Artist Tim Edwards has won the prestigious Tom Malone Award for Australian Glass Art with a work that plays tricks on the viewer’s gaze.
The winning work, entitled Ellipse # 8, is a bright blue shape 47 cm high and from some angles it is difficult to know if the glass is two-dimensional or three-dimensional. The piece is 3D but not very thick with a depth of only 8 mm.
“I’m interested in perception, deception and this area between 2D and 3D. Someone coined the term two and a half dimensions, which I like, “said the artist.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Tom Malone Award, Tim Edwards’ winning work, Ellipse # 8, is on display at the Art Gallery Of Western Australia along with 15 finalist pieces and winning works from the previous 19 years. Photo: Art Gallery Of Western Australia
It took about two hours to blow the piece away with the help of Adelaide JamFactory bakery assistants. Edwards then spent another 35 hours in his home studio choosing perfect glass ovals with stone tools and high-end German diamonds.
The glass does not break during this process, he said, because it cools with water and the glass is harder than one might expect.
“It’s fragile, but it’s really very, very strong … it’s strong enough not to break,” he said.
Based in South Australia, Edwards began as a potter before switching to glass and a career that has taken him all over the world, including a commission from the Corning Museum of Glass in the United States.
He is concerned that funding cuts have left glass art college training in a depressing state, but said the JamFactory study was “analyzing gangbusters” and that the skills developed there have been vital to the art. of Australian glass.
Professional-grade glass in Australia is strong, according to Edwards, with sales expanding far beyond craft galleries.
He believes that the interest in blowing glass by prominent contemporary artists such as Patricia Piccinini and Tony Albert will give more attention to the medium.
“We’re in a good place and I think in the next five or ten years we’re going to take a good direction,” he said.
For the 20th anniversary of the $ 15,000 purchase prize, the 15 finalist pieces are on display along with the winning works from the previous 19 years.
These include art by artists such as Tom Moore, Jessica Loughlin, Nick Mount and Gabriella Bisetto.
The pieces are on display at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth from Friday to the end of July.