a way back to the magic

Neil Roberts
BA na na BA na na MAN go
PHOTO CREDIT: Glass Central Canberra
http://glasscentralcanberra.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/tour-de-force-the-show/

Here's an excerpt that was posted online at Glass Central Canberra's Wordpress blog. It's from the catalogue to the show Tour de Force, showcasing eight Australian artists: Tom Moore, Jacqueline Gropp, Ian Mowbray, Trish Roan, Neil Roberts, Nicholas Folland, Deborah Jones, and Timothy Horn.

February 2010, Megan Bottari, curator:

"It mustn’t be imagined that Tour de Force is yet another in a long line of group exhibitions purporting to showcase ‘the best of’ Australian contemporary glass practice – on the contrary, it is deliberately distanced from such superficial, though standard, hyperbole. What the show does

represent, however, is a line of demarcation between the conventional status quo that currently appears to hold the Australian studio glass scene in thrall and our (now ever so slightly flagging) expectations regarding the next wave of creative regeneration. Glass has become disappointingly same-same; and while imitation is clearly considered an acceptable, and often sincere, form of flattery – notwithstanding that appropriation is a post-modern art form in itself – it doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, enrich the ‘gene pool’.

In many ways Australian studio glass is a victim of its own success. A model (even pampered) child of the times, it’s been tainted like everything else by the rampant global consumerism of the past decade or so and hooked on that most fateful of homogenizing agents, bourgeois aspiration. The progressive spirit that spawned the pioneer movement in the 1960-70’s has been all but suppressed by arch conservatism and the truckling for approbation and (small-f, surely) fame. But patronage has always been a tricky business in the arts, and one suspects that creative integrity will always remain key. So how did we get to the stalemate of derivation and corporate ennui that presently characterizes mainstream contemporary glass, and is there a way back to the wonder and the joy? To the magic.

[...]

Studio glass in Australia has hit a critical watershed, particularly in view of the Global Financial Crisis. The sky has fallen in on the reliable bourse environment that supported the (seemingly invincible) buoyant art market, and the sector now faces the potential of straightened circumstances. This is not to say that the purse is empty, but the good old days of plenty, when literally anything could sell, are over. The market from here on in is likely to be a little less liberally indulgent. Artists will need to reassess their modus operandi – apart from anything else, there’s the duty of care to the planet to consider. Studio glass has a carbon footprint that, frankly, wouldn’t bear close scrutiny and in view of the looming environmental-global warming crisis, it behoves practitioners to reconsider very carefully what they make, and why. And, at the very least, make it count. Instead of banging out a succession of predictably vacuous objects, artists should start to think about engaging both empathetically and intelligently with material to produce something a little more enlightening. Something that inspires us to lofty sentiment, that alerts us to divers ethical imperatives, that expresses the very essence of our being. Because this is the role of the arts, is it not? A visual expression of the cultural currency of the day."

read more here

Botteri, M. "Tour de Force: the show..." February 28, 2010. Accessed March 7, 2010. http://glasscentralcanberra.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/tour-de-force-the-show/

2009 Ranamok Prize

Across The Lines

Hot moulded glass, paint and wire
90 H x 170 W x 5 D cm

Photographer: Mark Bellringer

Photocredit: www.Ranamok.com

"My work is inspired by the history of our land and people. It is a reflection of my thoughts on how we have evolved as a country. Retelling the stories of our heritage and setting them into a modern environment is what motivates me in my pursuit of glass works."

--Winner Lisa Walsh of Waverley, South Taranaki, New Zealand

Finalists this year were: Kate Bake, Emma Borland, Dominic Burrell, Perran Costi, Matthew Curtis, Dorde (George) Drobac, Benjamin Edols and Kathy Elliott, Mandy Eilbeck, Mark Eliott, Judi Elliott, Wendy Fairclough, Vicki Fanning, Brenden Scott French, Keith Grinter, Marc Grunseit, Tevita Havea, Sue Hawker, Ede Horton, Nejat Kavvas, Masaki Kawanabe,

Te Rōngō Kirkwood

"E Oho-Kua Awatea"

Fused and cold worked glass
56 H x 97 W x 0.9 D cm

Photographer: Howard Williams

Te Rōngō Kirkwood, Richard Morrell, Nick Mount, Kumiko Nakajima, Nudibranch Art Glass, Graham Orridge, Tom Rowney, Fiona Ruttelle,

Benjamin Sewell

"Local Family on Distant Bank. Millstream, North Western Australia 1978"

Hand blown glass, white overlay on black, wheel cut
32 H x 34 W x 11.5 D cm

Photographer: Tim Robinson

Benjamin Sewell, Suzannah Terauds, Emma Varga, Lisa Walsh, Maureen Williams.

"2009 marks the fifteenth year of The Ranamok Glass Prize and in celebration of this the prize money has been raised to A$15,000. The Ranamok Glass Prize is an annual acquisitive award for glass artists who are resident in Australia and New Zealand. The work presented for consideration for The Ranamok Glass Prize is expected to be a major effort in the artist's personal body of work. This work should be innovative, displaying excellence and imagination in quality of idea and execution in contemporary practice. The Prize has played a major role in achieving significant links and paths within this field of visual arts and it remains the major focus for Australian and New Zealand contemporary glass. Its success has far exceeded expectations for artists and audiences alike. We thank all those who contribute and who continue to be part of its formidable progress into the future. Maureen Cahill, Director Glass Artists’ Gallery"

