FUSE Glass Prize 2018
2018 Winners
Jessica Loughlin
Winner - Established Artist Category
Jessica Loughlin has exhibited widely in the US, UK, Germany, Italy and Australia. She was awarded ‘Outstanding New Artist in Glass’ by Urban Glass, NY, USA, the Tom Malone Prize for glass in both 2004 and 2007, and the Ranamok Glass Prize. Her work is held in public collections around the world including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA, Mobile Museum of Art, AL, USA, MUDAC, Lausanne, Switzerland and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.
“The far reach of our vision can be a place for dreams, reflection and perspective, the mind placing itself in a landscape larger than its grasp. Inspired by the experience of light in the large austere landscapes of the Australian desert, my work does not aim to represent this landscape directly but rather to induce a state of looking both inward and outward simultaneously. receptor of light is about the observation of light. It performs almost as a ‘tabula rasa’ for noticing subtle light changes throughout the day. The white opaline glass behaves in a similar way to the light in the sky. Fine molecules suspended in the glass reflect blue light while transmitting the warm spectrum of light. At first glance the piece may appear to be white, but on longer inspection the colours appear and slowly change as the light shifts throughout the day.”
receptor of light V, 2018, glass, 450 x 530 x 170
Photo: Rachel Harris
Ursula Halpin
Winner - Emerging Artist Category
Ursula Halpin graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts Honours (First Class) from the University of South Australia, and was awarded the Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation. In 2017 she was Graduate in Residence at Canberra Glassworks and undertook a Helpmann Academy-supported mentorship with artist Kirstie Rea. Since graduating Halpin has exhibited in Sister Gallery, Adelaide, Canberra Glassworks, National Art Glass Gallery, Wagga Wagga, The Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne, and the inaugural Ireland Glass Biennale. Halpin was shortlisted for the 2018 National Emerging Glass Prize, Wagga Wagga and has been awarded a half scholarship to attend Pilchuck Glass School, USA in 2018.
“Náire orthu meaning ‘shame on you all’ in Gaelic, commemorates the mothering of women in Ireland. Throughout my youth in Ireland, I recall knitting, sewing and crocheting with my mother and sisters, in moments of solace where unspoken and unconscious healing occurred. Re-connecting with traditional Irish crafting such as Kenmare lace and objects made by my mother, I have drawn the political and personal together in intimately woven sinewy threads. I link my works with Julia Kristeva’s process of ‘abjection’ as matter, which is from the body but repelled and rejected from the self. Drawing on the notion of the abject, repetitive crafting and making becomes an active process of positively dispelling generational and lived trauma out of the body and into the object. This sharing of memories that are held close and carried is an empowering process, while being also an intimate recognition of memories which one attempts to estrange.”
Náire orthu, 2017, kiln-formed pate de verre Bullseye glass, nylon and steel, 3500 x 1500
Photo: Grant Hancock
2018 Finalists - Emerging Artist Category
Lewis Batchelar
After graduating from Whanganui Glass School, NZ in 2012, Lewis had the opportunity to gain professional experience working with several established glass artists in New Zealand. In 2015 he relocated to Adelaide to undertake the two-year Associate training program at JamFactory. Since completing the program Lewis has continued his practice as a studio tenant at JamFactory.
“These forms are an investigation into the sense of home and place. Utilising pattern and the kinetic nature of these pieces, I aim to construct a dynamic landscape that pays homage to where I am from. The use of multiples allows me to create different landscapes and architectures within a space.”
Landscapes, 2018, blown glass,
350 x 200, 220 x 130, 290 x 160
Photo: Michael Haines
Madeline Cardone
Madeline Cardone is a fifth-year student at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, currently studying a combined Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship and a Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in Glass. Madeline’s curatorial experience includes a pop–up exhibition for the 2017 ANU Open Day at the Glass Workshop, the Living Rooms event for the DESIGN Canberra Festival 2017, and most recently, she was the curator of Symbiosis: China and Australia Edge Glass Art Student Exhibition at the China Academy of Art (CAA), Hangzhou, China.
