Honours Studio Neckpiece - Fine & Sterling Silver, Cast Glass, Cotton
Impressions of the honours studio bench pegs cast in clear glass. This neckpiece captures an echo of surface and calls for reverence of a space touched and loved by so many.
Theorist Andrew Jones describes objects as crystallised intentions - physical proof of former actions. Of course any time I see the word ‘crystallised’ I jump, because it backs up the use of glass in my work (2007). Similarly, when discussing Kitsch, Celeste Olalquiaga describes the process of decay as a process of crystallisation, in my mind this calls forward images of the bench peg shedding its timber dust over time, in the process of being used, experienced (1998). Both writers pin down an idea of an object caught in status, solidified forever like a fossil, and I’ve found glass, as well as plaster, have conveyed this idea exceptionally.
But something I’ve noticed people pick out about glass in particular is its sadness - they talk about poetics, longing, and sombreness in the work. The work feels like a celebration in the way that a funeral does - we accept that something was once here and now it’s not. It has been replaced with glass.
I love that the work conveys so much emotion so strongly, and I do have this poetic romanticism and longing for the studio. And as I approach the final weeks of my time at RMIT I think these connotations feel ever more correctly placed. At first I thought this sadness was for the space but now I realise it’s for the students, and for myself.
Photography by Chris Bowes