3D Work [you could call it Sculpture]
While the fabric of stained glass is more or less two dimensional, I've always seen it as a sculptural medium: it plays with light and modulates space. But the works shown here are not stained glass: they engage with glass as a sculptural element, exploring what else is possible using this brittle, sharp and fragile material that we can often see through. And as with the works shown in "Painting etc", I tend to ignore rules or pre-conceived ideas and immerse myself in the creativity of the moment. Sometimes mayhem results, sometimes something beautiful happens.
Large Arrangement: a Dadaist Performance Piece
Created for an exhibition at Melbourne Polytechnic, curated by Donna Kennedy, Sept 2017
Three Painted Vessels #1
- 2013
Painted and fired blown glass
The painted vessels were a new body of work commenced in 2013, realising a long-held desire to push my particular aesthetic into the third dimension, using skills honed over many years producing painted and fired stained glass coupled with a delight in the seemingly random application of brush strokes. As the work progresses a complex pattern emerges where each independent system influences the other. Firing brings out the textural quality of the overlaid paints as they interact.
Three Painted Vessels #2
- 2013
Painted and fired blown glass
The form of the vessels is inspired by ancient amphorae. I provided sketches to gaffer Richard Morrell in Melbourne (now retired) who blew the vessels more or less to my specifications. Transparency of the vessel was important, becoming more so as the works developed and I realised the potency of seeing brush strokes on the opposite wall, suspended within the matrix of patterning.
Three Painted Vessels #3
- 2014
Painted and fired blown glass
The vessels establish a conversation within each group which varies with every iteration. I do not dictate their arrangement so the sculpture is a dynamic, constantly changing work.
This group was selected as a finalist in the 2014 Ranamok exhibition, the last in a series of 20 annual exhibitions. The set of three vessels sold from the Brisbane show.
Quartet
- 2015
Painted and fired blown glass
It was a logical extension to expand the grouping to four pieces, and then five. Originally I had rejected these particular vessels as they were rather dense and I was looking for transparency, and I felt the lips were too small, but they grew on me and I came to love working with the strong green base.
A finalist in the 2017 Blacktown Art Exhibition
Quartet: detail
- 2015
Painted and fired blown glass
The detail here provides an insight into technique: spattering, brushing, allowing drips to run in a controlled manner, use of a screen as stencil, sometimes scratching into the dried paint.. The overlaying of enamels often gives rise to interesting and unexpected results.
Trio
- 2016
Painted and fired blown glass
Moving back to the original concept of wide lips and translucent bodies, I've added in a small plinth. This grouping was a finalist in the 2017 Hunters Hill Art Prize.
The height of all the vessels made to date range from about 20cm to 30cm and vary in width from about 13cm to 15cm at the widest point.
Trio: detail
- 2016
Painted and fired blown glass
A close up of one of the vessels, taken from above. All of the vessels were shot by Greg Piper, a professional photographer who I have worked with since the mid '80's. Greg specialised in shooting art craft objects and has an outstanding portfolio. He is now retired.
Body Modification
- 2007
- Bicycle, fluorescent spray enamel, cold laminated glass, silicone, chain, leather attachments
- Dimensions variable
As a young kid I loved the freedom my pushie gave me: I lived on the Georges River, so I'd spend many days riding my bike through the bush and along the banks of the river with my best mate. Also school was a couple of miles away so it was a good way of getting back and forth outside of bus times. This is a bike for a Glass Artist to ride thru the sky in his dreams.
Body Modification (detail)
- 2007
- Bicycle, fluorescent spray enamel, cold laminated glass, silicone, chain, leather attachments
- Dimensions variable
So when I acquired a bike a few years back, my secret hope was I think to recapture that feeling of freedom. It hasn't happened. I'm a professional glass artist, working for myself; which means long hours in the studio at Central. And I was living at Maroubra at the time, which meant great swimming but lots of hills. So apart from a few excursions around Surry Hills my bike in the main was relegated to a corner of an already crowded studio collecting dust. It was time to convert it into an artwork.
Body Modification (detail)
- 2007
- Bicycle, fluorescent spray enamel, cold laminated glass, silicone, chain, leather attachments
- Dimensions variable
the opportunity came when I was invited to participate in the visual arts component of the Bicycle Film Festival of 2007. The exhibition, curated by Gilbert Grace, was held at Mori Gallery in Day Street, Sydney.
