TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
The Tom Malone Prize was established in 2003 by Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation Governor Elizabeth Malone as an annual Prize for Australian glass artists. Since 2018, the Prize is presented with the generous support of Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation Benefactor Sheryl Grimwood. An acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entrant is awarded $15,000 and their work becomes part of the State Art Collection. During the first ten years judging alternated yearly: in one year works were sent to the Gallery, and in the other, judges visited works in artists’ studios around the country.
TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
One of the most important legacies of the Prize has been the entry of significant glass works by the country’s best artists in this medium into the Collection. So far, winners have been: Nick Mount (2003), Jessica Loughlin (2004 and 2007), Clare Belfrage (2005 and 2011), Benjamin Sewell (2006), Kevin Gordon (2008), Cobi Cockburn (2009 and 2015), Charles Butcher (2009), Deirdre Feeney (2010), Brian Corr (2012), Tom Moore (2013 and 2018), Mel Douglas (2014), Gabriella Bisetto (2016), and Marc Leib (2017). Beyond this impressive body of work and line-up of artists, the Tom Malone Prize has provided a strong focal point for the glass community and has allowed the Gallery to ensure that the medium has a continued prominence in the public’s mind. This year’s shortlist is comprised of 12 works by: Lewis Batchelar (SA), Clare Belfrage (SA), Matthew Curtis (ACT), Liam Fleming (SA), Mark Eliott (NSW), Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello (ACT), Marc Leib (WA), Jeremy Lepisto (ACT), Nick Mount (SA), Stephen Skillitzi (SA), Anne Sorensen (WA), and Kayo Yokoyama (NSW). The group represents several makers new to the Prize’s shortlist: young artists Lewis Batchelar and Liam Fleming, Perth local Anne Sorensen, as well as one of the country’s most significant and senior artists in the medium Stephen Skillitzi. As it does each year, the Tom Malone Prize shortlist captures some of the diversity of approaches to glass in the country, with, on one side of the spectrum, its offbeat inventiveness shining through in Skillitzi and Eliott’s works, and on the other, a more restrained approach to colour and concept in the objects of Belfrage and Mount. It also marks some shifts in practices, with Mount’s work more reserved than ever before and Belfrage and Martiniello’s works evolving in equally fine and subtle ways. Together, therefore, the selection will offer our audiences a great take on some of the key trends in the glass art of the country and the skills of our makers. As usual, it also provides ample evidence for the terrific international reputation of Australia’s glass artists. And from this incredible group of works, this year’s judges - Aimee Frodsham (Artistic Director, Canberra Glassworks), Elizabeth Malone (initiator of the Tom Malone Prize), Stefano Carboni (Director, AGWA) and Robert Cook (Curator of 20th Century Arts, AGWA) – selected Mark Eliott’s Down at the water table for the Prize. We are thrilled with this very fine work, one that sees Mark deservedly take his place amongst the ranks of our Tom Malone Prize winners. The Gallery thanks the shortlisted artists and all those who applied and missed out on being shortlisted: your continued interest in and support of the Prize is highly valued by us at the Gallery. We also thank our guest judge Aimee Frodsham for making the trip to Perth and sharing her incredible glass knowledge (from the unique perspective of curator and maker); Elizabeth Malone for her ongoing commitment to the Prize; and, of course, Sheryl Grimwood, whose passion for the medium and the country’s glass artists has seen this vital Prize continue to thrive.
