(So this is a post I wrote whilst in the air travelling enroute to Penland to take an aweinspiring class with the fantastic Amber Cowan. I'm working on my wrap up but I thought I would still post this as I think it's a good one. I't also quite sassy about the budget cuts to arts funding but I think on the ground and not read 17 million feet up in the air it still stands.) (And yes I'm still pissed I didn't receive the much needed funding I applied to.)
Here we go again.
Travelling a billion miles across the ocean to learn some
more about glass. You would be surprised how many of us do it. I think this
winter there will be a mass exodus from the Adelaide glass community alone.
Seems like everybody is taking a class.
I am travelling all the way to North Carolina. Yeehaw! I
have been awarded a full scholarship to attend Amber Cowan’s flame working
class. Now that I’m actually on the plane I can start to get excited. Was a mad
rush to get here, but I did it so no more worrying about stuff you didn’t do or
have to do when you get home.
I live an extrodinairy life. Well I reckon I do anyways.
Being on the plane makes me think of all the fantastic trips I have taken and
so many of them for glass. I’m pretty
good at beating myself up about things,
not doing enough, should be doing more, blah, blah, blah, man is that
both tiring and boring. So let’s forget about that and think about all the good
shit. Yeah.
I’ve been to Pilchuck in Seattle, I’ve been all the way to
the pointy end of nowhere, Lybster, Scotland to do a residency, I’ve done a
research residency in Japan and now I’m going to Penland in North Carolina.
Seriously? That shit is awesome! I’ll tell you what’s not awesome though is the
major funding cuts to the arts that have just been announced. Not awesome. I’d
actually say brutally fucked up.
I just wrote and submitted (the day before I flew out) my
strongest proposal for funding yet. It was to create works for my solo
exhibition in 2016 at JamFactory. I had letters of support, I had the venue
confirmed but most importantly I had the killer idea. Now I have just learnt
that they won’t be taking submissions for that round. All my time and efforts
wasted. The budget cuts for Australia council, the major funding body for artists
is so severe. Austco grants were already as rare as hens teeth to get now I
fear they will have gone the way of the unicorn….
This is not the first time I have had beef with Austco. I’ve
had my voice heard don’t you worry about that, but now it seems more than one
person has to speak up. I want to know how I (we) can let the fat cats above
know that this is not cool. It’s fucking hard enough to make a living as an
artist and by taking away opportunities such as these I feel like we are being
told our contributions are not valid. My work is not important. I am
replaceable. Well that’s just not true.
A life without art is not life.
I’m going to band together with my brothers and sisters and
I want our voices to be heard. I know all about following the hard road and I
won’t be stopped now. Even though I wrote a grant application that will never
even see the light of day, it helped me to produce a clear and well thought out
plan to be executed. It got me excited about making. So not all is lost, and I’m
going to share it with you now to see what you think….
(It is an Austco application so it’s a little long winded. I
won’t hold it against you if you speed read it…)
“I Dream A Greenhouse”
I have been given the outstanding opportunity to exhibit
works for a solo exhibition at JamFactory in gallery two, in Adelaide in 2016.
This is a monumental event for me in my career as a glass artist. It was here
that I completed my training as an associate designer in glass in 2009 and now
seven years later to return for a solo exhibition is an excellent marker of my
achievements. This is my first solo show in six years.
This show will be an accumulation of three years worth of
work. During this time I have researched, travelled for classes and workshops
and completed overseas residencies to develop this work. I now have the perfect
venue to display these new works. My work to date has always revolved around
the natural world. Plant life is a huge inspiration and a constant theme in my
works. I am now looking to combine all my findings into an installation of
works in glass for my 2016 solo show that revolves around ‘the garden’.
The
proposed exhibition explores the idea of “the greenhouse”. An intimate indoor space providing a fertile
background for me to work with glass to cultivate, cross-pollinate and present
exciting new works in a captivating environment. I have an affinity with
plants; working with selected species, ideas of the real and the unreal –
interests which manifest themselves aesthetically and conceptually my practice.