2009 Ranamok Glass Prize. accessed August 30, 2009. http://www.ranamok.com/2009_detail_pages/walsh_2009.htm)

More Photos of the Ranomok Prize 2009 from Glass Central Canberra's photostream on Flickr:

"Lisa Walsh, 'Across the Lines' (detail)"
Photo Credit: Glass Central Canberra/Kelly Gang on Flickr
Accessed August 30, 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/3858789822/in/set-72157622147835534/

Stephen Skillitzi on the history of Australian glass

Quoted from "Australian Glass Pioneers"

by Stephen Skillitzi

April 16, 2009

"…Some might say: ”Don’t we glass workers have bona-fide historians without a personal ‘ax to grind’ and who are above career-long ‘empire building’ like some latter-day Ghengis Kahn. Incidentally, I observed no Studio Glass in Outer Mongolia, the ‘last frontier’ to resist international Glass incursions. 'Surely they, those reliable historians, can give us the unbiased truth. So why does this panel dealing with this historical topic consist of 4 practitioners only and no pure academics or theorists?'

A simple answer is: we need to hear from those practitioners who have done the hard yards by planting the actual ‘glass seeds’ and seeing to their sprouting above ground before they were visible to those historians who got involved later on. Indeed we pioneers can mentally relive in 3D what those historians attempt to do via inferior 2D research. Sadly, I have observed often the neglect of open and useful dialogue between authors and practitioners before and after publication.

[...]

But for serious history students of contemporary Australian glass the survey texts by the authoritative Dr. Noris Ioannou and Grace Cochrane are hard to beat. We should respectfully reread them! Another more individualized source of glass history is the so-called 'Eminent Persons Program', archived by the Canberra National Library. To balance the contributions of Nick Mount and myself, some more old-timers in Ausglass should have their histories preserved there.

Speaking personally, it seems my Glass got progressively better in reverse ratio to the ongoing unkind aging process I experienced. Pioneers by definition make mistakes, such as my sometimes lousy furnace designs, so those that follow need not repeat them. For example, my first solo show of clay with glass, at Sydney’s Grace Brothers store when aged only 18, was in January 1966. That was just before decimal currency started. I snobbishly overpriced my student items in guineas and half guineas because I saw mature artists doing just that. Of course a guinea was one pound and one shilling. In hindsight I’m thankful nothing sold. My point is that all us gray-headed pioneers have histories of individually-experienced steep learning curves and the taking of naive risks before we ‘learned the ropes’.

An ancient proverb states : “As the sapling is bent, so the tree grows”. I hereby pay a belated tribute to the Glass ‘old-timers’, the often underrated pioneers, who shaped our Glass tree by their risk-taking examples.

I and only two others, namely Brian Hirst and Richard Clements, have been to all 15 Ausglass conferences. We three can confirm that about half the names on this list have never been mentioned at a conference before. Incidentally in 1970 I observed Clements doing pyrex lampwork glass at Sydney’s Argyle Art Centre, using skills developed in England.

The narrow criteria for inclusion in my likely-incomplete pre-Ausglass list of in-Australia glass-artists are as follows: “Those who had a full-time Glass career, or who had a solo glass exhibition, or who had completed a major glass commission in living memory before Ausglass started in December 1978”.

These 38 Australians can be likened to ‘glass dinosaurs’, or ‘vitrified tribal elders’, or ‘father/mother figureheads’, — (whatever label you prefer) they all occupied the glass scene before Ausglass was formed a mere 30 years ago. The 38 names alphabetically are: ……..

Douglas Annand, Les Blakebrough, Bill Boysen, Maureen Cahill, Richard Clements,, Peter Dockerty, Anne Dybka, John Elsegood, Mike Esson, Leonard French, Bill Gleeson, Peter Goss, Paul Hayworth, Sam Herman, Helmut Hiebl, Regina Jaugietis, Gerry King, Rob Knottenbelt, Les Kossatz, Warren Langley, Dick Marquis, Stan Melis, Peter Minson, Stephen Moore, Nick Mount, Dennis O’Conner, Tom Persson, Cedar Prest, Con Rhee, David Saunders, Julio Santos, Stephen Skillitzi, Ron Street, John Walsh, Jimmy Whitman, Don Wreford, David Wright, Klaus Zimmer.

[...]

In that Potters’ Society magazine article of 1969, I stated: “So for me glass pots are a natural progression both technically and aesthetically from pottery. Here in U.S.A. most glass men of the new ‘studio school’ have been, or still are, potters—me included of course.” [end quote]

Regrettably today there is a wide chasm between clay and glass workers, in part bridged by Les Blakebrough’s involvement here. A narrower chasm exists between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ glass, such as Stained Glass or Engraving. Perhaps this emphasis on ‘hot’ glass is part of the reason non-blowing and non-casting Glass artists tend to avoid Ausglass conferences.

[...]

On my Massachusetts University campus, as my personal protest against Nixon’s April 1970 bombing of neutral Cambodia, I staged a public glass blowing performance. I advertised my event as a “non-violent campus demonstration”.

A blowing mold inscribed with the hippy slogan: “ make love not war” was used because as glass historians will know, a few of us 1960’s glass workers contributed to a subversive, anti-Vietnam War theme, known as “Blow Glass For Peace”. "

Skillitzi Quote Citation: "Glass Central Canberra" blog hosted by Wordpress. Accessed April 17, 2009.

http://glasscentralcanberra.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/australian-glass-pioneers-the-paper/
Photo Citation: "Step Away From The Shadows" 2005 Ranamok glass prize finalist. Accessed April 17, 2009. http://www.ranamok.com/2005_detail_pages/skillitzi.htm