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
Tom Malone Prize 2019 winner
MARK ELIOTT Down at the water table 2018 Judges’ comments: As we moved around the highly competitive field of this year’s truly outstanding works, we found ourselves coming back to our eventual winner: Mark Eliott’s wonderful Down at the water table. What an unusual piece! Cartoony but not humorous, whimsical but not impulsive, it’s entirely in keeping with the offbeat, everinventive work Mark has been making over the last 20 years. It’s the first time an artist using predominantly flame-work has won the Prize, and it’s a brilliant example of the possibilities inherent in this technique. Fluid and downright untamed, Down at the water table feels simultaneously carefully planned and totally seat-of-the-pants improvised. Either way, it’s a delicate high-wire act of technical skill, yet also a very intimate work. There’s a lot of detail to be observed up close, with a stack of surprises to be encountered (like the figures in the upside down human/canine realm) and really beautiful chromatic nuances. It’s brilliantly fresh in all ways, and we couldn’t be happier with Mark’s piece as a winner for 2019, and his first entry into the State Art Collection. Aimee Frodsham, Elizabeth Malone, Stefano Carboni and Robert Cook
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
LEWIS BATCHELAR Landscapes 2018 blown glass, Murrine, lathe worked and pumice polished 41 x 19 cm (largest object) These forms are an investigation into the sense of home and place. Utilising pattern and the kinetic nature of these pieces, I aim to construct my own dynamic landscape that pays homage to where I am from. I am interested in how repetition and the use of multiples allows me to modify the visible features of a space, and create different landscapes and architectures within it. Photographer: Michael Haines
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
CLARE BELFRAGE Quiet shifting, orange and pale green 2018 blown glass with cane drawing, sandblasted and pumice polished 58 x 38 x 22 cm In this recent interpretation, Quiet shifting, orange and pale green 2018, there is movement described by broad stripes or washes of colour deep in the body of the piece. I am working to create a greater sense of place. The line work is no longer textured and sitting on the surface of the form as with the earlier works. It is finer, subtler and more intense, but the warp and weft are still present. This work combines my technical developments with my current sensibility with regards to landscape and the rhythms in the natural world. Photographer: Pippy Mount
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
MATTHEW CURTIS Intersect neodymium gold 2018 blown, fused, carved and tinted glass; stainless steel frame 44 x 62 x 22 cm I am fascinated by the exquisite architecture of cellular growth and how biologically derived structures are reflected in our architecture. This work has the material language of our built world, whilst the solid depths and lucid hues of the glass reference the complexity of cellular growth. The overlaid bubbles are bisected and arranged. On closer inspection each element is similar but not identical to the next. I am interested in how the parts join and yield in coming together. The whole becomes reliant on the sympathetic pliability between the intersecting forms. There is a rhythm between the harmonious component parts. Photographer: Rob Little
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
MARK ELIOTT Down at the water table 2018 (detail) blown and hot sculpted borosilicate glass; recycled Australian red cedar, water 58 x 69 x 16 cm “It all started down at the local (where else?), after a solid rain. We were having a good natter over a drink when we accidentally bumped branches under the table. Next thing mycorrhizal fungi connected and it was all on for young and old”. Since reading Peter Wohlleben’s The hidden life of trees, I am no longer able to see these organisms merely as chunks of wood with bark and leaves on, but as entities with some kind of undeniable intelligence and character. Instead I now commit the different sin of anthropomorphising them. In this 3D cartoon the human/ canine story is incidental while the trees take center stage. Photographer: Richard Weinstein
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
LIAM FLEMING Blow form #4 2018 blown glass, cold-worked 160 x 25 x 25 cm Blow Horn #4 is a continuation of work inspired by a residency in India. Colour is a driving force behind all my work. Colour is used to build dynamics with loud and soft colours and to change the relationship between them. This augmentation of colours creates a soft but strong visual. The architectural composition, by the use of a repetitive unit, is used to build scale. Photographer: Grant Hancock
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
