Hindmarsh Prize 2018

HINDMARSH PRIZE
twenty-eighteen

Hindmarsh Prize exhibition
Saturday 22 September to 30 September
10am to 4pm daily in the Fitters’ Workshop, adjacent Canberra Glassworks
Sponsors
Major Sponsor
Exhibition Partners
Designed by Wendy Dawes
Printed by Canprint
Set in Mr Eaves San OT Book
© Canberra Glassworks 2018

Contents
Welcome 5
Curator 7
SELECTED ARTISTS
Brenda L Croft 10
Brendan van Hek 12
Clare Belfrage 14
Dan Venables 16
Emma-Kate Hart & Fernando Melendez 18
Harriet Schwarzrock 20
Holly Grace 22
Jeremy Lepisto & Nick Stranks 24
Kate Baker 26
Kate Nixon 28
Kirstie Rea 30
Lisa Cahill 32
Lucy Palmer 34
Madeline Cardone 36
Mark Eliott 38
Mel Douglas 40
不 NOT 42
Richard Whiteley 44
Rose-Mary Faulkner 46
Scott Chaseling 48
Yusuke Takemura 50

Welcome
Canberra Glassworks is delighted to
present the third Hindmarsh Prize, which
in 2018 showcases the work of some of
Australia’s most interesting and talented
contemporary artists who work with glass.
The prize honours outstanding achievement
in contemporary glass art, celebrating the
work of remarkable artists whose practices
are among the most innovative and
influential in this medium.
From the outset, the exhibition and award
were intended to provide significant
benefits to artists. Art prizes are an
important means by which art museums
and collectors, large or small acquire
work to build their collections and as the
Hindmarsh Prize is peer assessed by gallery
curators and a director, it confirms that
the works selected are both worthy and
interesting. This year, with the support of
Hindmarsh and the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, the finalist exhibition
will tour to Toyama Glass Museum in
Toyama, Japan. And of course, along with
the $10,000 prize money the winning artist
receives a four week residency at Canberra
Glassworks.
I would like to thank the artists who
submitted their work for consideration for
this year’s exhibition and congratulate our
2018 finalists. We are grateful to the artists
for their commitment to contemporary
glass and to their representative galleries.
I would also like to thank Eva Czernis-
Ryl, Curator, Museum of Applied Arts
and Sciences; Aimee Frodsham, Artistic
Director, Canberra Glassworks and Nick
Mitzevich, Director, National Gallery of
Australia for generously giving their time
and expertise as the 2018 judges.
The Hindmarsh Prize would not be
possible without our supporters The
Tall Foundation, CRE8TIVE and King
and Wood Mallesons. I would also like
to acknowledge our wine sponsors Lake
George Winery.
I am immensely grateful to the small
and dedicated team here and extend
my thanks to Tom Rowney, Aimee
Frodsham and Wendy Dawes for their
work on the exhibition and this publication
and acknowledge all of the Canberra
Glassworks staff for helping to ensure the
exhibition’s success.
Finally, heartfelt thanks go to John
Hindmarsh for his generous and passionate
support of the exhibition and the prize over
the past three years.
Julie Skate
CEO, Canberra Glassworks
5

Curator
Glass may cut and burn but it runs through
the veins of the artists who practice at
Canberra Glassworks. Despite this inherent
danger, or perhaps because of it, glass is
instantly seductive and yet the contrary can
be said for the time taken to master it.
When I began working with the material in
the early 90s I was told that it would take
me 10 years before I would make anything
worthwhile, and while this might be not
completely true, it is indicative of the time
required watching, learning and making to
gain a level of material knowledge.
Glass making can only be taught by using
and feeling the material; it cannot be
learned through simply watching. Much
of this knowledge has come from working
both with and for other makers with
more experience, sharing with others and
developing legacies of teacher to student,
much like the traditional master-apprentice
relationship.
Canberra Glassworks is at its core a making
facility championing such technical skills,
providing the necessary equipment and
pathways to gain and further a thirst for
material knowledge in glass. The skills
shared at Canberra Glassworks join us
together as a community of makers – be
they artist, craftsperson or designer –
creating a community that is unlike any
other I have experienced.
