Luna Neckpieces

In November 2017, I spent 10 days in the small Indigenous community of Wirrimanu (Balgo) at the Warlayiriti Art Centre facilitating a glass workshop to create a commission for the Art Gallery of Western Australia  + the Desert River Sea : Kimberley Art Then & Now project.  I worked with a core group of 10 women artists who came together to collaborate on the commission and in the second week, the curators from  AGWA + DRS arrived to document the project.  The artists worked  prolifically translating their stories into glass and we celebrated the  last day of the workshop by going on a bush trip, hunting for bush  potatoes. 

Warlayiriti Artists

The Desert  River Sea: Kimberley Art Then & Now project will conclude with a  major exhibition of art, craft and cultural artifacts, and will be the  first of its kind in over two decades. It will celebrate the art of the  Kimberley region, its rich Indigenous cultures, its dynamic and  breathtaking landscape and the cultural narratives which tell of its  creation, its custodians and the peoples who call this country home.

https://desertriversea.com.au/right-now/field-trips/warlayirti-and-mangkaja-exhibition-field-trip-2017

Gunyah Artist in Residency Report

19th June – 30th June 2017

We set off for North Arm Cove from  Melbourne at 4:30am, driving through fog we arrived at Gunyah just in  time to see the last rays of sun reflecting off the water. 

We woke see the sun rise over the  glass-like water of the Cove turning the moored yachts into  silhouettes.  As the morning sun filled the house, the wooden interior  started to glow and poured over the studio desks.

The country surrounding Gunyah was  beautiful to explore.  We visited The Myall Lakes, The Grandis – tallest  tree in NSW, Mungo Brush, the ocean beaches, their islands & the  still waterways of Port Stephens.  We kayaked out into The Kaurah River  stopping at secluded inlets - viewing the big sky & landscape from  the water.

The wildlife in the backyard was abundant  with regular visits from wallabies, kookaburras & dolphins, we saw  koalas at Hawks Nest & whales passing by at Anna Bay.  We spent time  bush walking the dirt roads of North Arm Cove & visiting the  Gooreenggai Aboriginal site.

I began pressing & collating collected  botanical specimens from the local area & spent time documenting  & developing a sense of place through photography, drawing &  engraving.

I spent time recording the ever-changing  light of the cove through photography & began engraving landscapes,  pressed botanicals & maps of North Arm Cove onto sheet glass.

My final days were spent creating glass  sheet assemblages, accumulating layers of pressed botanicals, ash from  the fire, salt form the cove & engraved silhouettes with copper  & wood.

Layered pressed botanicals and engravings.

Spending time at Gunyah allowed me to time  & focus on creative research & to explore the beginnings of a  new body of work.

Issue 6

Garland Magazine

2017

Bethany Wheeler

Established in March 2013 by Bethany Wheeler, 1000 Degrees Glass  Studio is set up as a space for artists and designers to realise their  creative concepts.

The workshop offers makers the rare opportunity to have their own  workshop space within a working studio glass environment, enabling  artists to practice their arts’ businesses with direct access to studio  equipment.

Starting with a 230sqm empty shell, the studio now hosts artists’  spaces, a kiln forming area, sandblasting space, a purpose built cold  working and wax/mould making workshop. The workshop can also facilitate  lots of functions along with creative production. There is a large  communal space that is often used for hosting collectors’ tours,  meetings with galleries and clients, photo shoots and packing for  exhibitions. A gallery/project space offers room for trialling installs,  installations and showcasing new works to visitors.

1000 Degrees Studios are situated on the fringe of industrial  Moorabbin within close proximity to glass suppliers, glass blowing  workshops, hot rod mechanics, market gardens, the beach and wetlands.  The workshop is available 24 hours to resident artists and by  appointment to occasional users.

1000degrees.com.au

There are up to four resident artists based at 1000 Degrees at any  one time, which along with occasional users of the space and equipment  creates a vibrant and supportive creative collective.

Current resident artists are Lindy McSwan, Jennifer Ashley King and  Bethany Wheeler. Since launching, we have had a growing number of  artists work from the studio, use its equipment and transform their  concepts into glass. Artists include Georgina Cockshott, Ros Harris,  Nadia Mercuri, Kirstin Finlayson, Jasmine Targett, Lienors Torre, Lisa  Krivitsky, Amanda Dziedzic, Elisha Pilcer, Sarah Field and Marilella  McKinley.

