It’s a humble setting \u2014 a shed at the fringes of an industrial Tasmanian suburb \u2014 but inside those concrete walls, spinning in thousand-degree heat, history is in motion.<\/p>\n
In this Launceston studio, Anne Clifton is creating glass art of international calibre.<\/p>\n
In June, her piece Vetrograph Rubinda was acquired by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum \u2014 the world’s biggest decorative arts and design collection.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is possibly the first Tasmanian craft item collected by Victoria and Albert Museum in about 100 years. (Supplied: Peter Bowles)<\/p>\n
Possibly the first Tasmanian craft item collected by the institution in about 100 years, the feat had Clifton “leaping out” of her skin.<\/p>\n
“I’m like, ‘no, I’m not good enough, it’s not good enough’, but that’s the imposter syndrome sinking in,” she says.<\/p>\n
“After about 10 minutes I got over myself and I remembered that it’s the work, it’s not me.”<\/p>\n
Clifton’s journey in glass began nearly three decades ago. (Supplied: Glass Manifesto)<\/p>\n
The vase-like piece draws on Clifton’s roots in ceramics, “subverting” the structured nature of glassmaking.<\/p>\n
Working inside out and upside down, she layers interior colours with multiple panes of clear glass, using chips and powders to give it a ceramic-like veneer, then draws on the surface.<\/p>\n
“Vetri is Latin for glass, and graph is Greek for drawing with, or drawing on \u2026 and I’ve mashed them together, in a very rude fashion,” she says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clifton layers interior colours with multiple panes of clear glass. (Supplied: Glass Manifesto)<\/p>\n
“I’m drawing with fire \u2026 I’m splashing paint around with these big shards of glass.<\/p>\n
“I’m getting everything I want and it’s giving me everything I want \u2014 it’s kind of magic.<\/p>\n
“[It’s] slight anarchy in a very controlled environment.”<\/p>\n
The colours are inspired by myrtle trees Clifton passes on her walk to the studio \u2014 which from a distance appear brown, but up-close reveal the pink of new buds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The blue is akin “to the sky coming through the branches”.<\/p>\n
Different, unusual<\/p>\n
The V&A has one of the world’s most comprehensive glass collections, hosting works from the Italian renaissance, the Middle-East, 17th to 20th century Europe, and contemporary art glass.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clifton’s artistic aesthetic, deeply rooted in ceramics, merges with her unconventional approach to glassmaking. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Senior curator of ceramics and glass Reino Liefkes was struck by Clifton’s “incredible technical mastery”, her “intense” colours, and the beauty.<\/p>\n
“The aesthetics are different really from any glass that we do have,” he says.<\/p>\n
“We’re not after just something beautiful \u2026 it has to be something that has not been done really before.<\/p>\n
“What we try to do is really to show how the art and the practice sort of evolves \u2026 so we’re looking out for things that are new and make significant changes to the [existing] body.”<\/p>\n
Partners in creativity<\/p>\n
It’s also somewhat of a love story.<\/p>\n
Clifton’s journey in glass began nearly three decades ago, when “an attractive young English glassblower” named Peter Bowles entered her orbit.<\/p>\n
“And I really got interested in glass blowing,” she says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clifton’s journey in glass began nearly three decades ago, when Peter Bowles entered her orbit. (Facebook: Glass Manifesto)<\/p>\n
The couple has worked together ever since, pushing one another to stretch their artistic boundaries.<\/p>\n
In fact, stuck in a creative rut and going through great change, Bowles encouraged Clifton to bring in her “first love” \u2014 ceramics.<\/p>\n
“He’s still a source of fascination,” Clifton says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bowles encouraged Clifton to bring in her “first love” \u2014 ceramics. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
“We’ve got this fantastic knowledge about what needs to happen, so it’s like choreography, it’s like dancing, there’s a beauty in movement.<\/p>\n
“You can’t blow glass by yourself, it’s very humbling.”Reminding the world what Tassie can do<\/p>\n
University of Tasmania (UTAS) art lecturer Karen Hall says the acquisition is monumental, especially given the medium’s historical baggage.<\/p>\n
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“If we think about the labels, art and craft, they have very different histories and they have different weight and significance,” she says.<\/p>\n
“You’re kind of working against a history in which glass art may not be taken as seriously as other mediums, or it’s siloed into specific collections that don’t have the kind of reach that the V&A does.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Karen Hall says it could be some time before the significance of the museum acquiring the piece is fully realised. (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n
But she says it could be some time before the significance is fully realised.<\/p>\n
“When museums acquire objects for their collections, they aren’t just doing it for the present moment, they’re doing it to write the future history of a discipline, of how creativity evolves,” she says.<\/p>\n
“And so I think the full significance of this will be understood in another 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 years’ time.”<\/p>\n
Hall says the acquisition is monumental. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Mere blocks away, in a studio tucked at the back of a university building, a local legacy is already beginning to take form.<\/p>\n
Amy Collins, a UTAS honours student who works in sculpture, glass and ceramics, says it makes her feel like international success is achievable.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hall says when museums acquire objects, they’re doing it to write the future history of a discipline. (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n
“Being somewhere regional, or in the small state that Tasmania is, it can feel like it is out of reach to get access to the art world which is primarily recognised as being in New York, London, Berlin,” Collins says.<\/p>\n
“So, seeing someone from really just up the road from where I’m studying be recognised on the world stage is just really great.”<\/p>\n
Launceston-based ceramics and textiles artist Sharon O’Donnell has taken classes with Clifton, and is inspired by the way her former teacher has diversified and flourished.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sharon O’Donnell has taken classes with Clifton (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n
“I think that this acquisition is a step in the right direction for celebrating women artists and especially in the glass world,” O’Donnell says.<\/p>\n
“Any acquisition is amazing and any sort of recognition celebrating what we do is enough of a legacy to just keep us going.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a humble setting \u2014 a shed at the fringes of an industrial Tasmanian suburb \u2014 but inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[20395,1628,442,498,499,500,501,156,9637,20396,20397,111,139,69,20399,9997,20398,20400],"class_list":{"0":"post-18946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-anne-clifton","9":"tag-artist","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-artsanddesign","13":"tag-artsdesign","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-glass","17":"tag-invermay","18":"tag-launceston","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-rubinda","23":"tag-tasmania","24":"tag-vetrograph","25":"tag-victoria-and-albert-museum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}