(above) Jane Bruce, Ghost House (side view)
The Gang’s received a postcard from Jane Bruce, which was amazing synchronicity ‘cos we’d only just caught up with Big Mel and Jeremy at their opening at Beaver a couple of days before, and they’d been telling us about the work they’d been doing of late with Jane at their workshop, Studio Ramp, over in Portland… So it was great to get a gander at the work itself, some of which – the House series – is so beautifully evocative of Caithness in Scotland, where she’d held the position of Artistic Director at the Northlands Creative Glass Centre until quite recently. (We love that slate and glass mix.)
Patently she’s not been idle since leaving Canberra in 2004 [where she had spent some 10 years as associate lecturer at the ANU (formerly Canberra) School of Art Glass Workshop, including a couple as Acting Head of Workshop following Stephen Procter’s untimely illness and demise.] She did, however, go through a period of not making work – partly brought on by burn-out (the last few years in Canberra were understandably difficult – she’d had a long and empathetic working relationship with Stephen) and partly due to a classic philosophic-vocational watershed. She became involved instead with a glass studio in New Jersey which “had been expressly set up for children, mostly at risk inner-city kids. It seemed a much more worthwhile pursuit at the time than making more expensive glass work that the world didn’t really need.” It’s a project she’s still involved in – last year they raised funds to build a hotshop (up until then only kilnforming and lampworking had been available.)
Around mid-2006 the creative muse kicked back in of course, by which time her practice had undergone a significant shift (away from blown glass to kilnformed and hot cast pieces.) Hence the new working relationship with Mel George and Jeremy Lepisto at Studio Ramp.
She’s presently working on a solo show (and catalogue) for Bullseye, opening April 1st, which of course kyboshed any thoughts of zapping across for the January Ausglass Conference. But having been invited by Sabbia to take part in In Essence (an exhibition designed to promote and raise funds for the Stephen Procter Fellowship) in Sydney this coming September, she’s planning a trip that’ll give her ample time to do the rounds of all her old stomping grounds – and with any luck she might have time to squeeze in a short residency at the School of Art, and maybe even give the new Canberra Glassworks a bit of a workout as well…
Anyhoo, you can check out the work at…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasscentralcanberra/sets/72157603893371133/
…and her current artist statement…
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‘CONTAINED ABSTRACTION’ : BULLSEYE GALLERY, PORTLAND, OR : 1 April – 17 May 2008
Artist Statement
My work is deeply rooted in the history of the decorative or applied arts and the examination of objects, particularly the vessel. If I were to pick an adjective to describe my work, it might be ‘formal’’. I am interested in how composition, colour, light, proportion, and the juxtaposition of positive and negative space work within an object or group of objects. Formal is a term rarely used in the context of the decorative or applied arts, but it is essential in painting and sculpture and is, I believe, equally essential to the object.
In 2005 the specific form of my work undertook a major shift away from blown work to kilnformed and hot cast forms, which, whilst concerned with abstraction, light and transparency, continue my investigation of the vessel. At the same time I have been working on a series of house forms, which explore a more personal concern related to landscape and loss in a particular place, the far north-east of Scotland.
I am presently working with the Portland, Oregon fabrication studio, Studio Ramp, to produce these pieces. This way of working has opened up new and unexpected directions in my work not previously possible. It has afforded me the opportunity to move from one process, blowing, to another, kilnforming, enabling me to expand and develop ideas and content within a body of work unrestricted by technique. It has also provided the time to move from one media, glass, to another, drawing, permitting the development of works on paper that open up and compliment the ideas produced in glass.
January 2008
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And keep an eye out for her website, www.janebruce.com, which is on the verge of being launched…
