National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2020

NATIONAL EMERGING ART

GLASS

PRIZE 2020

NATIONAL EMERGING ART

GLASS

PRIZE 2020

NATIONAL EMERGING ART

GLASS

PRIZE 2020

EX H I BI T IO N DAT ES 14 MARCH - 21 JUNE 2020 EXHIBITION CURATED BY MICHAEL SCARRONE Wagga Wagga Art Gallery Home of the National Art Glass Collection Wagga Wagga Civic Centre, Cnr Baylis & Morrow Streets PO Box 20, Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 P 02 6926 9660 F 02 6926 9669 E gallery@wagga.nsw.gov.au wagga.nsw.gov.au/gallery Published by Wagga Wagga Art Gallery 2020 Copyright © Wagga Wagga City Council Copyright © Essays remain with the individual authors Copyright © Artworks remain with the individual artists Edited by Michael Scarrone Designed by Sally Marceau, Wagga Wagga City Council ISBN: 978-1-875247-08-0 Title page image: Inaugural National Student Art Glass Prize 2010 Photograph courtsey of Andrew Halyday Photograph opposite page: Marrambidya Wetland, Wagga Wagga City Council Wagga Wagga Art Gallery acknowledges and respects the Wiradjuri people and Elders as the traditional owners of this land in which we live and work.

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STAT E M E NT OF COMMIT MEN T TO A B O R IGI NAL AUST R ALIANS Wagga Wagga Art Gallery would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the Land - Wiradjuri country, and to pay respects to Elders past and present.

Wagga Wagga City Council has a long history and association with the local First Nations Peoples community within the Local Government Area (LGA).

Council values the diversity of our local community and supports reconciliation by working consistently in partnership with the local Wiradjuri and First Nations community, always ensuring that the process is based on respect, trust and a spirit of openness.

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a-d John White Roll the Presses 2015 blown glass, wood, metal and cold-worked 60 x 120 x 32cm

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Contents 08 FOREWORD

CAROLINE GERAGHTY 10

INTRODUCTION MICHAEL SCARRONE

13 ARTWO RKS 60

IMAGE CREIDTS

62 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Foreword The National Art Glass Prize is recognised as one of the foremost events in Australian glass. Home of the National Art Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is proud of the role this award plays in promoting glass as one of Australia’s most innovative artforms.

The National Emerging Art Glass Prize plays an important role in supporting many of Australia’s leading contemporary glass artists. Since 2010, this biannual prize showcases the extraordinary skill of these artists, highlighting the breadth of this incredible medium.

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the assistance and encouragement from the Australian National University, Sydney University, Monash University, University of South Australia and Edith Cowan University. The gallery also appreciates the assistance and encouragement provided by Ausglass, the national glass artists’ association.

The National Emerging Art Glass Prize demonstrates Wagga Wagga City Council’s commitment to the development of a rich and vibrant regional arts culture, and the ongoing fostering, development and promotion of glass as an artform.

Caroline Geraghty Director Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

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National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2018

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Introduction In 2020, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the acclaimed biennial National Emerging Art Glass Prize (NEAGP). The NEAGP has changed significantly over the past ten years. Initially the prize was only open to artists studying at one of Australia’s universities offering art glass as part of their programing/programming. Now the NEAGP is open to students from universities across Australia and artists that are within 5 years of emerging from their studies. This has helped to broaden the exhibition by supporting recent graduates and providing a prestigious gallery venue in which to showcase their work. It is vitally important to foster emerging talent so it can thrive in the competitive world of art making.

One of our primary functions at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is to grow and enhance the National Art Glass Collection through the acquisition of significant and innovative art glass works. The NEAGP has been an integral part of the National Art Glass Collection collecting rationale since its inception enabling, so far the acquisition of 15 new works from a diverse range of artist from all over the globe.

The collecting impulse can be seen as a direct arrow to the relationship we, as humans have with our possessions and how we interact with them, value them and inhabit with them. There are many ways in which we promote our version of the human condition from collecting, whether for comfort or to calm the discomfort that life offers (retail therapy). We collect to anchor the present and to honour the past. Collecting can help to improve our knowledge base, our taste, ourselves, our sense of discipline, order and our identity.

Thanks to programs like NEAGP we are able to offer to a wider audience the experience and wonder of the art glass maker. Living with art is essential; it is enriching for the spirit, uplifting for the soul and crucial in elevating the psyche.

The cost of an artistic object reflects the individual history of its maker and the object’s journey to completion and the maker’s experience, passion and ability. To present this in a coherent way for others to experience comes at a price.