I propose
to create an entire installation - a domestic garden environment with gardening
equipment and props, creating a wonderland for viewers to interact with and
discover the artworks nestled within. This installation and its attendant props
(some found and some made) are an integral part of the exhibition – creating an
immersive, engaging scene for audiences to explore, enabling the discovery of
delightful vignettes of work.
Growing
within this warm, greenhouse installation will be new works, ripe for harvest.
Nestled in a wooden crates are luminous glass vegetables, quietly glowing with
surreal, otherworldly beauty. Hanging baskets spill with long leafy foliage, on
closer inspection revealing themselves to be finely lamp worked tendrils of
leaves. Sprouting out of seedling pots is a series of golden blossoming
dahlias.
Humans need nature to survive. We ourselves cannot grow and
thrive without it. It sustains us on so
many levels be they practical, spiritual or psychological. It has been doing
this for eons. I personally get great satisfaction from my own tiny corner of
garden space. It gives me room to think, clean air to breath and a sense that I
am growing and creating a tangible, living space for others to enjoy too. It
helps me to find my place in a world that is expanding at a rapid rate and
technology is eclipsing itself by the minute, the garden is where I find my
solace. The notion of tending your garden is what I am hoping to achieve with
this show.
I want to create works, which appeal to everyone. I think
plant life is something we can all relate to. For me each plant evokes a
memory. A giant stag fern will always remind me of my grand father. A
nastersion leaf will bring to mind my nanna’s pool and its surroundings and now
my first home. I like thinking about these tiny connections and I hope other
viewers will start to think about their own experiences when they view the
works. I am looking to create a garden themed installation in glass works that
relate to plant life reconstructed from my own memory.
I envision creation an all-encompassing installation that
will amaze and delight viewers regardless of age. I’m hoping these works will
gently coerce people to reconnect with plants and celebrate the diversity and
beauty of the plant world. I also want these works to conjure up memories of
the past to make connections with plant life. I am looking to create the
majority of the works in sculpted hot glass and combine these with found
objects and ones from my own personal collection to form the installation.
Gallery two in the JamFactory is what I believe, the perfect space for me to
create my vision.
Gallery two is an intimate space where an installation can
have maximum impact. It is an enclosed “U” space that will give the viewer the
feeling of being surrounded by the works.
To bring this installation of works to fruition I will
create works both in my own studio in Brunswick and travel to Adelaide to hire
the hot studio at JamFactory. I will travel to Adelaide on 6 separate occasions
to create the works in weeklong blocks. This will give me adequate time to
develop the works. I am aiming to create new hot sculpted works in glass. I am
not aiming to create identical representations in glass; I am aiming to create
works, which evoke thoughts, memories and feelings towards the plant. For
example to recreate a jacaranda tree I may just focus on the instantly
recognisable purple flower. This is where memory comes into play and each
viewer may interpret it differently. It may evoke a hidden memory to the
viewer, which has been stirred by reflection and imagination.
To create these works, sessions will be spent in the hot shop experimenting
with colour and texture. My initial sketches will guide me to make the works in
glass. This is where my technical skills as a glass blower will be further
developed as I prototype these works. I am excited to make my most detailed
works yet. I intend to make hot sculpted works and to do this require to travel
to and hire the hot shop facilities of JamFactory in Adelaide. I am also
looking to invest in a smaller hot torch for flame working that I will be able
to use in my own studio. This will allow me to create more detailed works
that will be incorporated into the larger works.
I am giving myself ten months to create these works, as I
want the work to be well thought out and executed to the highest detail. Over
this time I will be able to create enough pieces to contribute to an
installation. I will also use this time to source props that will be equally as
valuable to this show, contributing to the feel of the greenhouse. I will issue a callout to the public to
contribute their own special garden related props to use in the show and it is my hopes that
together we will create a show of our shared memories.
As an artist I am very conscious of the era and world we
live in. I believe now more than ever it is important to celebrate the small,
appreciate the beauty in the everyday, to make the most of our surroundings and the materials we have. Small is
precious, we need to create our own oases, our places of wonder, our own
greenhouses.