I (Bethany) established 1000 degrees glass studios four years ago  this March! The beauty of this workshop is that each day, month and year  is different as the studio grows and settles into its foundations,  providing a lovely balance—having someone around to bounce an idea off  and the quiet of your own studio space. My studio practice is quite  broad; I divide my time between making works for exhibitions, craft  production lines, corporate/private commissions and working with artists  to transform their concepts into glass.

Bethany’s work embraces concepts of memory, place and what lies at  the end of our perceptions of interior and exterior space. She is  particularly drawn to working with glass because we live in vitreous  environments; it’s a material that surrounds us in almost every part of  life. Glass allows light to fill space, letting objects visually  materialise and dematerialise simultaneously whilst describing interior  and exterior space. It is charged with fascinating material paradoxes,  fragility| solidity, liquid | solid, transparent | translucent |  opaque—it is a hybrid that illustrates notions of the human condition  and ways of seeing.  bethanywheeler.com

Jennifer Ashley King has been based at the studio from the beginning,  a prolific workshop wall decorator she has transformed her space into a  3D collage! Jen’s practice spans from multi media installations  incorporating handmade glass elements and found objects, a production  range of fused and slumped glass bowls with fired-on space themed decals  and corporate, public and private commissions.

Jennifer’s work examines methods of measurement of nuclear disasters  and threats where radiation is a central theme. Since the middle of the  20th century, nuclear technologies have produced environmental,  socioeconomic and geopolitical fears. Her artwork utilises historic and  contemporary iconic imagery and objects, and includes ironic references  to popular culture that diffuse the reality of the dangers generated by  all aspects of nuclear industries. jenniferashleyking.com

Although established as a glass studio we are not a glass specific  workshop; the space and facilities offer possibilities across a number  of mediums.

In 2015, Lindy McSwan joined us, establishing her independent studio  practice by taking up residence at 1000 Degrees Glass Studio. Lindy  works in metal, with a sublime approach. Her working processes cross  boundaries: she uses our sandblaster to refine the surfaces of her  vessels before using the kilns to fire on enamels and heat colour the  skins of her works. In late 2017 Lindy will embark on the Bundanon  Trust’s Artist-in-Residence program in NSW.

Lindy’s practice primarily focuses on the vessel. The process of  forming is integral to her work. Working outside the conventional  silversmithing studio, most of Lindy’s forming is undertaken using  equipment traditionally used in panel beating. Collections of mild steel  vessels are either enamelled or heat coloured. They reference Lindy’s  experience of travel to remote parts of Australia and aesthetics unique  to its worn and weathered landscapes.

lindymcswan.com

10 Golden Rules for working together in the studio…..

1. Share…. techniques, knowledge, materials, contacts and snacks.

2. Sprawl out into the communal areas for extra space and perspective  when you need to. Make heaps of mess, work in creative chaos and then  tidy it up.

3. Share your photography bookings.

4. A watched kiln doesn’t cool down any faster. If you can’t be in to  unload your kiln the next day someone else is always happy to do it for  you.

5. Attend each other’s openings.

6. Water each other’s plants.

7. Use as needed—icy poles in the freezer in summer and hot water bottles in the cupboard in winter.

8. Come together for our annual Studio Sale once a year to celebrate.

9. Coffee in the am and homebrew in the pm.

10. Studio pets are welcome.

My  research is currently focused on working towards a solo exhibition  called Imprint, Place & Memory at The Gallery@BACC in February 2015.

Traces of the landscapes that we inhabit stay with us for the extent  of our lives developing a baseline for our sense of psyche and being. In  this new body of work I re-contextualise a geographical, historical and  manifested sense of place, reflecting on a dialogue between the artist  and The Red Bluff Cliffs in Black Rock, Victoria. The body of work  consists of series of multi-media wall installations and assembled  sculptures combining kiln formed glass and locally foraged artifacts and  specimens such as insects, flora, ochre, sap, salt, bark, charcoal and  clay.

You can see an album of progress & process on my Facebook page & here on Pinterest.

This project has been generously supported by an Australian Artists' Grant via NAVA.

The Australian Artists’ Grant is a NAVA initiative, made possible  through the generous sponsorship of Mrs Janet Holmes à Court and the  support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts.

A Hook With No Bait has been shortlisted as a finalist in The Tom  Malone Prize at The Art Gallery of Western Australia & will be on  display there from March 2015. 

The Tom Malone Prize was initiated in 2003 by Benefactor of the  Foundation of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Elizabeth Malone.

It is an acquisitive prize intended to promote the creation, appreciation and enjoyment of glass made in Australia.

