Tour de Force: In Case of Emergency Break Glass

Return to index of past exhibitions
View images from the gallery                    

Craft ACT Gallery: 1 July - 6 August 2011

Tour de Force was officially opened by Dr Chris Bourke MLA, Member for Ginninderra on Thursday 30 June 2011.

Tour de Force highlighted the work of eight progressive Australian artists who make work that both challenges and inspires a new generation of studio glass artists. Tour de Force was a project developed by artisan and Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, curated by Megan Bottari and toured by Museums and Gallery Services Queensland. The exhibition tour was supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian Government and state and territory governments.

The exhibition featured work by contemporary Australian artists Nicholas Folland, Jacqueline Gropp, Timothy Horn, Deb Jones, Tom Moore, Ian Mowbray, Trish Roan, Neil Roberts.

Australian studio glass is internationally acknowledged for its freshness, innovation and diversity. Whilst Australian glass artists are widely acclaimed, the medium is under-represented in Queensland with a noticeable absence of tertiary glass courses and only a few hot-glass studios. The exhibition Tour de Force: In case of emergency break glass arose out of a desire to bring this medium to attention, particularly the conceptual branch of the practice.

Tour de Force catalogue excerpt
Chetana Andary, CEO artisan – idea:skill:product

Megan Bottari's full catalogue essay from the exhibition Tour de Force: in case of emergency break glass is available on the Craft Australia website.

Neil Roberts

Neil Roberts trained as a glassblower at the JamFactory in Adelaide in the late 1970's, followed by training at the Orrefors Glass School in Sweden in 1981 and the New York Experimental Glass workshop a year later on. Robers had a broach arts praction that straddeled disciplines and media and a natural curiosity and empathy for materials that drew him away from a dedicated glass focus, to working primarily with glass, neon and collected objects.

Trish Roan

Trish Roan studied glass at the Australian National University (ANU) School of Art, finishing with Honours in 2006. She has been working as a glassblowing assistant for several artists, as well as working in her own studio.

Ian Mowbray

Ian Mowbray has been working in glass for three decades, originally setting up a studio in the JamFactory, followed by the establishment of Moto Glass in 1989 and moving to Melbourne to set up a new studio World Glass. Mowbray has been working exclusively with kiln formed glass.

Tom Moore

Tom Moore has been the production manager at the JamFactory for the last 10 years, where he makes varied commissioned items, and trains graduates in glass production and exhibition work. Moore uses traditional and innovative glass techniques to create eccentric hybrid specimens.

Deb Jones

Deb Jones studied at the ANU School of Art, later moving to Adelaide and joining the JamFactory, and in 1995 opened a glass studio called Blue Pony. In 2007 she opened a new studio Gate 8, and presently shares her time between that studio and the JamFactory studio.

Timothy Horn

Timothy Horn's work focuses on the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds. Much of his work has drawn extensively from the sphere of decorative arts, concerned with the inherent/assigned gendering of objects.

Jacqueline Gropp

Jacqueline Gropp is intrigued by Muranese glass, after discovering the material's molten form through glass blowing lessons before undertaking a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the ANU School of Art, where she graduated with First Class honours in 1997.

Nicholas Folland

Nicholas Folland is a Samstag Scholar who studied within the research program at the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam and the University of Barcelona, completing a Masters Degree at the University of Sydney in 2009.

Images (top to bottom)

• Nicholas Folland, Casual Acquaintance - the Sceptic, 2010, timber side table, refrigeration unit, crystal bowl, linen doily, 12v LED light, timber plinth. Photographer: Creative Image Photography
• Jacqueline Gropp, Involution, 2009-10, hot formed borosilicate glass, pharmaceutical ampoules, graphite, pencil, Indian ink, glass beads and water. Made with the assistance of Peter Minson of NSW. Photographer: Creative Image Photography
• Timothy Horn, White Death, 2009, crystalised rock sugar, shellac. Photographer: Addison Doty
• Deb Jones, (L-) Stop Light, Chair, Life is Ordinary – Good Ordinary, Datsun, Smokes, Bins, Puppy, Power Switch, Dentist, Match Box, 2009, oil and spray enamel on glass. Photographer: Creative Image Photography
• Tom Moore, Pond Life, 2009, inflatable pond, sheet glass, blown and solid glass, tin cans. Photographer: Romy Willing
• Ian Mowbray, My Family's Souvenirs Series: (L-R) Uncle Barry/ Auntie Barbara; My Brother; We're All Here; A Lover, 2010, carved glass and glass jars. Photographer: Creative Image Photography
• Trish Roan, Falling, 2009-10, blown glass, glass beads, rayon thread, water. Made with the assistance of Brian Corr. Photographer: Romy Willing
• Neil Roberts, Untitled (BA na na BA na na MAN go series), 1998 and 2001, plastic and metal object, fluorescent tubes, wood. Photographer: Creative Image Photography