8 - 25 March 2018
about the exhibition
Through her glass practice, Canberra artist Erin Conron forms beautiful blown glass vessels where the glass is used as a canvas for layered complex linear patterns. This repetitive mark making is used to create these patterns which explore, for Erin,the cycle, routines and daily activities of life.Erin’s blown and coldworked vessels express these ideas and, as she explains: “each piece is created over time through a series of steps, which unite to result in depth and intricacy through the layering of a simple pattern… This layered pattern evokes a lifetime of experiences and memories”. After painting each vessel with enamel, Erin uses a variety of hand held tools to scratch back into the surface creating the lines over a period of many hours.The resulting moiré effect invites further investigation as the viewer experiences a visual synthesis of shape, movement and energy in addition to the line and form of the vessel itself. Painting on glass in this way is a new and deliberate decision of Erin’s to spend extended time working with her hands in close contact with the glass. As she explains, “My work explores dualities of collective and personal, individual and universal, interior and exterior. Using repeated simplicity to create complexity, I aim to make work that invites contemplation.”Erin ultimately seeks to create work that represents a quiet balance between these states as well as an object of great beauty.
Erin Conron completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts, with a major in glass, at the Canberra School of Art in 2007 and her Honours year in 2008. Since graduating, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Canberra, Sydney and Germany. In 2008, she was a finalist in the Ranamok Glass Prize and in 2012 was awarded theMcGrath Emerging Artist Award from the Capital Arts Patrons Organisation. Most recently, she was a finalist in the 2017 Hindmarsh Prize. Erin’s work is in Wagga Wagga Art Gallery’s National Art Glass Collection as well as the European Museum of Modern Glass, Coburg, Germany and the Kaplan-Ostergaard Glass Collection, Palm Springs Art Museum, USA.
