Ranamok Prize for Contemporary Glass 2007
October 8th 2007 08:19
Some silly and impressionistic comments on a couple of objects from the 2007 Ranamok Prize for Contemporary Glass. This free exhibition is at the Angel Place Office Tower (near Martin Place) from Tuesday 2 to Sunday 21 October. It then goes to Queensland, then to Bathurst.
More details on the tour, and on the objects, at the website.
And there's a talk by Maureen Cahill, co-founder of the prize, at 2pm on Saturday 20 October.
Images reproduced by permission.
General thoughts:
-- I suppose I kept mentally saying "glass glass glass", seeing that this was a glass exhibition -- and so I tended to be thinking about symbolic meanings of glass, the skill in manipulating glass, the particular effects of glass (light effects, transparency, weight). I would've reacted differently had I encountered the sculptures in a different context.
-- Don't know that the pieces were presented to best effect. Some of them are a bit dusty. Others would have benefited from better lighting, etc.
-- I think you'll find, with most of the pieces, that you really do get a lot more out of them -- they're a lot more pleasurable -- if you take the time to contemplate them.
-- The photographs won't do the sculptures justice. They look quite different when you meet them in person.
Connections In White
by Ebony Addinsall
Smooth, elegant, graceful forms, more like plastic than glass. Striking whiteness. About one metre across and 60cm high -- just large enough to be uncomfortable.
I think even on first glance they'll come across as a weird family -- they're suggestive of humans -- those openings cut into them are very much like human eyes or mouths, some of the figures are facing each other, some are having conversations, etc. And, the more you look, the more I think you'll notice that they're individualized -- the precise positioning and shape of the eye/mouth is expressive; one can impute emotions and personalities and ages to them based on their eye/mouth and on their overall shape. In fact, one can extrapolate from the bare details to imagine a whole human.
Note the overall and slightly disconcerting symmetry of arrangement -- life tends to be symmetrical, and inorganic things chaotic. And note the dis-symmetries that add to character -- the shapes and heights aren't quite the same, etc. On closer inspection, one notices additional slight differences -- spots, lines, twists in the apparently smooth skin -- additional details in the pupils of the eyes.
The top openings are also life-suggestive. One contemplates the holes, wonders what goes in, and what would happen if something did.
If you blew across them, would you create music?
Artist writes: "It is the way that we connect and communicate with the people around us that fascinates me. The Connections Series explores the concept of human interaction within the context of contemporary still life."
Spine
by Romani Benjamin
The colours of the object are reminiscent of an x-ray.
If it weren't for your gumboots
by Jaymz Edmonds
Nice simulacrum of rubber. Many of the exhibits are like this -- it's striking that glass can be made to look like some other material.
Naturalistic and character-suggesting positioning.
Humorous.
Reclining Leaf
by Benjamin Edols and Kathy Elliott
About one metre across, so it's a big leaf.
What I found interesting were the twist, the colours (suggestive of coolness, and, in their variation, of life), the odd, graceful shape, and, as per the title, the human-like sense of relaxing.
The eye traces to the point, looks at where the leaf completes and vanishes.
From the right distance and angle, it's quite leaf-like (and from some perspectives, also rather fish-like).
The artists comment: "With this new series we have looked at the simplicity and beauty of silhouette, form, colour and texture of the leaves that are everywhere around us and we sometimes pause to see."
Corrugated Architecture surrounded by Heat Haze, in the Landscape.
by Judi Elliott
Hanging in the exhibition space, it actually blows, breathes, in the wind.
I think it's appearance is quite variable depending on angle and lighting.
Nice simulacrum of iron, doesn't look like glass.
When you stare at it, you can foreground either half of the colours.
Artist comments: "They blend and create a unity, building and environment."
Predator -- all things considered 2007
by Brenden Scott French
No idea what the title means, but a good simulacrum of clay, and of wheels that could move.
One doesn't notice, initially, that the front is disconnected from the rear.
Sea Urchin and Sea Urchin Tall Form
by Kevin Gordon
Exquisite detailing.
Visage 2
by Brent King
Dali-esque.
Fire =
by James McMurtrie
No idea what the "=" in the title means.
Apparently simple, childlike, but has the odd quality of being able to grip the imagination if you let it.
Artist comments: "FIRE = Burning, Embers, Destruction, Ashes, New Life, Regeneration, Inspiration, Glass, Imagination, Passion, Nature, Luminosity, Glowing, Glass."
Vanitas
by Karleena Mitchell
An odd object. Frankly, I don't feel I understand it at all. The glass-ness seems to raise an issue of the line between organic and mineral -- all fossils, once living, are now rock.