“My work contemplates the mysteriousness of the internal, specifically the relationship between the internal and the external, to create subtle forms that suggest the presence of something ambiguous beneath the surface of the material. I am interested in exploring the subtle tensions created in the material, in challenging the potential of kiln–formed glass, and in communicating these concepts through a minimalist aesthetic. By putting these tensions into dialogue with each other, I aim to evoke a sense of push and resistance between form and material, inviting the interplay of black and light and prompting the temptation to touch. I am also interested in how simple lines can engender different emotive responses in the viewer; how they can recall a particular moment or image, or a personal experience.”
It’s only up from here, 2018, kiln formed glass
345 x 335 x 10 each
Photo: Annetten Liu
Hannah Gason
Hannah Gason is a Canberra-based artist working primarily with glass. In 2015 she graduated from the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a University Medal. She has undertaken residencies at the Bullseye Glass Company, Portland, Oregon, and Canberra Glassworks, and in 2016 was a visiting artist at Berlin Glas, Berlin, Germany. Hannah’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is held in the Australian Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, the National Art Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga and the Australian National University Art Collection, Canberra.
“I am interested in contrasts between line, colour and light. My work explores gestural imagery and applied structure, inspired by the surrounding environment. Getting to know you reflects my experience in Berlin in the summer of 2016. Through daily explorations and conversations, the unfamiliar city began to slowly reveal itself. While the many layers of history are immediately evident, like all things, a deeper connection and appreciation requires repetition, curiosity and time for reflection. During regular walks through Berlin, I was struck by the variety of colours, patterns and structures. An intriguing contrast with the familiar surrounds of my home in Canberra was the play between the many historic structures and contemporary street art. Getting to know you evokes the brick monoliths of Berlin’s restrained brutalist architecture, tempered somewhat by irreverent and vibrant street art.”
Getting to know you, 2017, glass, 285 x 1940 x 10
Photo: Greg Piper
Thomas Pearson
Thomas Pearson is an emerging glass artist with a portfolio including hot blown and sculpted glasswork. After completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, in 2015, he moved to Adelaide to work as an Associate glassblower at JamFactory. His work has been featured in the National Emerging Art Glass Prize, 2016, the ANU Graduate Exhibition, 2015, and the New Emerging Art Glass Prize, 2018, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, NSW.
“I have worked as a production glassblower for the last four years. I seek to investigate the narrative of traditional forms through the practice of making by hand. I am currently exploring the historical use of preserving bottles and the hourglass, or sand-clock. Both rely on internal spaces which hold and move light. The bodily form of the hourglass, and its translating function, explore ideas of absence and presence. The movement of the sands records time through a repetitive, changing, internal landscape. These contemplative works present an interlinking of meditative process and sculpture. I have enjoyed making these works; blowing them initially and then filling them with glass sands. The process of making them has fed my ideas and, by continuing to invest in this challenging material, I hope to keep bringing my ideas to life.”
Clepsammia, 2018, blown glass, 460 x 180, 420 x 192
Photo: Pippy Mount
Bastien Thomas
Originally from France, Bastien came to Australia to undertake the Associate training program at JamFactory. After studying glass–blowing for three years at France’s National Glass School, Bastien undertook a six–month residency at Musée/Centre d’Art du Verre, Carmaux, France, and then continued working and training for two years in different studios across Europe. Bastien was the recipient of the JamFactory Corning Scholarship 2017 to participate in a two–week intensive class with world-renowned glass artists Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowit at Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA.
“Inspired by the effects of time against objects and material, I explore the delicate balance between the beautiful and grotesque. Like bringing to light a dust covered archeological piece that holds immeasurable information about the past, these works are intended to create a contrast between raw, rough textures and shiny, colourful surfaces. Through the process of ‘burying’ these pieces in layers of glass powder, I become a kind of archaeologist; cutting and polishing back these pieces to reveal a world of patterns inside. By working this way, burying and unveiling the clear transparent glass, I like to think about it as a metaphor for archaeology itself.”