This can never be possible without an ongoing funding base to put in play a collecting policy.

The National Art Glass Collection and the NEAGP are supported, funded and championed by the Wagga Wagga City Council. Their ongoing support highlights their passion and respect for the importance of supplying to a wider community; cultural sustenance.

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The National Art Glass Collection and the NEAGP has inspired many artists to further their art practice and pursue a career in the art community. Belinda Toll, the inaugural winner of the 2010 NEAGP reminisces, ‘I think back to my first visit to the National Art Glass Gallery, at a time when I had not even started my career as an artist. I never envisioned on that first visit that my work would be part of this amazing collection and that it might one day inspire other emerging artists to follow their passion’1 As Belinda notes, the National Art Glass Prize aims to inspire artists to consider contemporary art as a way of life, and to reflect on the ways art has, and continues to, push boundaries and comment on our world and the artist’s place in it.

I congratulate the artists in the 2020 NEAGP for sharing their art practice with us as they make significant progress towards a path within the national art glass scene.

Wagga Wagga City Council, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and the art glass community as well as the listed advocates of this event deserve recognition for their ongoing support. I encourage the audience to enjoy and engage with the art of these makers and perhaps be inspired to follow a path in the creative endeavours.

Michael Scarrone Curator - National Art Glass Collection Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, ‘To Scotland and Back’ in Australian Signatures: The National Art Glass Collection from the collection of Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, 2013, p. 20.

1.

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2018 National Emerging Art Glass Prize winner ROSE-MARY FAULKNER Continuum 2017 kiln formed glass and decals 19.5 x 290 x 0.15 cm

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National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2020

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I am one of few artists who use this 8bit graphics from gaming/popculture to inspire my art. Zelda Pots 1&2 were created using the murrini technique. I make up a rod of glass; when cut, reveals a cross section of duplicates of the same image imitating to the way the original games were generated. It is then fused into a flat panel creating a pattern.

I create forms inspired by the games I am referencing.

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NICK DORAN ADAMS Zelda Pot 1&2 2019 murrini blown 20 x 18 x 18 cm (each)

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Backbone of Australia is a handmade set of glass Islamic prayer beads, the glass infused with ethically sourced kangaroo bone, original creation of the artist.

The work is an exploration of transformation, highlighting the transitional states of belonging through life and faith, both the medium and practice of the work alluding to ritualistic processes. What started as subversivly “islamifying� a white colonial Australian icon, eventually became a serene merging of culture and icon; providing a deeper connection between the land we stand on and the heavens above.

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LARA CHAMAS Backbone of Australia 2019 Macroo Os glass, lampworked, thread, silver (infused with ethically sourced kangaroo bone) 30 x 15 x 2 cm

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This work is a visual representation of water towers in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands. These towers are scattered within the communities and have tapped into the water table since early colonisation. With rampant modern consumption of natural resources drying up the sacred life sustaining waterholes this work encompasses the duality of being a source of life in a harsh landscape, whilst continuing to impact the environment and oppression of Indigenous Australians.

Made from glass and Silky Oak timber.

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HAMISH DONALDSON Water Table #2 & #3 2019 blown glass, timber 55 x 38 x 38cm - 80 x 22 x 22cm

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My work explores organic forms and patterns represented through traditional glassmaking techniques. My vessels are inspired by the Venetian technique of murrine and the fluid nature of molten glass. Murrine is used to create thin lines of colour that dance around the vessel as if blown by the wind, giving the appearance of grass, or brushstrokes. This pattern is created by stretching, pulling, and cutting glass colour repetitively and melting into compositions. This work serves as an exploration of traditional glass techniques through a contemporary lens.

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BAILEY DONOVAN Dry Grass 2019 blown glass, murrine 40 x 40 x 25 cm

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This artwork aims to reveal the existing relationship between technology, material and nature. I created works that show the symbiotic relationship between pattern, glass and technology; how observations from pattern in nature have informed the advancement of technology. I developed a way of designing a structure from geometric patterns and lattices, growing a single glass component into an aesthetically pleasing and visually complex structure. I used the Waterjet machines through the use of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) programs such as Adobe Illustrator, and the Intellimax Program, Layout, to cut out precise components out of glass. This methodology allows the sculpture to exist in a balance of simple form and complex structure.