There have been, and will continue to be,
many great Australian studio glass makers
who choose to base their practice in and
around Canberra Glassworks and the
Hindmarsh Prize offers us the opportunity
to recognise the extraordinary skillset
amongst our community. These skills were
recognised when the inaugural Hindmarsh
Prize in 2016 was awarded to Masahiro
Asaka and in 2017 to Scott Chaseling;
these two artists created works that
epitomised quality, strength of concept and
craftsmanship.
In 2018, the Hindmarsh Prize will exhibit 21
finalists in Canberra and for the first time
this exhibition will travel and be exhibited at
the prestigious Toyama Art Glass Museum
in Japan. By showcasing and touring an
exhibition of such high-calibre works the
Hindmarsh Prize provides visibility to a
local, national and international audience
and continues to cement Canberra
Glassworks as the pre-eminent access
facility for artists across the world.
Aimee Frodsham
Artistic Director, Canberra Glassworks
7

SELECTED ARTISTS

BRENDA L CROFT
GROUNDED (RED, BLACK, WHITE)
Brenda L Croft is from the Victoria River region. A Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra woman of
the Northern Territory, Croft also has Anglo-Australian/German/Irish/Chinese heritage. Croft
has been involved in the Indigenous and broader contemporary arts and cultural sectors as an
artist, arts administrator, curator, academic and consultant for over three decades.
Croft’s artistic practice is multi-disciplinary. Although best known for photo-media, she
has also worked with printmaking, sculpture, glass, audio-visual/multi-media installation,
performance and sound work. The lead crystal stone axes, titled Grounded (red, black, white)
draw inspiration from the original material cultural object that found the artist (not the other
way around) on her Peoples’ country during site visits with Gurindji elders and community
members back in June 2014.
Represented by Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.
Brenda L Croft, Grounded (red, black, white), 2018, kiln cast lead crystal, corten steel, stainless steel and
electrical components. Photos: Brenda L Croft
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BRENDAN VAN HEK
CORRECTED HORIZON
(COBALT BLUE, TURQUOISE)
Brendan van Hek was awarded the prestigious International Studio & Curatorial Program
(ISCP) residency in New York as well as a fellowship through the Department for Culture and
the Arts WA that allowed him to research new techniques in neon production. Corrected
Horizon (cobalt blue, turquoise) is a neon work that relies on colour and geometry to create an
optical encounter that calls to the illusion that is the horizon line. In Corrected Horizon (cobalt
blue, turquoise) the horizon line has slipped – visually it needs to be corrected. The artwork is
rotated clockwise to achieve this, but balance is uncertain. The work considers the precarious
nature of contemporary existence as understood from many points – philosophically,
environmentally, politically, socially.
The artist is represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
Brendan van Hek, Corrected Horizon (cobalt blue, turquoise), 2018, neon. Photo: Consuelo Cavaniglia
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CLARE BELFRAGE
QUIET SHIFTING, GREEN AND CORAL
In 2016 Clare Belfrage re-interpreted her 2002 Quiet Shifting series, inspired by rock forms
encountered many years ago in the Australian Alps. The artist was interested in the slow and
occasionally dynamic movement of monoliths and clusters of rocks as well as the surface
covering of rocks; the growth of lichen and moss. In this interpretation, Quiet Shifting, Green
and Coral, 2018, there is movement described by broad stripes or washes of colour deep into
the body of the piece. The line work is finer, subtler and more intense, but the warp and weft
are still present. This work combines her technical developments with her current sensibility in
regards to landscape and the rhythms in the natural world.
The artist is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney.
Clare Belfrage, Quiet Shifting, Green and Coral, 2018, blown and coldworked glass with cane drawing.
Photo: Pippy Mount
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DAN VENABLES
OCCULUS SERIES (III – BLACK SUN)
Dan Venables’ current body of work challenges the value of clinical diagnoses to the visceral
understanding of the experience of psychological darkness. Dan questions whether this
darkness can be more fully explored through an empathetic evaluation of the psyche instead.
In Dan’s Occulus series, a blown glass lens is mounted on a timber tripod, compelling the viewer
to share a singular viewpoint. Due to the optical and refractive properties of blown glass, their
vision is altered, distorted.
Dan Venables, Occulus Series (iii - Black Sun), 2017, blown glass, timber. Photo: Adam McGrath
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EMMA-KATE HART & FERNANDO MELENDEZ
ELECTRIC BELL JAR
Emma-Kate Hart is a commercial neon glass worker – the only full-time female tube bender in
Australia; Fernando Melendez is a Mexican-born architect who moved to Australia to pursue
a career in sculpture and painting. Their collaborative work, Electric Bell Jar is a sculptural
work that explores the commercialisation of the body. Referencing the historical use of neon
as a commercial medium, the sculpture serves as a critique on the hyper-sexualisation and
objectification of women. Hart and Melendez address how, when reduced to a mere physical
representation, the individual is stripped of her complexities and potential.