Études (#7, #9, #10), 2018
glass, 60 x 220 x 30, 255 x 130 x 30, 180 x 185 x 300
Photo: Michael Haines
2018 Finalists - Established Artist Category
Kate Baker
Kate Baker is currently a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU), School of Art and Design, Canberra, having graduated with First Class Honours from the Glass Workshop at the ANU School of Art in 1999. Baker has exhibited widely in Australia and the United States, including at the Palm Springs Art Museum, California, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, the Alexander Tutsek Stiftung in Munich, Germany, the International Exhibition of Glass, Kanazawa, Japan, and the Glass Biennale in Venice, Italy. A recipient of international art prizes, scholarships and grants, her artworks are held in collections globally.
“The human body - in movement, in flux, abstracted and layered - at once reveals and yet masks the emotional and psychological strata inherent in each of us. Themes of human fragility, complexity and the temporal nature of existence are at the heart of my interest as an artist and drive the technical and conceptual rigor within my practice. The process of working in glass - resulting in the creation of static, sculptural and translucent form - and its interdisciplinary relationship with the photographic and digital image, is the primary focus of my studio research. This direction provides a challenging yet complex environment in which concepts of our immaterial nature can be explored, paradoxically through an intimate and rigorous engagement with the material and the resulting abstraction.”
Within Matter #2, 2018, UV flatbed digitally-printed, toughened and waterjet-cut glass, raw steel, 1100 x 1200 x 850
Photo: The artist
Verity Burley
Verity Jasmin Burley relocated to the glass program at the University of South Australia from Perth, where she was undertaking a Sculpture major at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. In 2001 she travelled to England as the first ambassador and exchange student working with glass to represent the University of South Australia. After graduating in 2004 with a Masters degree in Glass from the University of Sunderland, UK, Verity assisted various international glass makers, most notably she worked for the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, as a Glassblower at Sea on board the ‘Solstice’ & ‘Eclipse’ cruise liners.
“The Guardian series is a set of blown glass safety/traffic cones, incorporating mixed media in its base construction. Cones serve the combined greater cause of solidarity, while having individual identities similar to our own. Such cones are typically found on the street or discarded in unusual locations, and are generally considered unimportant. Together they guard and protect, rather than being just disposable objects, or no longer considered valuable. Awaiting their fate, lined up in a queue, having served a purpose, they have become redundant, left behind, deserted or homeless. By creating this work in glass, I set out to change the way we perceive everyday objects, questioning their importance in relation to our own.”
Guardian series, 2018, blown, drilled, hand-finished glass, tape, wooden base, found objects, PVA glue, silicone, chalkboard/exterior acrylic paint, screws, dimensions variable
Photo: Michal Kulvanek
Mel Douglas
Douglas has worked as an independent studio artist since graduating from the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra in 2000. Since 2008 she has been a sessional lecturer and is currently a PhD candidate in the Glass Workshop at the ANU. Her work is held in public and private collections around the world, including Ebeltoft Museum of Glass, Denmark, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA. She has received several major awards including the Ranamok Glass Prize in 2002, the International Young Glass Award in 2007 from Ebeltolft, and the Tom Malone Prize in 2014.
“Line has always been an integral element in my work, as well as a fundamental constituent of the drawing vernacular. Objects and drawings are often thought of as two separate entities. My work explores and interweaves the creative possibilities of this liminal space, where the form is not just a substrate for drawing, but a three-dimensional drawing itself. This work utilises the basic properties of glass, transparency and translucency, as a means of line-making.”