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BERMI DREYER SiO₂ Na₂ CaO (Green and Yellow) 2019 waterjet cut float glass, glass paint, epoxy glue 25 x 50 x 35 cm

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Grant’s first work since graduating continues the same practice methodologies, a search for an authentic queer voice through the creation of a material voice. This search included shame and overcoming the shame of being gay. More active than previous work using neon and jewel like glass slabs.Three coloured slabs are polished allowing the light to refract and encompass them, shifting the perspective and colours of light, playing as metaphor for speaking shame and allowing vulnerability to come to light.

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LOUIS GRANT Queer (vulnerability) 2019 kiln formed and cold worked glass, neon, wood, paint 33 x 99 x 17.5 cm

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Who am I, who will I meet, who will I touch and who will I greet?

A photograph of my mother circa 1929, took my breath away. Not satisfied with just the image, a poem flowed questioning who, what, where her life might take her.

The fragility of memory is a key component of my work. To memorialise my mother, her image sits between layers of clear glass. This is one of three blocks from the family series.

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GRANIA HICKLEY Wonderment 2019 digital screen print, kiln fired 21 x 30 x 4 cm

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It’s when the brain no longer functions as it once did, that its complexity becomes even more apparent. Two diseases attributed to the brain affect my immediate family. My father has Parkinson’s and my mother has Alzheimer’s. In our brains we trust - for our family - this trust has been lost.

This work is the result of a 5 month residency with neurologists at the South Australian Medical Research Institute.

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NAOMI HUNTER Brains Trust 2019: Macro Micro 2019 blown and sculpted furnace glass, engraved optical lenses, metal trolley 89 x 46 x 46 cm

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Window of Granules was made through a series of experiments, playing with ideas of perception and exploring the organic nature of glass through its surface. Using this granule patter returns the audience back to its founding particle, giving the object a sandy finish. I was drawing inspiration from naturally forming patinas and the sporadic nature of ceramic glazes to create an irregular surface.

Through this surface texture it transitions the glass piece from a transparent body to a vessel that bounces light within itself.

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TALA KAALIM Window of Granules 2019 hot sculpted glass 16 x 15 x 2.5 cm

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Inspired by ancient mountains and rock formations, I aim to utilise the materiality of glass to evoke sensations of wonder in the representation of geological forms and imagery and their ancient origins. Fine mark making and subtle highlights are created, through a series of kiln-forming processes, by exploiting the reactive properties of lead and sulphur-based glass. These processes also mimic natural geological rock forming processes of sedimentation, intrusion and metamorphism.

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RITA KELLAWAY Labyrinthine Vlll 2020 kiln formed glass 84 x 125 x 3.5 cm

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Museums are filled with the remnants of past civilizations, depicting snippets of what daily life held, from the mundane to the heroic. I wonder what we will leave behind for future generations to unearth. Today we spend much of our time consumed with screens that offer distraction, comfort, information and ultimately isolation. My work explores the benefits technology provides and the distance it creates between people. How will our technologically driven lives be interpreted by future civilizations?

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JESSICA MURTAGH Modern Relic III: Quality time together, apart 2019 blown glass, sandblasted 30 x 20 x 20 cm

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KhĂ´ra 30 captures the intangible space between mother and child, highlighting areas of closeness and intimacy through depth and light. Representing my interpretation of intersubjectivity where the mother moves freely neither all dominating nor completely self-sacrificing. The concept of intersubjectivity not only gives the mother her own sense of agency, it also allows for infinite forms and textures of relationship between mother and child. KhĂ´ra was created from a plaster form of me and my son hugging.

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CATHERINE NEWTON Khôra 30 2020 cast coldworked glass, steel 47 x 25 x 10

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Threshold, is a blown glass and steel sculptural response to the limitations of the human will. The triangle is an ancient symbol for the body, mind and spirit. The material boundaries of the blown glass are pushed as it is folded over the steel structure. This method requires complete presence by the artist, transforming making art into a spiritual exercise. This practicing of presence can be undertaken in the making and viewing of art.

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LAURA NOLAN Threshold 2019 blown glass, steel 60 x 40 x 22 cm

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My work captures a fascination with the way structures in built environments are designed and constructed. Using glass, I examine how multiple processes can combine to gain structural integrity. Assembly presents basic forms constructed through repetition of interconnected components; the structure of each form uses the same simple element, maintaining their profile by opposing methods. The fused segment, with a strong internal structure, sits in contrast to the loose components contained by an exoskeleton, or gabion, structure. Both methods allow for the components to potentially stack infinitely.

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ROBERT SCHWARTZ Assembly 2020 blown and cast glass, steel 47 x 40 x 26 cm

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Motus Armis is a material exploration of glass and copper with an underlying concept of emotion, instinct and intuition informing the pieces aesthetically and in the making of the work.

