Hindmarsh Prize 2017

KIRSTIE REA THE GURGLE IN MY GUT
We live under an ocean of air. That ocean has volume,
it lives and breathes as we breathe it. It is charged with
place, imbued with what lies below, tainted and tinged,
tasting of what’s been and what is to come.
Kirstie Rea established her studio in 1987, and over
the past 27 years has devloped her practice to
become internationally recognised and respected
for her works in glass.
For many years Kirstie’s work has explored
intervention and attachment to place. Bringing
together the external and the internal Kirstie is
investigating how we have shaped and marked
place and in turn how place shapes our navigation
both physically and mentally across and into it. She
is drawn to places distant from built environments to
continue this exploration and cites the importance
of silence and solitude in the field to ‘filter and
ferment ideas’. This work, The gurgle in my gut,
relates to this working process.
We live under an ocean of air. That ocean has volume,
it lives and breathes as we breathe it. It is charged with
place, imbued with what lies below, tainted and tinged,
tasting of what’s been and what is to come. I ingest
it, I digest it, filter and ferment it. That digestion is like
a conversation with myself, with my gut, it feeds and
nourishes my thinking towards making.
Kirstie was a staff member of the glass workshop
at the ANU School of Art & Design from 1987
-2003, and was the inaugural Creative Director
at the Canberra Glassworks. She has taught in
her field of kiln formed glass and coldworking
techniques across the world since 1987. She
has exhibited widely internationally and her
work has been included in numerous Australian
Glass survey shows. In 2009 Kirstie received the
Ausglass Honorary Life Membership Award for her
contribution to the education of glass in Australia,
and in 2014 was awarded the 2015 CAPO Fellow
Award (Canberra Arts Patrons’ Organisation). She
was the recipient of the 2016 Canberra Glassworks
Fellowship.
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