Cross medium collaborations revitalise glass

In the wake of last week’s Hindmarsh Prize announcement, ArtsHub looks at how the medium of glass is busting beyond its silo.
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Detail of Kate Baker’s winning work, Lena on the Tramp, 2018, hand and digitally printed silver mirror. Photo: Kate Baker

During this past week, Sydney artist Kate Baker was announced the winner of the 2018 Hindmarsh Prize, the third year the award has been presented by Canberra Glassworks (CGW), and its first to tour to Japan to the Toyama Glass Museum.

Melding photography and printmaking techniques, where the substructure used is silver glass mirror, Baker’s work Lena on the Tramp (2018) sits within an exciting direction in glass globally that blurs the categories – evocative, contemporary and abstracted.

Nick Mitzevich, Director of the NGA, said the judging panel chose the work because it ‘…pushes the medium and gives us a very sophisticated resolution of a glass medium that feels entirely contemporary and rooted in the moment of now.

‘It is the fusion of both traditional practice and pushing the glass medium to blur the boundaries beyond a painting, beyond a photograph and beyond glass,’ said Mitzevich.

As a glass artist, Baker said that the space offered through that cross-medium slide has opened up a broader dialogue.

‘To me interdisciplinary work requires an even greater commitment both technically and conceptually, as getting different mediums to work well together adds another layer of complexity to your practice,’ she told ArtsHub.

‘The divisions between disciplines have definitely blurred in a contemporary art context, which is refreshing for everyone. But I think there remains a challenge for all artists to remain rigorous in their engagement with their chosen medium/s,’ Baker added. 

Hindmarsh 2018 09 043 – Hindmarsh Prize 2018, featuring works by Brendan van Hek (centre), Kate Nixon (back left), Scott Chasling (left), Dan Venables (back right) and Mark Eliott (right). Image by Brenton McGeachie for Canberra Glassworks.

Busting down the glass silo

21 artists were shortlisted in this year’s Hindmarsh Prize, several of whom were not traditional studio glass artists.

Canberra Glassworks describes: ‘The work pushes the medium and gives us a very sophisticated resolution of a glass medium that feels entirely contemporary and rooted in the moment of now. It is the fusion of both traditional practice and pushing the glass medium to blur the boundaries beyond a painting, beyond a photograph and beyond glass.’

Canberra Glassworks’ Artistic Director Aimee Frodsham continued: ‘This year I was really keen to encourage all artists that worked at the Canberra Glassworks to enter the prize, whether they were an artist who engaged us to help them fabricate pieces in glass or a master glassmaker. It’s exciting to be able to provide a way for artists to engage with the often highly technical material in a meaningful way.

‘We are equally honoured to be able to exhibit the works of artists such as Mel Douglas, Kirstie Rea and Yusuke Takemura as we are of exhibiting works by Brendan van Hek, Brenda L Croft and NOT,’ she added. 

Multi media artists sit equally in this prize alongside studio glass artists who hold years of training and exhibiting careers in glass – Clare Belfrage, Kirstie Rea, Richard Whiteley, Mel Douglas, Harriet Schwarzrock and Scott Chaseling – names that ricochet with a knowing across glass circles internationally.

For the complete list of finalists visit hindmarshprize.com.au

The growing trend of glass

There has been a trend globally for some years now, for artists working in other mediums to collaborate with studio glass artists in creating new work for the contemporary art gallery and museum sector.  It has presented an opportunity that has revitalised and grown the medium of glass in a contemporary sculpture context.

Frodsham said: ‘Over the last year or so [at CGW], we have seen an increase in requests from artists outside the studio glass movement wishing to engage with the medium. Working with iconic Australian artists like Ken Unsworth, not only demonstrates the ability of glass making here at CGW, but it also engages our artistic community in wider conceptual conversations which often goes beyond the technical development of the works while they are in production here in our studio. 