Motus Armis seeks to give a tangible form to the emotional armour sometimes needed throughout life, affording comfort, protection and balance.

Each component has been made using the alchemic processes of fusing and slumping to bind them together as a unit. The processes require the glass and copper to work together, in a symbiotic relationship, protecting and supporting each other throughout these transformative stages.

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INGA SVENDSEN Motus Armis I Body 2019 fused and slumped glass with copper inclusions and armature 95 x 48 x 48 cm

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Up, down and hold for 30 represents the container between vulnerability and manipulation in relationships - to one another, oneself and glass. Through the process of heating and cooling borosilicate glass, all of the intricacies of both successful and failed negotiations manifest a kind of physical love letter from the artist to glass.

There are many ways to practice intimacy.

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DARCY SMITH Up, down and hold for 30 2019 lampworked borosilicate, blackwood timber, steel, laser etching on glass panel dimensions variable

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Through the transformative nature of glass an investigation into the postpartum self has begun.

A balancing act, both metaphorically and physically.

Am I still me?

Or can I only see myself in the shadows‌ ‌of the lights that are now my love.

Hanging by a thread.

Process driven with a focus on the maternal and feminine.

Fragile and delicate in appearance, crochet lace doilies demonstrate an inherently interwoven strength forged only through connectivity.

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KIMBERLY STUART Hanging by a Thread 2019 glass powder and frit, open faced casting dimensions variable

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The cremation stone is and exploration into the ways we can move forward with the design and production of memorial glasswork. This cremation geode paperweight depicts a plant sprouting from the ashes encased inside representing rebirth. By encasing the ashes within an object that engages the curiosity of the viewer can make it easier to generate conversation about death and the afterlife.

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MARK PENNEY Cremation Stone 2019 hot glass, felt, fake grass/moss 13.5 x 9.5 x 9 cm

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This is a story of hope and of promise. The blackened leaves which fell from the sky, now preserved in time as a memory of an event that will forever shape our future. Each one, a story of lives changed, lost and shattered - the ravages of a hungry blaze, the result of a planet in pain. The tiny green flecks embedded as a reminder that with death and destruction comes new life for a ravaged land. With a new perspective comes the hope of a better future.

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CLARE PETERS Out of the Ashes 2020 kiln formed glass, 22ct gold, charred leaves, timber 83 x 83 x 12 cm

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My work explores the Ludic (“play”) in the context of expanded painting.

This floor sculpture “Druck” brings together modernist tropes of reductive colour and geometric abstraction with the surprising element of delicately coloured hand-blown glass bubbles to explore the idea of mass, compression and surface illusion. My work uses ‘play’ as the foundation of making, combining different forms and materials to bring attention to their spatial and illusionistic qualities.

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TANYA REINLI Druck 2019 glass, wood, steel mesh, spray paint 2m x 1.50m

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Through the integration of holistic therapy and creative art processes, my work encourages a connection between mind and body. The meditative creative process allows me to release my negative energy and to stay in the current moment. The hollow glass form is filled with aromatic essential oil, which then diffuses through the cork stoppers. The primary negative energy transforms into sculptural object that soothes the audience through their scent— completing the cycle of healing.

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JIANZHEN WU Holistic Therapy 6 2019 lampworked borosilicate glass, essential oil, cork 20 x 30 x 15 cm

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I explore the way we deal with our ego; the tension between the image we think we project and the reality of our experiences donning the armour of pride. Creating something that is ornamental and fragile rather than strong and solid, something heavy and burdensome rather than functional and light. I use glass to create a phantom of ego we wrap around ourselves for protection, letting its translucency show its lack of substance, and beauty show how high we elevate its importance.

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NANCY YU Head Case, Phantom of Ego/Glass Armour series 2019 cast lead crystal, marble dimensions variable (25 x 30 x 30 each 3)

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Blend combines traditional craft techniques and digital technology to explore spatial relationships between three-dimensional objects and their two-dimensional representations. This work began with handmade cast glass objects which were re-imagined into string drawings that project the implied shadow of the object into space. Through the exploration of perception and vantage point, the individual components shift, and their appearances change.

By combining glass and string imagery, my work explores the possibilities of shifting perception within and between object and drawing.