Love the vegetation -- the density, type, and colour. Seems suggestive of watery moss, or primeval plants; and when you inspect closely, it's a mini-forest.
37° C
by Peng (Faye) Mo
Actually quite a big sculpture, and laid out more spaced out.
Striking, intriguing, suggestive comic-book images. The hint of a story. Noir-like.
Intriguing orange line.
Glass adds to a feeling of distance, smoothness, calmness, permanence, while the powder is dirty, fragile, ephemeral, like sand that just happens to fall into place.
Seems to play with the nature of image -- refuses to be bounded by the frame, by any obvious sense or order, and plays with disappearance and space.
The striking frame is the small one, third from the right.
Artist comments: "37° C is not the temperature of the cigarette, but the warmth from one’s palm, being reassured when one was feeling disturbed. Manga and Comics have had a very strong influence on me, such ‘picture-books’ are very inspirational as of their ability to effectively communicate their narrative through carefully positioned extracts of a story."
Shower
by Jane Morrisey
Little glass gemstones of water. Probably the most immediately attention-drawing and crowd-pleasing, because of its beauty, sparkle, size, the way it envelops space, and its absurdity (a shower in an office foyer).
A nice illusion from the right distance.
Focuses attention on associations between water and glass, solid and liquid.
Contrast of water-beauty with a rusty showerhead and pipe (with writing on it) and a rusty pan.
Not visible in the photograph, but the beads end in a mirror of water (or rather, a water of mirror).
A moment frozen in time, and transformed.
Firestorm
by Graham Orridge
A rough, natural shape, like a piece of volcano-formed glass, with a sense of weight. Has the general appearance of some sort of dragon, and its mantle has an orderly, snake-like patterning, with misshapen tear-like objects on it.
Contrasts form and shapelessness, ugliness and beauty, organic and inorganic.
What's inside it? -- You see ambiguous effects, shifting colours, strange shapes in its depths.
Does radiate heat, contain fire.
Artist comments: "An uncontrollable firestorm has taken form out of the fire."
Lace Illusion Disc
by Lou Pendergrast Mathieson
Does look like lace.
The rear is pleasingly decorated.
Outer ring has mottled colours. It won't be evident from the photograph, but it's actually lighter towards the top right, such that, together with the design, there seems to be a sun in that corner.
Milk and Honey #3 and Milk and Honey #4
by Matthew Ryan
Gravity-defying positioning, sense of fragility, brittleness, and good simulation of beeswax.
Didn't like the title that much; don't know how sweet the sculpture is.
Sickeningly organic hexagons, if you allow them to catch you.
Air/organic matter. Organic matter transformed to essentials.
Beacon
by Adam Sinclair
Formal, square, playful, child's buildings blocks.
Reminded me of the ice palace of the first Superman movie.
I liked the way the beacon feels frozen-in-glass.
Isn't nearly this illuminated in the actual exhibition space, and the colours are much brighter.
Totem Tower #2
by Jenny Smith
Base of the tower has the appearance of leather.
Language and Meaning
by Rob Stewart
Bowl with words on it.
Pity the photograph has a side-on view. Experiencing the object in person, the eye travels down the interior of the bowl to where the words disappear. One looks at the luminscence through glass and words, the cranium-suggestive shape, and, strangely, at the bowl's contents -- for, combined with the light (which varies in intensity throughout the bowl), there's an illusion of something with mass inside.
Reliquary for Memories (a)
Sense of black-and-white Victorian photographs, and of things caught museum-like in glass. Atmospheric and slightly sinister. One wonders about the meaning of the tree-like images, their separation one from another, and their sequencing.
Seems to speak of the organicity (wanker word, I know), ambiguousness, and connectedness of memory.
Memories grow.
Artist writes: "Memories are stored throughout the body; embedded deep in blood and fat and fibre. When the time is ripe, something prompts these memories to percolate and rise, flitting in and out of consciousness. Shards form and reform, generating the new and bringing up the old."
More details on the tour, and on the objects, at the website.
And there's a talk by Maureen Cahill, co-founder of the prize, at 2pm on Saturday 20 October.
Images reproduced by permission.
***
General thoughts:
-- I suppose I kept mentally saying "glass glass glass", seeing that this was a glass exhibition -- and so I tended to be thinking about symbolic meanings of glass, the skill in manipulating glass, the particular effects of glass (light effects, transparency, weight). I would've reacted differently had I encountered the sculptures in a different context.
-- Don't know that the pieces were presented to best effect. Some of them are a bit dusty. Others would have benefited from better lighting, etc.
