Glorious glass

I much like fine glasswork; thus the National Gallery of Australia’s show Transformation the language of craft, an exhibition of contemporary Australian and international works in decorative arts and design-ceramics, glass, textiles, furniture, jewellery and metalwork-eighty-five artists in all. I found the glass especially appealing for its colors and shapes and the way it plays with the light.

glass2

Toots Zynsky. Pennellata 2004. Glass ‘Filet de Verre’, fused and thermoformed colour glass threads approx. 27 x 59 x 31 cm

glass1

Kevin Gordon; David Hay, glassmaker. Quartz 2005, triple overlay glass, gold and silver leaf, diamond wheel-cut and fire-polished 44 x 12cm

Deb Cocks. Header 2004. Blown glass, reverse-painted, enamelled. 6 x 58 x 58cm. “Drawing on the long traditions of European painted glass, Deb Cocks’ work provides a witty narrative of Australian rural life, where vermin and pestilence co-exist with the fecundity of native flora and fauna. Reverse-painted with images of native and introduced wildlife, and edged with a patterned, painted and engraved border, Header depicts aspects of Australian fauna in surreal and whimsical juxtapositions. The muscular and sinuous hare, and the attenuated, puppet-like human figure-seemingly frozen on toadstools in an absurd balancing act-invoke Alice in Wonderland and her looking glass. This glass, however, rimmed with its sperm-like shapes and faintly poisonous colours, focuses on the real and toxic long-term drama of destruction to Australia’s natural environment caused by the introduced rabbit

glass3

glass4

eX de Medici (Australia) Blue (Bower/Bauer) 1998-2000 (detail)