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MADISYN ZABEL Blend 2020 cast and painted glass, metal, string dimensions variable

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Image credits

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NICK DORAN ADAMS Zelda Pot 1&2 2019 murrini blown 20 x 18 x 18 cm (each) Courtesy the artist with photography by Luis T Power

GRANIA HICKLEY Wonderment 2019 digital screen print, kiln fired 21 x 30 x 4 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Julie Foreman

LARA CHAMAS Backbone of Australia 2019 Macroo Os glass, lampworked, thread, silver (infused with ethically sourced kangaroo bone) 30 x 15 x 2 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Christo Crocker

NAOMI HUNTER Brains Trust 2019: Macro Micro 2019 blown and sculpted furnace glass, engraved optical lenses, metal trolley 89 x 46 x 46 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Michael Kluvanek

HAMISH DONALDSON Water Table #2 & #3 2019 blown glass, timber 55 x 38 x 38cm - 80 x 22 x 22cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Pippy Mount

TALA KAALIM Window of Granules 2019 hot sculpted glass 16 x 15 x 2.5 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Tala Kaalim

BAILEY DONOVAN Dry Grass 2019 blown glass, murrine 40 x 40 x 25 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Michael Haines

RITA KELLAWAY Labyrinthine Vlll 2020 kiln formed glass 84 x 125 x 3.5 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Michael Haines

BERMI DREYER SiO₂ Na₂ CaO (Green and Yellow) 2019 waterjet cut float glass, glass paint, epoxy glue 25 x 50 x 35 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Bermi Dreyer

JESSICA MURTAGH Modern Relic III: Quality time together, apart 2019 blown glass, sandblasted 30 x 20 x 20 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Jessica Murtagh

LOUIS GRANT Queer (vulnerability) 2019 kiln formed and cold worked glass, neon, wood, paint 33 x 99 x 17.5 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Ashley St. George & Adam McGrath (detail)

CATHERINE NEWTON Khora 30 2020 cast coldworked glass, steel 47 x 25 x 10 Courtesy the artist with photography by Damien Newton

LAURA NOLAN Threshold 2019 blown glass, steel 60 x 40 x 22 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Ian Hobbs ROBERT SCHWARTZ Assembly 2020 blown and cast glass, steel 47 x 40 x 26 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Robert Schwartz INGA SVENDSEN Motus Armis I Body 2019 fused and slumped glass with copper inclusions and armature 95 x 48 x 48 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Inga Svendsen DARCY SMITH Up, down and hold for 30 2019 lampworked borosilicate, blackwood timber, steel, laser etching on glass panel dimensions variable Courtesy the artist with photography by Lucy Foster KIMBERLY STUART Hanging by a Thread 2019 glass powder and frit, open faced casting dimensions variable Courtesy the artist with photography by Kimberly Stuart

CLARE PETERS Out of the Ashes 2020 kiln formed glass, 22ct gold, charred leaves, timber 83 x 83 x 12 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Greg Piper TANYA REINLI Druck 2019 glass, wood, steel mesh, spray paint 2m x 1.50m Courtesy the artist with photography by Sarah Kukathas JIANZHEN WU Holistic Therapy 6 2019 lampworked borosilicate glass, essential oil, cork 20 x 30 x 15 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Ella Maude NANCY YU Head Case, Phantom of Ego/Glass Armour series 2019 cast lead crystal, marble dimensions variable (25 x 30 x 30 each 3) Courtesy the artist with photography by Felix Esteban MADISYN ZABEL Blend 2020 cast and painted glass, metal, string dimensions variable Courtesy the artist with photography by Madisyn Zabel

MARK PENNEY Cremation Stone 2019 hot glass, felt, fake grass/moss 13.5 x 9.5 x 9 cm Courtesy the artist with photography by Mark Penney

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Acknowledgements

Friends of the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery

Cobi Cockburn Nadege Desgenetez

Australian National University

Wollundry Too Art Collective

David Hay

Edith Cowan University

Richard Whiteley

Monash University University of South Australia

North Lands Creative Ausglass Gabriella Bisetto Terri Bird

Nancy Yu Holly Grace Tom Rowney

University of Sydney

Rose-Mary Faulkner

WAGGA WAGGA ART GALLERY IS A CULTURAL FACILITY OF WAGGA WAGGA CITY COUNCIL. WAGGA WAGGA ART GALLERY IS SUPPORTED BY THE NSW GOVERNMENT THROUGH CREATE NSW.

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National Art Glass Gallery Civic Centre, Cnr Baylis & Morrow Streets Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 P 02 6926 9660 E gallery@wagga.nsw.gov.au Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 4pm Sunday, 10am – 2pm

wagga.nsw.gov.au/gallery