-- I think you'll find, with most of the pieces, that you really do get a lot more out of them -- they're a lot more pleasurable -- if you take the time to contemplate them.
-- The photographs won't do the sculptures justice. They look quite different when you meet them in person.
***
Connections In White
by Ebony Addinsall
Smooth, elegant, graceful forms, more like plastic than glass. Striking whiteness. About one metre across and 60cm high -- just large enough to be uncomfortable.
I think even on first glance they'll come across as a weird family -- they're suggestive of humans -- those openings cut into them are very much like human eyes or mouths, some of the figures are facing each other, some are having conversations, etc. And, the more you look, the more I think you'll notice that they're individualized -- the precise positioning and shape of the eye/mouth is expressive; one can impute emotions and personalities and ages to them based on their eye/mouth and on their overall shape. In fact, one can extrapolate from the bare details to imagine a whole human.
Note the overall and slightly disconcerting symmetry of arrangement -- life tends to be symmetrical, and inorganic things chaotic. And note the dis-symmetries that add to character -- the shapes and heights aren't quite the same, etc. On closer inspection, one notices additional slight differences -- spots, lines, twists in the apparently smooth skin -- additional details in the pupils of the eyes.
The top openings are also life-suggestive. One contemplates the holes, wonders what goes in, and what would happen if something did.
If you blew across them, would you create music?
Artist writes: "It is the way that we connect and communicate with the people around us that fascinates me. The Connections Series explores the concept of human interaction within the context of contemporary still life."
Photographer: Michael Kluvanek
Spine
by Romani Benjamin
The colours of the object are reminiscent of an x-ray.
Photographer: Screaming Pixel
If it weren't for your gumboots
by Jaymz Edmonds
Nice simulacrum of rubber. Many of the exhibits are like this -- it's striking that glass can be made to look like some other material.
Naturalistic and character-suggesting positioning.
Humorous.
Photographer: Lee Brogan
Reclining Leaf
by Benjamin Edols and Kathy Elliott
About one metre across, so it's a big leaf.
What I found interesting were the twist, the colours (suggestive of coolness, and, in their variation, of life), the odd, graceful shape, and, as per the title, the human-like sense of relaxing.
The eye traces to the point, looks at where the leaf completes and vanishes.
From the right distance and angle, it's quite leaf-like (and from some perspectives, also rather fish-like).
The artists comment: "With this new series we have looked at the simplicity and beauty of silhouette, form, colour and texture of the leaves that are everywhere around us and we sometimes pause to see."
Photographer: Greg Piper
Corrugated Architecture surrounded by Heat Haze, in the Landscape.
by Judi Elliott
Hanging in the exhibition space, it actually blows, breathes, in the wind.
I think it's appearance is quite variable depending on angle and lighting.
Nice simulacrum of iron, doesn't look like glass.
When you stare at it, you can foreground either half of the colours.
Artist comments: "They blend and create a unity, building and environment."
Photographer: Rob Little
Predator -- all things considered 2007
by Brenden Scott French
No idea what the title means, but a good simulacrum of clay, and of wheels that could move.
One doesn't notice, initially, that the front is disconnected from the rear.
Photographer: Brenden Scott French
Sea Urchin and Sea Urchin Tall Form
by Kevin Gordon
Exquisite detailing.
Photographer: Adrian Lambert
Visage 2
by Brent King
Dali-esque.
Photographer: Andrew Barcham
Fire =
by James McMurtrie
No idea what the "=" in the title means.
Apparently simple, childlike, but has the odd quality of being able to grip the imagination if you let it.
Artist comments: "FIRE = Burning, Embers, Destruction, Ashes, New Life, Regeneration, Inspiration, Glass, Imagination, Passion, Nature, Luminosity, Glowing, Glass."
Photographer: Marcus Thomson
Vanitas
by Karleena Mitchell
An odd object. Frankly, I don't feel I understand it at all. The glass-ness seems to raise an issue of the line between organic and mineral -- all fossils, once living, are now rock.
Love the vegetation -- the density, type, and colour. Seems suggestive of watery moss, or primeval plants; and when you inspect closely, it's a mini-forest.
Photographer: David McCarthy
37° C
by Peng (Faye) Mo
Actually quite a big sculpture, and laid out more spaced out.
Striking, intriguing, suggestive comic-book images. The hint of a story. Noir-like.
Intriguing orange line.
Glass adds to a feeling of distance, smoothness, calmness, permanence, while the powder is dirty, fragile, ephemeral, like sand that just happens to fall into place.
Seems to play with the nature of image -- refuses to be bounded by the frame, by any obvious sense or order, and plays with disappearance and space.
The striking frame is the small one, third from the right.
