‘Notion and deception’: Winner of Australian glass artwork award performs a trick on eye | Sculpture

Artist Tim Edwards has gained the distinguished Tom Malone Award for Australian Glass Artwork with a piece that performs a trick on the viewer’s eye.

The profitable work, entitled Ellipse # 8, is a luminous blue form 47 cm excessive, and from some angles it’s tough to say whether or not the glass is two- or three-dimensional. The piece is 3D, however not very thick with a depth of solely 8 mm.

“I’m fascinated with notion, deception and the world between 2D and 3D. Somebody invented the time period two-and-a-half dimensional, which I like,” the artist mentioned.

It took about two hours to explode the piece with the assistance of assistants on the ovens in Adelaide’s JamFactory. Edwards then spent one other 35 hours in his house studio grinding good ovals out of the glass utilizing superior German stone and diamond instruments.

The glass doesn’t break throughout this course of, he mentioned, as a result of it’s cooled with water and the glass is tougher than one would possibly count on.

“It’s loopy, nevertheless it’s truly very, very robust … it’s strong sufficient that you simply’ll not break it,” he mentioned.

Primarily based in South Australia, Edwards started as a potter earlier than switching to glass and a profession that has taken him all over the world, together with a fee on the Corning Museum of Glass in america.

He’s involved that cuts in funding have left the college’s glass artwork schooling in a miserable state, however mentioned the JamFactory studio was engaged in “gangbusters” and that the talents developed there have been essential to Australian glass artwork.

Skilled-level glass in Australia is powerful, in response to Edwards, and gross sales are increasing far past craft-based galleries.

He believes that curiosity in glassblowing from distinguished modern artists comparable to Patricia Piccinini and Tony Albert will result in extra consideration for the medium.

“We’re in an excellent place and I feel we’re going to hit a extremely good path within the subsequent 5 to 10 years,” he mentioned.

For the twentieth anniversary of the $ 15,000 acquisition prize, the 15 finalist works are on show alongside profitable works from the earlier 19 years.

These embody artwork from the likes of Tom Moore, Jessica Loughlin, Nick Mount and Gabriella Bisetto.

The items are on show on the Artwork Gallery of Western Australia in Perth from Friday to the top of July.