Saturday 23 February 2019

Meeting Richard Clements


One of the benefits of attending a conference, like CoLab 2019 Whanganui (see http://newzealandglass.blogspot.com/2019/02/colab-2019-conference-whanganui-was.html), is the opportunity to meet artists whose glass you own but whom you have never met. One of the real pleasures in Whanganui was to meet Tasmanian flame worker Richard Clements. Although we had never met, I felt as if Richard has been 'living' in my house for over twenty years.

Richard Clements: 'Animal of Unknown Origin', 1998
I first bought a piece of Richard's in 1989, when I attended a museum conference in Hobart - I bought this small oil lamp at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Richard Clements: Oil lamp 1989

On a visit to Melbourne in 1998, I went to see The Meat Market, an 1874 heritage building operated as an exhibition venue by the Crafts Association of Victoria (now part of Creative Victoria). I was immediately attracted by Richard's 'trophy head' of an 'Animal of Unknown Origin'. He has made quite a series of these over the years, but he tells me he found some customer resistance to the idea of a trophy head, so he stopped mounting them on a board. Mine is an early one, complete with headboard. I love its colourful quirky nature.

In May 2013, this small scent bottle, missing its stopper,  was listed as a paperweight on the NZ auction site TradeMe.

It resembles the 1989 oil lamp, and the TradeMe listing helpfully noted that it had a R maker's mark. This is a reference to Richard's distinctive impressed mark, RC, where the R is enclosed by the C  











That mark is also present on the base of the 1989 oil lamp, and on the neck of the 'unknown animal'.

In August 2010, another TradeMe listing caught my eye. The vendor said:

"Truly stunning piece of hand blown glass by Tasmanian glass blower Richard Clements purchased in early 1990's. A true collector’s piece. No stamp or signature on the item, however his work is very well recognised."

Not in fact made by Richard Clements
The vendor seemed so certain that I took this at face value, and happily added another 'Clements' to my collection. However, the downside of meeting an artist is that he can say 'I didn't make that'. Which is what Richard said when I showed him a photo of this unmarked yellow lamp. 

Bother! If not Clements, then who made it? When I asked an Australian collector with whom I have exchanged information over the years, he suggested it looked like the work of Tina Cooper (http://www.tinacooper.com/). Having looked at her website and also listings on Australian eBay, I am sure he is right. Tina's Queensland studio was at Eumundi when she made this, though she has since moved to Palmwoods.

It just goes to show you can't always believe what a TradeMe vendor says.

Richard Clements was born in England, and served his apprenticeship to become a scientific glassblower, making the complicated glass equipment that research laboratories need. In 1970 he migrated to Sydney, and continued scientific glass-making there, but felt the need to broaden his horizons. With two colleagues who were also looking for something a little different, he formed a new business called Argyle Glass down at the Rocks in 1972. The trio set up a studio and started blowing glass in front of the public. It proved to be a very popular attraction, with people crowding in to watch the process. I recall visiting Argyle Glass during a trip to Sydney in 1974 - who knows, I may well have seen Richard then.

Richard worked at Argyle Glass eight hours a day, seven days a week for the first six months. After three years, Richard took a well earned holiday in Tasmania. There he discovered a little piece of paradise in Franklin, on Tasmania's southeast coast. He decided to sell his share of Argyle Glass, and relocate to Franklin, where he still lives and works today.

At CoLab 2019 in Whanganui, Ausglass awarded Richard Clements Honorary Lifetime Membership, in recognition of his long involvement in glass in Australia. Congratulations, Richard.

Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall presents his Honorary Lifetime Membership of Ausglass to Richard Clements 

Friday 22 February 2019

CoLab 2019 Conference Whanganui was a Great Event

For only the second time in their history, the national glass art organisations of Australia and New Zealand have combined to hold a major international conference. Ausglass, the principal body for the promotion of contemporary glass in Australia, and the New Zealand Society of Glass Artists met for a wonderful weekend of glass in Whanganui, followed by a series of workshops. The first joint conference was held at Inglewood in Taranaki in April 1983 - see http://newzealandglass.blogspot.com/2012/08/nz-society-artists-in-glass-conference.html.


CoLab 2019 was a much larger occasion, with over 220 participants from NZSAG and Ausglass, as well as international guest speakers from Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, UK and USA. The theme was Collaboration, expressed in a number of ways. The event itself was a collaboration between the two national glass organisations, and several speakers or groups of speakers spoke about they way in which collaboration with other artists was a feature of their glass practice.



To celebrate the theme of Collaboration, the chandelier masters Crystal Chain Gang (Leanne Williams and Jim Dennison)  - with lots of help! - made a collaborative chandelier for The CoLab Conference. NZSAG and Ausglass Members were collaborative partners in this exciting project, making myriad elements to create a dynamic, illuminated and unique collective work of art glass. The finished piece was on exhibition at the Sarjeant Gallery over the course of the conference. The project could not have been realised without the generous support of NZSAG, Ausglass, The Sarjeant Gallery and New Zealand Glassworks.



These are some of those who collaborated in making the CoLab Chandelier.

The Sarjeant Gallery hosted the NZSAG / Ausglass Members' Exhibition, always a conference highlight, and a number of well deserved prizes were awarded, with Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall making the presentations, under the watchful eye of the Presidents of the two organisations.



Carmen Simmonds (NZSAG, left) and Kate Nixon (Ausglass) reading out the prize winners' names.
Mayor Hamish with Anne Robinson (above left),  Sue Hawker (above right), Lee Howes (centre), Keith Grinter (below left) and Richard Clements (below right).









As a way of engaging the Whanganui public, but also because it was fun, a team of glassblowers went back to (nearly) the beginnings of glass-making, re-creating on the Castlecliff foreshore a wood fired Roman style glass furnace. 















Sui Jackson from Australia led a team in building an adobe furnace; a simple, wood fired construction that could be built quickly and cheaply from locally sourced materials. Throughout the afternoon public demonstrations from local and international glass blowers showed just what could be done when working in this primitive style, sometimes using a 2 piece mould made from pumice found on the beach.


Photo: Geoffery Bunker


Photo: Geoffery Bunker
Photo: Geoffery Bunker


















CoLab 2019 was a highly successful event, full of learning, fun, new and renewed friendships, and of course, lots of collaboration. It would not have been possible without the support of some generous sponsors:

Government sponsors

Logo cnz  full



Image result for australia council for the arts logo


Civic Sponsors
Whanganui & Partners
Ucol

Premium
Air Chathams

Partner
David Jones Motors
Wanganui Chronicle Newspaper
NZ Glassworks

Associate
Black Door Gallery
Canberra Glassworks
Progress Castlecliff
Cristalica Studio Glass

Supporter
Kurt Merker GmbH
CDK Stone NZ Ltd
Nick Mount Glass

Artists prizes
Gaffer Glass
Suzanne Milham
Grinter Glass
Shinagawa Refractories Australasia NZ Ltd
Glass Art in New Zealand (GAINZ)

Jan McLean Designs Ltd
Annette Cave
Peter Nolan
Venter and Hull Chartered Accountants
Country Lane & Fifty-Five
      
Trade site
His Glassworks
DichroNZ 
GS Traders
Nick Mount Glass
Melt 45
Zircar Refractory Composites, Inc. Mold Mix 6

Glass Art in New Zealand (GAINZ)


... as well as those who preferred their generosity to remain anonymous