The prize of $12,000 is awarded to the winning artist, while their  winning work becomes part of the State Art Collection at the Art Gallery  of Western Australia

13th July - 20th October

2013

"In the National Art Glass Gallery, 3 Vitreous Bodies is a stunning  example of the beauty and innovation of glass as an experimental  artform. The exhibition features recent works from three of Australia’s  most exciting and innovative glass artists, George Aslanis, Nadia  Mercuri and Bethany Wheeler. All three explore ideas and concepts of the  physical, spiritual, and historical, and in 3 Vitreous Bodies they  unveil the human face of glass as an artform and a way of life in a  sequence of individual works and collective installations."
 

George Aslanis states that his work, “is a discussion about glass, its  inherent material properties; these include the sensual and  metaphorical. Glass is a material in a state of becoming, an endless  multiplicity of potentials.”
 

Nadia Mercuri’s art explores the history of the Wunderkammer, or cabinet  of curiosities. Nadia describes the Wunderkammer as “an encyclopaedic  collection of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to  be defined.”
 

Bethany Wheeler explores the physical concept of memory, as residing  “within the whole body. The physical actions required to articulately  use glass specific hand tools lie in procedural memory; this memory  cannot be physically taught or expressed in words, only acquired. When  procedural memory is perfected the hand tool becomes an extension of the  body and visual language.”

My kiln formed glass work The Actants has been selected as a finalist in The Tom Malone Prize at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

George Aslanis, Emma Borland, Dan Bowran, Samantha Cuffe, Kirstin  Finlayson, Ros Harris, Nicole Heffes, Michael John Joseph, Jennifer  King, Amanda McKenzie, Nadia Mercuri & Grace McKenzi, Rosslynd  Piggott, Lee Pittella, Susan Reddrop, Alicia Renew, Yhonnie Scarce, Emma  Sutherland, Jasmine Targett and Bethany Wheeler.

Opened by Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, Emma Mayall.

Presenting twenty artists who work within the medium of glass, yet  utilise abstract interrogation and ungoverned experimentation to realise  their projects, Media Specific is an exhibition that aims to address  surrounding dialogues between contemporary art practice and that which  is considered traditional and decorative practice. The substance of  glass is a seemingly untameable medium which continually finds itself in  the lingering discourse of art verses craft. While many artists fight  to stay relevant in an unsustainable industry, the proliferation of  experimental and technological innovation enhances the arguments of  traditional decorative techniques disassociating themselves from ‘freer’  forms of art. The polarity between these two concepts, lead to many  conflicts between the materials when used as homogeneous cultural signs.

Glass poses many dangers and restrictions to the artist, from extreme  heat and heavy-duty industrial machines that cut, polish and blast, to  timely techniques and costly materials. With its luminescence, and  optical virtuous the aesthetics and method of glass presents a great  challenge as it is all too quickly categorised into ‘useful arts,  decorative arts and industrial arts’. In the same vain, the term  ‘artisan’ is used against the skilled techniques that the artist is  required to learn in order to be proficient with the medium, while  ‘craft’ is used to separate the practice from the cultural production of  art. Eighteenth century philosopher Immanuel Kant, increased the  distinction between art and craft, with the ideal of craft as that which  aims only to visually please, while further distancing craft from art  by asserting that art is a product of genius and imagination, in  contrast to craft which is procedural and intentional. This however may  be precisely where the art of glass finds its definition comfortably  within contemporary art. It is evident in the systematic technicity,  that is to say, in the union of centuries of technology and knowledge  which has enabled glass artists to evolve the medium in order to  communicate their concepts with visual and unrestricted technical ease.  It is also in the volatile nature of the substance which is the  antithesis between the natural and artificial that has enable artists to  overcome an apparent aesthetic hindrance which has threatened to  distract from the concept.

Historically a valuable material which has been manufactured since  the first century BC, glass has been used for ideological, decorative  and alchemic purposes. While some artists in Media Specific continue to  reflect the deep history of glass with traditional techniques, others  recklessly challenge the metaphysics of the medium. All twenty artists  aim to essentially arouse an interpretational response from the viewer,  therefore defining their practice as contemporary art rather than craft  production.

Thus, in short, to anyone considering it well, all the effects of  glass are marvelous. Considering its brief and short life, owing to its  brittleness, it cannot and must not be given too much love, and it must  be used and kept in mind as an example of the life of man and of the  things of this world which, though beautiful, are transitory and  frail. Vannoccio Biringuccio, Pirotechnia, 1540n

Excerpt from Media Specific Catalogue written by Alicia Renew, Gallery Director and participating artist.