She continued: ‘Recently we have been working with artist Vipoo Srivilasa in realising some of his works in hot glass. Vipoo has been working with the incredibly skilled glass artist Annette Blair – this partnership is built on a mutual understanding of material knowledge, form and concept.’

These pieces were exhibited at Scott Livesey Gallery as part of Vipoo’s exhibition Everyday Shrines.

Annette Blair gaffed for Melbourne-based artist Vipoo Srivilasa, widely known for his ceramic sculptures that explore culture, politics and social issues. Image Canberra Glassworks

Along with Unsworth and Srivilasa, the artist Nell has also created a significant body of work with CGW. ‘Julie Skate, Canberra Glassworks’ CEO, and I will be working incredibly hard over the next year to promote the glass and glass making both here at CGW and within the wider contemporary art sector.  We will be working with artists like Tony Albert and Jamie North to help them expand their practice and to create new bodies of work using glass as a key component. We will also continue to advocate for the artists who work within our community, we are hoping that this growing trend will in turn enhancement the visibly of their practices to a wider audience,’ explained Frodsham.   

It is a growing direction for workshop. In 2019 CGW will also work with a number of internationally renowned artists who will be working with glass for the first time.

‘By working with these artists we are hoping that more galleries and museums see that this material is not limited to the traditional craft based applications and to let go of the reconceived notions of the complexities of showing and handling such a ‘fragile’ material, this tends to be the biggest barrier with showing glass,’ Frodsham told ArtsHub.  

In the same way, Frodsham said the judges of the Hindmarsh Prize were drawn to Baker’s piece due to her innovative use of materials and techniques that push the boundaries of glass.  

Kate Baker speaks about her process; video link @katebakerart

Much needed visibility

Of the 200-plus art prizes in Australia, only four are currently devoted to the medium of glass – the $10,000 Hindmarsh Prize (ACT), the Tom Malone Prize (WA), the acquisitive biennial National Emerging Art Glass Prize presented by Wagga Wagga Art Gallery (NSW), and the $20,000 biennial Fuse Glass Prize presented by the JamFactory in Adelaide (SA), which is open to Australian and New Zealand glass artists.

The Ranamok Glass Prize – also known for pushing the boundaries of glass – was presented for twenty years, but concluded in 2014. Its founders, Maureen Cahill and Andy Plummer donated the Ranamok acquisitive collection (all the prize winners) to the National Gallery of Australia on the Prize’s conclusion.

Hindmarsh Prize-winner Baker agreed that, like any artist, you have to consistent and proactive in presenting your work across different gallery spaces and social media platforms to get that visibility.  She said: ‘Although contemporary art is breaking away from the traditional boundaries between disciplines it still surprises me how much gallerists and other arts professionals typecast certain materials.

‘Commercially, artworks in glass can be challenging for those who are not familiar with it. The mainstream art world still needs to be educated about the breadth of what can be done with the less familiar materials. When it comes to a material like glass – anything is possible but so many people just don’t realise that yet,’ said Baker.

Baker receives a $10,000 cash prize, $2,500 of in-kind freight services from IAS Fine Art Services and a four-week residency at Canberra Glassworks. Kate Baker was also a finalist in May in this year’s Fuse Glass Prize with the work Within Matter #2 (2018), made from UV flatbed digitally printed toughened and waterjet cut glass and Raw Steel.

She said of her Fuse finalist work: ‘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 for 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.’

Baker has held solo exhibitions in Australia and the United States and has been widely exhibited both nationally and internationally 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.

Presented by Canberra Glassworks, the Hindmarsh Prize was initiated by arts patron Mr John Hindmarsh AM in 2016 with support from the Tall Foundation and IAS Fine Art Services. This year’s judging panel included Nick Mitzevich, Director, National Gallery of Australia; Eva Czernis-Ryl, Curator, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and Aimee Frodsham, Artistic Director, Canberra Glassworks.

The tour of Hindmarsh Prize to Toyama is supported by the Australian Government through Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina