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Pillowcase, sculptured glass, cast bronze Length 230 mm |
Glass and the pursuit of knowledge and technical expertise have been the essence of Cowie's life project since leaving her home town Wollongong in 1980 to study at the Sydney College of the Arts. A quick retrospective glance serves to highlight how expansive the journeying has been and emphasises that the industry in Australia and B. Jane Cowie have a certain curious symbiosis. Whilst the somewhat rudimentary training at Sydney College of the Arts didn't furnish the vision Cowie had of supporting herself through her work, it served as a prime motivator and she left Australia (in the classic manner) soon after: .."On the trail of glass." as Cowie puts it, " I looked at glass in galleries, museums, studios, factories. I learnt so much from talking to people. I see this period as an important part of my tuition."
The odessy, and that was what it became, was a four year exploration of the European glass industry. She assisted in studios in Germany, France and England, in particular working with Iestyn (Bill) Davis to set up a studio in Stourbridge (Midlands). Building a furnace, establishing the studio, doing marketing and promotion, getting catalogues together, doing photo sessions and making the product was a total immersion in the process of becoming a professional. It also served to articulate the difference between being an artist and a designer and went a considerable way to providing the answers Cowie had been seeking when she left Australia. In particular, can a glass artist support themselves from their work?
These questions, in particular art versus design versus craft, Cowie has continued to live rather than allow them to consume her. They are fundamental issues that confront craftspeople, what ever their chosen field. In many ways they are debates Cowie has chosen to bypass, aware of the intense academic heat they generate and the power plays that drive them. Funding bodies, in particular, have sought to promote art and "the object with an idea", rather than perhaps the purely functional object, however, seeking clear delineation on the notion of functional and non functional precipitates, at worst, a post modern crisis or at least a migraine. Much contemporary craft is based on the vessel form but is resolutely non-functional, leaving the debate on contentious ground and the
viewing public looking at tautological "non-functional functional" forms. Cowie herself is unsure of a label; artist, designer glassmaker, craftsperson, practitioner have all been used at some stage. Curiously, the current works in this exhibition are not functional and demand recognition for their artistic merit.
One thing, however, is clear: Jane's drive has focused on the desire to know glass profoundly and absolutely. "The way it moves and why I should use it. It's hard, it breaks, it cuts, it hurts, but it's also soft and fluid, almost erotic; the shapes that you make when you are blowing, the way you touch it. I like the dichotomy of its' physical properties. I watch people move the material. Some tend to control it, working tight, making hard edges whereas others tend to be softer, gentler and work more with the material." Learning the true nature of fluid glass was her goal when she spent a year in Japan (1991). Sensitivity, tactility and minimum touch show an understanding of the material and an ability to be intuitive, rather than control and impose on the glass. One senses Cowie's devotion, even reverence to the material and her desire to let it articulate it's own shapes with minimal imposition.
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The Constant Companion, furnace cast glass, cast bronze Height 320 mm |
On returning to Australia in 1989, Cowie chose Adelaide as her base. The strong craft emphasis in that community is underpinned by the JamFactory: Contemporary Craft and Design centre, (an internationally unique training facility) which supports a dedicated community of designer-makers. In 1992 Cowie set about building her own studio, The Spinifex Glass Studio, which she operated for two and a half years. During this time she continued travelling, mostly to the USA, to attend the Pilchuck Glass School. A conceptual shift about her work began to manifest, prompted by the "Pilchuk experience" and the emphasis on glass art. Her experiences and discussions with artists, glass makers and teachers, in particular Martin Blank, were crucial. Ideas, sketches and memories, locked away in journals began to access the light of day.
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Free to go, sculptured glass, cast bronze Height 150 mm |
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Pinned and wriggling to the wall, sculptured
glass,
cast bronze, suitcase. Height 350 mm (figure) |
The seeds of this current exhibition have lain in journals for years. Ideas that require detailed and loving inquiry into the nature and technical requirements of glass were needed to bring them to fruition. Ideas and themes have floated about and gestated until such time as it was possible to bring them forth. In this sense the exhibition is a watershed of ideas, where technical skills and concepts have blended into a cohesive expression of chosen themes; large, mature life questions concerning the nature of isolation, communication, fear, and the pure fragility of life. Glass, like the physical body is easily broken and once mended is never the same. The transparency of glass parallels the desire for transparent communication and the longing is palpable and evocative, whispering disturbing reminders to the viewers soul that clarity is elusive. Cowie's small figures are poignant and resonate deeply in the psyche, little transparent people sitting on human scale suitcases. Nevertheless one cannot entirely escape the irony of the fact that putting emotions into glass is a thankless task and one returns again and again to the technical knowledge needed to translate the emotional into the physical reality.
J Barton, 1999