Emma-Kate Hart and Fernando Melendez, Electric Bell Jar, 2018, neon. Photo: Adam McGrath
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HARRIET SCHWARZROCK
DEGREES BETWEEN
The poetic notion that all individuals are connected to each other by only six degrees of
separation has long fascinated Harriet Schwarzrock. This work continues a meditation on
this interconnectivity, becoming an exercise in making such intangible connections visible.
The blown and hot sculpted glass heart forms are filled with noble gases, excited by an
electromagnetic field – reacting when touched. Their undulating and pulsing movement is
contained, yet influenced by the subtle electricity of human touch. The arrangement of forms
references in a circle symbolises unending connection and movement, and celebrates the
asymmetric and sympathetic network of similar yet subtly different forms.
The artist is represented by Suki & Hugh Gallery, Bungendore.
Harriet Schwarzrock, degrees between, 2018, blown glass, neon. Photo: Sam Cooper
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HOLLY GRACE
ILLUMINATING TIDBINBILLA
Holly Grace’s recent artwork explores local histories of the Kosciuszko and Namadgi regions.
For the artist, glass has become a lens to explore the complexity of the natural world. Exploring
first with the camera and then with the material, Grace uses glass as a surface for translating
light and creating sublime landscapes both real and imagined.
Grace conducted research on people and place at the National Library of Australia and
National Archives of Australia; which was further explored through the artist’s own personal
photography and documentation of the landscape. Following this period of research, Grace
began creating artwork layered with context and imagery to explore the cultural and the
physical landscapes, creating a poetic interpretation of the Australian vernacular.
The artist is represented by Beaver Galleries, Canberra and Sabbia Gallery, Sydney.
Holly Grace, Illuminating Tidbinbilla, 2018, blown glass. Photos: David McArthur
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JEREMY LEPISTO & NICK STRANKS
THE FIX
The Fix is a work that perhaps requires more answers than it offers. The work is a heavy, rusted
toolbox whose floor holds an embedded image of a flooded farmhouse and the foreverpresent
dusted silhouette of a missing spanner. The contour and condition of the metal form
along with the content of the glass component combine to suggest what exactly The Fix is.
Jeremy Lepisto and Nick Stranks are known as makers and fixers. Within this collaborative work
a little of each artist remains in the work, evidence of their labour is obvious, but also evident is
a portrait of the makers. The Fix tells its own story, but also tells the story of its owner/maker.
Jeremy Lepisto is represented by Beaver Galleries, Canberra.
Jeremy Lepisto and Nick Stranks, The Fix, 2018, fabricated steel and bronze, kiln formed glass. Photos:
Adam McGrath
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KATE BAKER
LENA ON THE TRAMP
The process of studio-based practice is the primary focus of Kate Baker’s artistic research. This
direction provides for a challenging yet complex research 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.
This particular work has grown out of an ongoing investigation into the ethereal figure within
abstracted space and the potential for this exploration to create emotional and psychological
environments in which the viewer can be transported both visually and viscerally. Within this
work, the artist meditates on the question of what it means to love and be loved and where the
space for love and fulfilment really resides.
Kate Baker, Lena on the Tramp, 2018, hand and digitally printed silver mirror. Photo: Kate Baker
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KATE NIXON
FOR COLLECTION
Kate Nixon’s work explores how our private identities are expressed through the things we
collect and the material mass we will eventually leave behind. By exploiting the transformative
properties of glass, cheap knick-knacks, gaudy wallpaper and garbage bins morph into precious
decorative objects, in contrast to their humble origins.
For collection is part of a series of glass mosaics based on rubbish bins, trashcans and recycling
bins. Nixon’s work has always been concerned with what happens to the ‘stuff’ left behind and
the transformation of value in those objects. The artist honours the act of releasing ourselves
from the burden of these objects and celebrates the humble rubbish bin as the bearer of these
artefacts.