Borderline, 2017, kiln-formed and cold worked glass, 920 x 1400 x 10
Photo: David Paterson
Mark Elliot
Mark Eliott has completed a Master of Studio Arts degree at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney and Jazz studies at the Sydney Conservatorium. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. He also teaches flame-work at Canberra Glassworks and does interactive demonstrations. His works are held in various collections including the Corning Glass Museum in New York. He exhibits internationally, plays music and purchases carbon credits to offset his energy use.
“My glass art practice spans biological representation, sculptural abstraction, mythology and glass-animation. Many of my works are illustrations of stories and are often influenced by synaesthesia which includes visual music, coloured alphabet and numerals. Each tree is itself a piece of architecture, a unique variant on its own genetic plan, playing host to a vast array of inhabitants both above and below ground - many of whom either contribute to, or challenge, its integrity. I encounter the tree that inspired A mind of its own, 2017 each time I stay at the Glassworks Chapel where it stands sentinel (from a human viewpoint). Since reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, I have come to think of it as a lone voice: a strong and independent presence. Each morning I smell the intense aroma of eucalyptus - (or is it possum piss) as I walk barefoot around its base, my mind awakening to the raw sensation of gum nuts crushing underfoot.”
A mind of its own, 2017 A mind of its own, 2017, flame-sculpted and blown borosilicate glass, 600 x 300 x 300
Photo: Wendy Dawes
Liam Fleming
Liam Fleming completed his studies at the University of South Australia in 2011, and was accepted as an Associate at JamFactory in 2012. He has been Production Manager in JamFactory’s Glass Studio since 2015. In 2017 he collaborated with furniture designer/maker Jon Goulder on their Congruent side table, which was exhibited during the Milan and London Design weeks. Fleming also exhibited in Berlin as part of Australia Now - a collaborative exhibition by JamFactory and Canberra Glassworks.
“My work utilises production glassblowing techniques to transform functional objects into larger scale sculptural objects. Blow horn #3 is a continuation on work inspired by being in India. Colour, architecture and a lot of horn–blowing come together to create a glass shrine to the four-colour theorem of mapping.”
Blow horn #3, 2018, glass, 1460 x 250
Photo: Grant Hancock
Brenden Scott French
Brenden Scott French completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney in 1997, the Associate training program at JamFactory in 1999, and a Bachelor of Art with Honours at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2003. He was recipient of the 2007 Stephen Procter Fellowship. He has undertaken residencies at the Tacoma Museum of Glass, Tacoma, USA, Canberra Glassworks, ANU Glass Workshop, Canberra, University of South Australia and Northlands Creative Glass Centre, Lybster, Scotland. Brenden has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas.
“I have been creating works in glass that depict the evolution of a familiar landscape over a geological timeline. These works expand on hot glass and kiln-forming techniques but also explore the impact of human intervention upon the land. This new work Lakes edge, in murrine, 2018 is constructed using nearly 7000 individual murrine tiles, the surface is composed with the capacity to reshape image and identity. During this making process I was committed to exploring what lay beneath that shape shifting façade - the relationships between the past, present and future, and the peril and uncertainty that makes reinvention seem so crucial to survival.”
Lake’s edge, in murrine, 2018, hot and kiln-formed glass, engraved and polished 1570 x 1610 x 40
Photo: Grant Hancock
Holly Grace
Holly Grace has exhibited at the Melbourne Art Fair, London Art Fair, SOFA Chicago, and has had numerous solo exhibitions both here in Australia and internationally. Her work is held in public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Artbank and Australian Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra. Grace has received grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria to create new work and to participate in three international mentorships. Two of these mentorships took place in Denmark and initiated the artist’s affinity with the landscape, leading to more recent explorations into the Australian bush
“Exploring first with the camera and then with glass, I create a multi-layered glass canvas that is a poetic interpretation of the Australian landscape. As Jimmy sits within the heart of his hut, he stokes the fire and brews the tea from an ensemble of billycans that take pride of place upon the mantle. In idle reflection he looks upon the glimmering firelight as stories layered in time and lost in history are recreated within, illuminating his thoughts. By means of the transference of light and image through ghosted glass, the fable of Jimmy Gavel unravels with a snapshot of objects, form and space. The retelling of the death of Jimmy Gavel - whose ghost, according to legend, still resides in the isolated shelter - is explored across the surface of three small billycans, recreations made in glass of the originals that still remain upon the mantle at the heart of Gulf Hut.”
