br />
Since then, her artistic prowess has garnered<br />
recognition, including awards such as the<br />
Emerge Glass Prize (Gold Award), Ranamok<br />
Glass Prize (2014), Young Glass Kvadrat Prize<br />
(2017), and winning the Whanganui Arts<br />
Review in both 2018 and 2019. She Wightman<br />
became the inaugural recipient of the Patillo<br />
Project, which led to a solo showcase at the<br />
Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui.<br />
Wightman’s current practice is centered<br />
around the exploration and representation<br />
of human behaviour, whether that be through<br />
the eyes of a mother and or as a member<br />
of society. Perception, memory and emotion<br />
are key aspects that inform the work<br />
alongside the use of pattern, texture and<br />
colour. In this triptych the decorative has<br />
become the vehicle for expression and the<br />
idea is realised through the unique sifting and<br />
sintering glass powder process Wightman<br />
has developed throughout her career.<br />
Layering through the use of halftone<br />
gradients has been used to alter what can<br />
and can’t be seen by the viewer. The work<br />
prompts us to consider the contrast between<br />
things as well as what might exist in the space<br />
in-between. An emptiness full of possibility.<br />
Wightman’s achievements extend to<br />
being a selected finalist in prestigious<br />
competitions such as the <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize in<br />
2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022, and her work has<br />
been featured in publications such as New<br />
Glass Review. Beyond her artistic endeavours,<br />
she shares her knowledge globally through<br />
workshops and lectures, contributing to<br />
multiple creative areas within the UCOL<br />
Whanganui Creative Industries.<br />
80
In-Between, <strong>2024</strong><br />
screen printed glass powder on sheet, kiln-formed, 3000 x 150 x 1000<br />
Photo: Michael McKeagg
First Published in Adelaide, Australia in <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Published to coincide with the exhibition of<br />
finalists’ works for the <strong>2024</strong> <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass<br />
Prize, shown at JamFactory, Adelaide from<br />
10 May to 7 July; at the School of Art and Design<br />
Gallery at the Australian National University in<br />
Canberra from 8 August to 6 September <strong>2024</strong>;<br />
and at Australian Design Centre in Sydney from<br />
3 October to 13 November <strong>2024</strong>.<br />
Copyright for texts in this publication is held by<br />
JamFactory and the authors. Copyright on all<br />
works of art featured belongs to the individual<br />
artists. All images, unless otherwise credited,<br />
are courtesy of the artists. Copyright for<br />
photographic images is held by the individual<br />
photographers as acknowledged.<br />
All measurements have been given length<br />
before width before height or height by diameter<br />
and have been rounded to the nearest millimetre.<br />
Published by JamFactory<br />
19 Morphett Street, Adelaide SA 5000<br />
jamfactory.com.au<br />
All rights reserved. No part of this publication<br />
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system<br />
or transmitted in any form or by any means<br />
without the prior permission in writing from<br />
the publisher. Please forward all enquiries to<br />
contact@jamfactory.com.au<br />
© JamFactory, <strong>2024</strong><br />
82
Ian Mowbray, Racer 502 Cirrus (detail), <strong>2024</strong><br />
Photo: David McArthur
JamFactory supports and promotes outstanding<br />
contemporary craft and design through its widely<br />
acclaimed studios, galleries and shops. A unique<br />
not-for-profit organisation located in the<br />
Adelaide city centre and Seppeltsfield in the<br />
Barossa. JamFactory is supported by the South<br />
Australian Government and recognised both<br />
nationally and internationally as a centre<br />
for excellence.<br />
JamFactory acknowledges the support of the<br />
South Australian Government through Arts South<br />
Australia and the assistance of the Visual Arts<br />
and Crafts Strategy, an initiative of the Australian,<br />
State and Territory Governments. JamFactory’s<br />
Exhibitions Program is also assisted by the<br />
Australian Government through the<br />
Australia Council.<br />
JamFactory gratefully acknowledges the<br />
generous donors who have made the <strong>2024</strong><br />
<strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize possible; Jim Carreker and<br />
Helen Carreker, Pamela Wall OAM and<br />
Ian Wall AM (1931 - 2022), the David & Dulcie<br />
Henshall Foundation, David McKee AM and<br />
Pam McKee, the Hon Diana Laidlaw AM,<br />
Susan Armitage, Sonia Laidlaw, Maia Ambegaokar<br />
and Joshua Bishop.<br />
JamFactory also acknowledges the generosity<br />
of the supporting sponsors and presenting<br />
partners for the <strong>2024</strong> <strong>FUSE</strong> Glass Prize.<br />
Arts South Australia<br />
84