The hardest bit about making the piece was the first slash of the tires. But now it's tailored to my needs. It's now the bike of a glass artist, to ride in my dreams.
Transilience
- 2007
- Sandstone, corroded steel cage, patinated barbed wire, figured commercial glass shards, cast glass head
- Dimensions variable
The sculpture is a realisation of the idea of ''Breakthrough'' as expounded by Land Mark Education: not just incremental improvement of one's condition or character but an exponential change of state, a total escape from the confines of existing thoughts and preconceptions.
Transilience (detail)
- 2007
- Sandstone, corroded steel cage, patinated barbed wire, figured commercial glass shards, cast glass head
- Dimensions variable
Even when physically bound and caged we need not remain constrained: the smuggling of poetry written by inmates of Guantanamo Bay is a moving example of this transcendence of boundaries. How much more can we, who are unfettered, achieve by allowing our thoughts to soar beyond constraint.
Transilience (detail)
- 2007
- Sandstone, corroded steel cage, patinated barbed wire, figured commercial glass shards, cast glass head
- Dimensions variable
Created for the Ausglass Memebers' Sydney exhibition at Glass Artists Gallery, Glebe in 2007 and shown here at the M16 Gallery, Fishwyck as part of the sculptural component of the Ausglass Canberra Conference of 2008. That exhibition was curated by Ann McMahon, a sculptor/fibre artist and independent curator living in Canberra.
Trophy fish
- 2004
- Spectrum and Bullseye 3mm art glass cut and silicone laminated, varnished timber and plywood stand
- Approx. 60cm x 45cm x 12cm
Sadness
- 2007
- Glazed ceramic lidded teapot (used) labelled underneath "WOODHEATH WARE SYDNEY",
- `Nest' of she-oak and straw,
- Glass fragments, both mouth blown and commercially blown and decorated,
- 9ct white gold
- Approx. 13cm x 23cm x 15cm
Sadness
- 2007
- inside view
The viewer is invited to metaphorically make a pot of tea and sip the elixir of Life's sadness, ruminating on broken relationships. I imagine the brew to be a bitter one, rich and heady and probably good for you.
Though apparently full, there is emptiness here, as if the bird has hatched and flown. The work is incredibly poignant for me as it contains my wedding ring from a marriage of 19yrs; it has a history. The she-oak also has a personal resonance: I grew up with these trees along the banks of the Georges River. This is home territory.
Disparate Points
- 2002
- Various 3mm art glass sheet, cut and bound to cast polymer tabletop, metal fittings, glazed ceramic (commercial flatware) enamel paint, copper wire.
- Approx. 130cm x 110cm x 30cm
Title piece for my solo exhibition at Knot Gallery, Hibernian House in 2002. The exhibition was an umbrella event of the Sydney Gay Games.
As an artwork that hangs on the wall this is more bas-relief than sculpture. It explores alternative means of attaching glass elements and continues my predeliction for making 'Dangerous Art'.
Disparate Points (detail)
- 2002
- Various 3mm art glass sheet, cut and bound to cast polymer tabletop, metal fittings, glazed ceramic (commercial flatware), enamel paint, copper wire.
- Approx. 130cm x 110cm x 30cm
It's actually not that dangerous but certainly an exhibitors' nightmare. The poor folk up at Cowra City Art Gallery didn't know what to do with it, even though I demonstrated how to handle the piece and insisted it be hung above head height so as not to spear any visitors. It stayed in a cupboard for the duration of their annual exhibition in 2003.
Photos by Greg Piper.
LargeVase (detail)
- 1998
- 3mm figured glass sheet, steel frame, enamel paint
- Dimensions variable
An early work exploring the possibilities of glass as a sculptural medium: sharp, dangerous, fragile... The only things holding this work together are gravity and friction.
LargeVase
- 1998
- 3mm figured glass sheet, steel frame, enamel paint
- Dimensions variable
I cut the leaves of glass in cardboard first to determine their size and shape and how they would relate to each other. While the points are tipped the edges are "clean cut", not ground or polished. To be handled
with care.
LargeVase
- 1998
- 3mm figured glass sheet, steel frame, enamel paint
- Dimensions variable
Photos of "Large Vase" and "Transilience" were taken by Sydney photographer Robert Knapman.