Gulf hut - the story of Jimmy Gavel, 2018, blown glass, glass enamel paints and decal imagery, silver stained and gilded surfaces, found metal handles, single LED light source, 260 x 200. Photo: David McArthur
Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello
Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello is an award-winning visual artist of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. She was awarded Canberra Critics Circle Awards for Visual Arts in 2011 and 2013. In 2013 Jennifer won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Her works are held in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, most Australian state art galleries, the ACT Legislative Assembly, Australian Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, National Museum of Palau, National Art Gallery of the Solomon Islands, the Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA and the British Museum, London.
“Inspired by traditional Aboriginal eel traps woven by Gunditjmara and Narrandjerri weavers of Southern Australia, these works harness the inherent qualities of glass to evoke the interplay of light and form characteristic of traditional woven traps. The glass becomes a medium of both ancient and contemporary cultural transmission. I have used opaques overlaid with translucent colours in various combinations to evoke the varying stages of colour transition of natural plant fibres used in these objects, thereby capturing something of the place through the colours I use, as well as the changing qualities of colour from harvest to aged that these objects go through in their lifetimes. The sculpture’s shape signifies a sectional structure of a pie graph, to convey the importance of maintaining time for ourselves in our frequently complex and busy lives, with the glass suggesting the strength required to achieve it.”
Long green sedge reeds eel trap, 2017, hot blown glass with canes, 280 x 1040 x 280. Photo: The artist
Tom Moore
Tom Moore uses traditional and innovative glass techniques to create his eccentric hybrid glass specimens and dreamscape dioramas, addressing such issues as the triumph of nature over industry. He has received a number of major prizes for glass-art and is in many prominent public collections. His work has been featured in high-profile surveys of Australian contemporary art; however, he also maintains strong links with a lineage of traditional craft. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia, undertaking practical investigations in glass, focusing on hybrid lifeforms, humour and the anthropocene.
“My aim is to produce exhibitions that are challenging in content and form while offering the audience a hopeful and humorous experience. The key to understanding this work is that it is a wearable glass helmet. This work aims to embody the practice of thinking through making. This process is akin to a conversation with the material of glass that engages with the physical properties and with embedded cultural and social meanings that have accumulated over the centuries. During the Renaissance, filigrana glass (with fine, linear, patterns) wasbelieved to have miraculous properties. It was supposed to shatter if served with poison and save the illustrious owner. Such glassware was collected alongside marvels of nature, including ‘unicorn horns’ and dried specimens of highly poisonous puffer-fish. When the helmet is worn, the borders between the realms of animal, mineral and personal may be liquefied, echoingthe metamorphic quality of glass.”
Vitreous interface, 2016, glass and silver leaf, HXTAL to attach
horn, 600 x 600 x 330 Photo: Grant Hancock
Nick Mount
Nick Mount has been at the forefront of innovation and achievement in studio glass since the early 1970s. His earliest and most enduring influences include the US west coast glass scene and the traditions of the Venetians. Informed but not confined by tradition, Mount is known for his production, commission and exhibition work, the latter comprising an evolving series of sculptural assemblages. Mount’s work is represented in major public and private collections and his reputation as a generous teacher, demonstrator and mentor sees him teaching regularly at glass centres around the world.
