Landscape document– Jane Gavan
Developments in ‘Glass art’ practice beyond the traditional of blown, cut and polished glass objects have created a need for developing new techniques for artists who wish to practice within the context of contemporary art. While recent works in glass have explored a reworking of several established techniques in new ways, few practitioners are able to claim they have innovated and developed new techniques within this centuries old discipline.
The Landscape Document by Jane Gavan harnesses an industrial technique called “controlled devitrification” to distress the glass surface by the manipulation of inexpensive domestic chemicals and heat. The technique was developed while researching methods in glass with Material Scientists at University of Cambridge. Landscape Document establishes a useful benchmark for the discipline in understanding the collaborative potential of artists and material scientists, namely that artists can offer new ways of using industrial technologies and that there are multiple benefits for the industrial partners of these collaborations.
The significance of this research is that it gives clarity to the role and relevance of artists to their industrial partners and deepens our understanding of this relationship and its creative and economic possibilities. Its value is demonstrated by the following indicators: Selected for Palimpsest Science and Art Symposium Mildura, Victoria, a Regional Gallery Event in 2003 and included in the international exchange exhibitions, Sight-Seeing at the Central Academy of fine art Gallery, Beijing, China and the University of Sydney SCA Galleries in 2004. Invitation to submit a proposal for a public work Brecknock Consulting for Meriton Ltd at the ACI site in Waterloo, Sydney, 2009.