Artist comments: "37° C is not the temperature of the cigarette, but the warmth from one’s palm, being reassured when one was feeling disturbed. Manga and Comics have had a very strong influence on me, such ‘picture-books’ are very inspirational as of their ability to effectively communicate their narrative through carefully positioned extracts of a story."
Photographer: Peng (Faye) Mo
Shower
by Jane Morrisey
Little glass gemstones of water. Probably the most immediately attention-drawing and crowd-pleasing, because of its beauty, sparkle, size, the way it envelops space, and its absurdity (a shower in an office foyer).
A nice illusion from the right distance.
Focuses attention on associations between water and glass, solid and liquid.
Contrast of water-beauty with a rusty showerhead and pipe (with writing on it) and a rusty pan.
Not visible in the photograph, but the beads end in a mirror of water (or rather, a water of mirror).
A moment frozen in time, and transformed.
Photographer: Stephen Cummings
Firestorm
by Graham Orridge
A rough, natural shape, like a piece of volcano-formed glass, with a sense of weight. Has the general appearance of some sort of dragon, and its mantle has an orderly, snake-like patterning, with misshapen tear-like objects on it.
Contrasts form and shapelessness, ugliness and beauty, organic and inorganic.
What's inside it? -- You see ambiguous effects, shifting colours, strange shapes in its depths.
Does radiate heat, contain fire.
Artist comments: "An uncontrollable firestorm has taken form out of the fire."
Photographer: Andrew Barcham
Lace Illusion Disc
by Lou Pendergrast Mathieson
Does look like lace.
The rear is pleasingly decorated.
Outer ring has mottled colours. It won't be evident from the photograph, but it's actually lighter towards the top right, such that, together with the design, there seems to be a sun in that corner.
Photographer: Haru Shamashima
Milk and Honey #3 and Milk and Honey #4
by Matthew Ryan
Gravity-defying positioning, sense of fragility, brittleness, and good simulation of beeswax.
Didn't like the title that much; don't know how sweet the sculpture is.
Sickeningly organic hexagons, if you allow them to catch you.
Air/organic matter. Organic matter transformed to essentials.
Photographer: Stephen Cummings
Beacon
by Adam Sinclair
Formal, square, playful, child's buildings blocks.
Reminded me of the ice palace of the first Superman movie.
I liked the way the beacon feels frozen-in-glass.
Isn't nearly this illuminated in the actual exhibition space, and the colours are much brighter.
Photographer: Leigh Mitchell-Anton
Totem Tower #2
by Jenny Smith
Base of the tower has the appearance of leather.
Photographer: Howard Williams
Language and Meaning
by Rob Stewart
Bowl with words on it.
Pity the photograph has a side-on view. Experiencing the object in person, the eye travels down the interior of the bowl to where the words disappear. One looks at the luminscence through glass and words, the cranium-suggestive shape, and, strangely, at the bowl's contents -- for, combined with the light (which varies in intensity throughout the bowl), there's an illusion of something with mass inside.
Photographer: Stuart Hay
Reliquary for Memories (a)
Sense of black-and-white Victorian photographs, and of things caught museum-like in glass. Atmospheric and slightly sinister. One wonders about the meaning of the tree-like images, their separation one from another, and their sequencing.
Seems to speak of the organicity (wanker word, I know), ambiguousness, and connectedness of memory.
Memories grow.
Artist writes: "Memories are stored throughout the body; embedded deep in blood and fat and fibre. When the time is ripe, something prompts these memories to percolate and rise, flitting in and out of consciousness. Shards form and reform, generating the new and bringing up the old."
Photographer: Grant Hancock
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Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Love Shower and Spine sculptures. Thanks for the post!
Mis
Comment by Nonymous
Philosophy Blog
Thanks for visiting!
PMC -- I'm a big fan of surreal art -- have Dali posters and calendars everywhere here. Surreal "automatic writing", though, can be a bit tedious at times...
About the gumboots sculpture, apparently the title refers to a well-known New Zealand folksong.
Ashburton Guardian, 4/10/07, page 5
Fair Go ad awards
A commercial using "down on the farm charm" has come out on top in TV One’s Fair Go Ad Awards, while Kiwis gave a resounding thumbs down to an ad featuring wandering hands. Yamaha’s ad for Grizzly four wheel farm bikes, which features farmers dancing and singing to the tune of "If it Weren’t For Your Gumboots" was given the top gong at the annual awards. The Grizzly campaign used slapstick and down on the farm charm to celebrate the relationship between Yamaha and the New Zealand farmer, creators Barnes Advertising said.
[...]
-- NZPA
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
Do you have a Facebook, btw?