Kate Nixon, For collection, 2018, hand-cut mirrored glass mosaic. Photo: Adam McGrath
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KIRSTIE REA
CLARITY IN THE UNRESOLVED
Clarity in the Unresolved reflects the artist’s ongoing and deep interest in seeking an
understanding of place and belonging. This has anchored much of Kirstie Rea’s work over the
past three decades. The photographs on each glass panel are one image, one shot, with no
digital manipulation. They are the reflection on, and the image through the glass in the doors,
as one image. Cut and installed at an angle the glass panels reflect the partially open doors that
first captured the reflections photographed. This suggestion of open doors offers possibilities
and ongoing ways forward with our conversations, the artist seeks to acknowledge our past
history since colonisation and remind us that we all need to participate.
The artist is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney and Suki & Hugh Gallery, Bungendore.
Kirstie Rea, Clarity in the Unresolved, 2018, digitally printed glass, steel. Photo: David Paterson
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LISA CAHILL
Beside the Escarpment III
Inspired by both the natural world and the transitory nature of the urban experience, Lisa
Cahill’s dreamlike images allow viewers to draw associations with their own remembered
landscapes, resulting in a meditative and emotional response. Having spent many years living
and travelling the world, much of this time spent in Denmark, her mother’s homeland, Cahill’s
kiln formed glass connects structures of urban architecture, the associations and memories
they invoke, and her innate respect for the natural landscape. Rather than a direct reproduction
they are more her own interpretation of light and landscape and become a place for quiet
contemplation. The artist’s technique has affinities with both painting and sculpture.
The artist is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney.
Lisa Cahill, Beside the Escarpment III, 2018, kiln formed and enamelled glass. Photos: Greg Piper
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LUCY PALMER
INVERSE NOTION
Inverse Notion is an exploration into the intimate encounter between the ocean and sky,
creating a quiet state of contemplation through stillness and simplicity.
Lucy Palmer uses the form of the prism to create colour from light. The thin horizon takes
this light and transforms it, whilst the curve of the sphere attempts to contain the light and its
surroundings. Together these forms allow contemplation on the silent expanse of water and sky
against the horizon.
At first the work appears to provide an easy stillness and a level of crystalline clarity, until you
move and it all becomes uncertain. The spherical lenses create an illusory effect, forcing the
viewer to question their perception.
Lucy Palmer, Inverse Notion, 2018, hot sculpted, constructed and coldworked glass. Photo: Sam
Cooper
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MADELINE CARDONE
SOMETHING ABOUT THE RAIN
Something About The Rain is an abstraction of observation, looking at the motion of rain on
glass. Madeline Cardone’s work contemplates the relationship between the internal and the
external through exploring and challenging the material potential of kiln formed glass. The
imagery in her work is a narrative of connecting lines that form a dialogue from panel to panel.
The artist is interested in how simple lines and forms have the power to evoke certain emotional
responses from the viewer. The subtle tension of pull and resistance between form and material
suggests the presence of something ambiguous beneath the surface, inviting the interplay of
object and light and prompting the temptation of touch.
Madeline Cardone, Something About The Rain, 2018, kiln formed glass. Photo: Annette Liu
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MARK ELIOTT
ESSENCE OF CLOUD ARTEFACTS
Following on from the artist’s short animation Dr Mermaid and the Abovemarine and glass
installations at Sculpture by the Sea, Essence Of Cloud Artefacts represents a major turning
point. It is Mark Eliott’s first attempt at a long-form body of work that delves deeper into
narrative and character development through detailed articulation of an imagined family
history, at some points intersecting with the real.
Essence Of Cloud Artefacts is a multi-faceted project comprised mainly of glass objects but also
text, mixed media, performance and animation.
Mark Eliott, Essence Of Cloud Artefacts, 2018, flameworked and sandblasted glass, assembled and
carved wood. Photos: Richard Weinstein
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MEL DOUGLAS
LIMINAL
Line has always been an integral element in Mel Douglas’s work, as well as a fundamental
constitute of the drawing vernacular. Objects and drawings are often thought of as two
separate entities. Her work explores and interweaves the creative possibilities of this hybrid
space, where the form is not just a ‘substrate’ for drawing; but a three-dimensional drawing
itself.
Using the unique qualities of the material, Douglas uses line as a way to inform, define and
enable three-dimensional space. The artist’s aim is to concentrate the viewer’s attention on the
proportion and linear relationships of the work. The repetitious and time-consuming method of
mark making is not only a meditative process; in its very creation it describes a singular moment
and a certain place.