JENNIFER KEMARRE MARTINIELLO Red sedge reeds fish trap 2018 glass with canes, cold-worked 13 x 85 x 34 cm Inspired by fish traps created by Aboriginal weavers of NE and Central Arnhemland, this work harnesses the inherent qualities of glass to evoke the interplay of light and form characteristic of traditional woven traps. The glass becomes a medium for both ancient and contemporary cultural transmission. I used opaques overlaid with translucent colours in various combinations to evoke the varying transitions of natural plant fibres, thereby capturing something of the place as well as the changing colours of the reed from harvest to aged that the objects go through in their lifetimes. Photographer: Art Atelier
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
JEREMY LEPISTO Structure 2 (from the Aspect series) 2018 kiln-formed and fabricated glass 25.2 x 25.2 x 25.2 cm The idea of Aspect is meant to speak of two ideas. The first is how we see the form. From certain angles, the work resembles a home. From a different perspective, the image of the home falls away and the work is seen as an abstract form of panels. The second refers to each panel holding a detail of a basic building element. None of these elements are remarkable. However, the way they come together become our daily destinations and therefore landmarks of meaning. Parts combine to become the structure and their combination constructs something more complex. Photographer: Rob Little
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
MARC LEIB Reminisce 2018 kiln cast, kiln-formed murrine, kiln-formed, cold-worked 19 x 75 x 22 cm Reminiscing about a loved one whose life journey ended. Their body the vessel, given back to the earth. Their life force dissipated into the infinite beyond. All that remains are the treasured memories of our daily interactions and the precious legacies they have left behind. This open formed vessel has been composed of specific kiln-cast patterns, representative of the loved one’s daily existence. These glass castings were reduced into kiln-formed canes, chopped into murrine, individually placed and fused together. It culminates in an ethereal filigree of memories woven together with no beginning nor end. Photographer: Victor France
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
NICK MOUNT BOT-TLE 2017 blown glass, cold-worked battuto, assembled 45 x 8.5 x 8.5 cm (left); 50 x 11 x 11 cm (right) In 1997 when the first in my ever-evolving series of Scent Bottles were exhibited, Linda Marie Walker wrote: “singular, without scent, slightly eskew, gaudy, funny; generous things, insect-like, gradually put-together. Each bottle composed, like a score, from separately made components, as if those components where ‘found’”. In 2018, they continue to be crafted in the same manner but have metamorphosed into quiet sentinels of homage to the bottle, an object of infinite diversity. Photographer: Pippy Mount
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
STEPHEN SKILLITZI Birds not of a feather — unflocked 2017 blown and lampworked glass, cast; brass, assembled 85 x 60 cms Avian societies sometimes echo those of humans. Ideally “like attracts like” as a source of camaraderie and protection. Conversely societal dysfunction results from disagreements or peer group alienation. The meme: “Birds of a feather flock together’’ is reversed, via this glass duo’s apparent “unflocked” association. The two colourful glass birds, complex as are our human multi-levelled interactions, message distrustful human realities. Anthropomorphism lives ok?! Photographer: M Kluvanek
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
ANNE SORENSEN Same, same, but different 2018 glass, kiln-formed two units: 27 x 28 x 7 cm each This work was created with the notion that wherever we are people are very similar. This phrase is commonly used in many countries. Photographer: Barry Sorensen
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
KAYO YOKOYAMA Myth of the cave 2018 blown glass, hand-engraved, sandblasted 38 x 33 x 33 cm It was a cave mouth of impenetrable blackness, as I stepped in I watched my shadow dissolve into the surrounding darkness. It was dank and the only sound was the dripping water. The cave entrance is covered by trees and all branches are forming to shield the strangers. It reminded me about the Allegory of the Cave by Plato, also known as Myth of the Cave. It is a good example of explaining that if we rely on our perceptions to know the truth about existence then we will know very little about it. It is a concept that demonstrates how humans are fearful of change and what we don’t know without realising it. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato’s explanation of the education of the soul towards enlightenment. Plato talks about being free in everyday life, simply through gaining knowledge. The knowledge is from an everyday notion life, one that we take for granted. The shadows on the cave wall change all the time and aren’t worth much, but the reality outside the cave never changes and that’s what makes it important. (To my dearest friend Kate) Photographer: Keith Rowe
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TOM MALONE PRIZE 2019
Cover
Marc Leib Reminisce (detail) 2018 kiln cast, kiln-formed murrine, kiln-formed, cold-worked 19 x 75 x 22 cm 30