“In 1997 when the first in my ever-evolving series of Scent Bottles were exhibited, Linda Marie Walker wrote: ‘Singular, without scent, slightly askew, gaudy, funny; generous things, insect-like, gradually put-together. Each bottle composed, like a score, from separately made components, as if those components were found’.1 In 2018 they continue to be crafted in the same manner but have metamorphosed into quiet sentinels of homage to the bottle, an object of infinite diversity. Unlike their early counterparts, the vessels in A composition of five bottles have a softness that belies their material. Burning quietly with the technical warmth of their Venetian bravura, they exploit the Italian practice of murrini in watercolour strokes.”
1. Linda Marie Walker review of Les Grands Fablier, BMG Art, Adelaide, SA, 1997.
A composition of five bottles, 2018, blown glass, murrini, surface-worked, assembled 680 x 550 x 320
Photo: Pippy Mount
Kathryn Wightman
Kathryn Wightman began working with glass in 2000 as a student at the University of Sunderland, UK, where she obtained a degree in Glass and Ceramics, followed by an Masters of Art in Glass, 2005. Then in research for her PhD at the University of Sunderland, 2012, she focused on the integration of glassmaking and printmaking processes. In 2012 she relocated to New Zealand to take up a post of Glass lecturer at the Wanganui Glass School. She was awarded the Emerge Glass Prize 2014, the Ranamok Glass Prize (NZ), 2014, as well as the Kvadrat Prize as part of Young Glass 2017.
“My recent work is an exploration of human existence and identity, where the replicated glass surface serves as a metaphor for the realities of personal experience. Control and chance play equal parts in the creation of the work as well as the need to balance idea, material and process. In this particular work a limited but saturated colour palette dramatically shifts through a range of 220 shades and back again.”
Still, 2018
sifted and sintered glass powder, 1338 x 800 x 10
Photo: Tracey Grant
2018 Judges
Clare Belfrage
Glass Artist and 2016 FUSE Glass Prize Winner
Clare Belfrage has maintained a vibrant glass art practice for thirty years and forged an international reputation. She has been an active part of artists’ communities in Adelaide and Canberra, including blue pony, JamFactory’s Glass Studio and Canberra Glassworks where she was Creative Director from 2009 to 2013. Clare has lectured in glass programs and taught numerous workshops across the world and regularly exhibits in North America, Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand. She was awarded the Tom Malone Glass Prize by the Art Gallery of Western Australia twice and the inaugural FUSE Glass Prize. Clare’s work is represented in major public collections including National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Corning Museum of Glass, NY, USA, Museo do Vidro, Marinha Grande, Portugal and Tacoma Museum of Glass, USA.
Dr Lisa Slade
Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia
Dr Lisa Slade is Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia. She oversees staff and activities in curatorial, learning, publications and public programs. Her most recent curatorial projects include Sappers & Shrapnel: Contemporary art and the art of the trenches and the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object. Her forthcoming projects include the re-presentation of the Australian Art collection at the Art Gallery of South Australia, which will be launched in November this year. She is also the Chair of Artlink and a member of the National Cultural Heritage Committee.
Kim Paton
Director, Objectspace, New Zealand
Kim Paton is the Director of Objectspace in Auckland, the only public gallery in New Zealand dedicated to craft, design and architecture. She studied in fine art and business management, and has previously held academic positions at Massey University, Wellington, NZ and Wintec School of Media Arts, Hamilton, NZ where she was appointed head of research. She has curated and written extensively on craft and contemporary art, and is co-author of the book Contemporary Jewellery in Context, published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers, released in July 2017.
Brian Parkes
Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director at JamFactory
Brian has been CEO at JamFactory since April 2010. Having worked at a management level in the visual arts for more than 25 years, he is passionate about promoting the social, cultural and economic value of art, craft and design. During ten years as Associate Director at Object Gallery in Sydney, he curated several important craft and design exhibitions including the landmark survey of contemporary Australian design; Freestyle: New Australian Design for Living. Brian co-curated the JamFactory exhibition GLASS: art design architecture, which toured Australia from 2015 to 2018 and has been a judge for many prizes and awards including the Ranamok Glass Prize and the Tom Malone Prize.