The artist is represented by Beaver Galleries, Canberra, Bilk Gallery, Canberra and Sabbia
Gallery, Sydney.
Mel Douglas, liminal, 2018, kiln formed, coldworked and engraved glass. Photos: David Paterson
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不 NOT
THE CHINA SYNDROME
The China syndrome takes its name from the 1979 film by James Bridges that, with eerie
prescience, was released 12 days before the world learnt of the nuclear power plant accident
at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Like the film, NOT’s The China syndrome is about the
phenomenology of playing with fire – in the case of this sculpture, four kilos of hot-formed
uranium glass shaped into a human skull and then cold-worked .
This artwork continues the artist’s recent practice in the medium of hot formed and coldworked
glass, extending on themes of remembrance and reparation as part of a contemporary project
that seeks to nurture new understandings of our shared stories and histories.
The artist is represented by Kronenberg Wright Artists Projects, Sydney.
不 NOT, The China Syndrome, 2018, kiln cast and coldworked glass, monumental granite. Photos: Dan
Lorrimer
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RICHARD WHITELEY
SOLID FLOW
Richard Whiteley employs voids as a primary compositional element, allowing the architecture
of this conversation to be shaped by the unique material properties of glass, which invites an
overlaying of form and light. The structuring and layering of often simple shapes becomes
complex when the voids and solids are read together.
Glass can be defined as having liquid and solid properties, and the artist represents this duality
by creating a work that aims to visualise an industrial structure which folds or flows into itself,
mimicking the duality of form as both container and liquid.
The artist is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney.
Richard Whiteley, Solid Flow, 2018, cast glass. Photo: Adam McGrath
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ROSE-MARY FAULKNER
BARE 2-4
Rose-Mary Faulkner’s current work presents a study of the body from a unique and subjective
line of sight. The artist seeks to map and record the female figure through abstracted and
layered photographic imagery, analysing form and surface. Transferring photographs to glass,
Faulkner expands the depth of the original photographs by layering multiple images and
manipulating the surface and form through multiple fusings and coldworking.
Bare 2-4 is from a series of eight diptychs mapping an abstracted, soft figure in sections in order
to highlight areas of colour, line and form.
Rose-Mary Faulkner, Bare 2-4, 2018, kiln formed glass with decals. Photo: David Paterson & Wendy
Dawes
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SCOTT CHASELING
DRAGGING ANCHOR (A SELF PORTRAIT)
Dragging Anchor is embedded with both literal and personal symbolism. By combining the
three main components of a flag, a glass bucket, and a mirror, he has created a narrative of selfreflection.
As a maker Chaseling is constantly questioning his position and therefore aiming to
push himself and his sculptures to new possibilities. This self-examination is both a burden and
an inspiration; feeding a path forward to a more concentrated body of work.
Working predominately with glass as the main material in his artworks, Chaseling blurs the
borders between art and craft, combining technical skills with conceptual foundations to create
new and thought provoking pieces.
Scott Chaseling, Dragging Anchor (A Self Portrait), 2018, blown glass, mirror, maritime flag. Photo:
Supplied by the artist
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YUSUKE TAKEMURA
CLOSER TO SILENCE
Viewed from afar, Closer to silence is evocative of an abstracted human figure. Upon closer
inspection the object offers a complex surface created through cutting, grinding and polishing,
yielding an ethereal shell perforated by organic-shaped voids.
Inspired by the Zen philosophy of Daisetz Suzuki and his contemplative museum in Kanazawa,
Yusuke Takemura’s artistic practice utilizes glass as medium to investigate the infinite
relationship between mind and body. Voids are bound by glass, mimicking the grounding of the
conscious and unconscious mind through a network of neural pathways.
The artist has continually explored coldworking techniques throughout his career, pushing
the limits of glass in order to balance positive and negative space while maintaining structural
integrity. The movement from sculptural vessel to multi-media installation represents a
significant new step for his work.
Yusuke Takemura, Closer to silence, 2018, blown and coldworked glass, timber, steel, water. Photo:
Adam McGrath
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canberraglassworks.com
11 Wentworth Ave, Kingston ACT 2604
T 02 6260 7005
E contactus@canberraglassworks.com
Hindmarsh Prize exhibition
Saturday 22 September to 30 September, 2018
10am to 4pm daily in the Fitters’ Workshop,
adjacent Canberra Glassworks