No More Running Amok

 

In 1994, Australian glass visionary Maureen Cahill and coal industry executive Andy Plummer teamed up to establish the (then) Resource Finance Corporation or RFC Glass Prize. It involved an annual monetary prize for a work of glass made by an artist in Australia or New Zealand, with the winning piece being acquired for the Ranamok (formerly RFC) Collection. RFC morphed into Whitehaven Coal, Eureka Corporation and Excel Corporation, and the prize morphed in the Ranamok Prize.

The first exhibition was held at the Earth Exchange Museum in Sydney in 1995 and now, in 2014, the 20th Exhibition, being held at the Canberra Glassworks before travelling to Sydney and Brisbane, has been announced to be the last. The Ranamok collection of works by the winners will be donated to the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, which will make it accessible on an ongoing basis.

Photo: Kathryn Wightman

The Ranamok Prize has provided an opportunity for a veritable Who's Who of Australian and New Zealand glass artists to show their skills and compete for the prize. Some of the entrants have been quite new to glass, keen to see how their work stands up in that environment, while Ranamok has also attracted entries from some of the leading glass artists of both countries.

The 2014 Ranamok Prize has been awarded to Kathryn Wightman, who teaches at the Glass School in Whanganui. Dr Wightman's 2011 PhD from the University of Sunderland explored the integration of glassmaking and printmaking, with the development of a number of creative glassmaking processes inspired by printmaking processes, especially related to textiles. Warmest congratulations, Kathryn.

Photo: Kathryn Wightman Facebook

 Kathryn's prize-winning work is a truly remarkable three metre long carpet runner in glass. Kathryn screen-printed coloured glass powders to create a textured carpet pattern. Then, as photos on her Facebook page show, she walked barefoot along the carpet, leaving footprints in the 'sand' of the glass colours. The 'carpet' was then fused in the kiln to create the resulting glass masterpiece.

Photo: Kathryn Wightman Facebook

  

 
The only New Zealand finalist in the first RFC Prize in 1995 was Kirsten Sach of Glen Eden. In 1992 Kirsten was a student at Carrington Polytechnic, and I was pleased to buy this small cast glass 'Lotus Cup'  from an exhibition at 'The Pumphouse' in Takapuna that year. Kirsten's Ranamok entry in 1995 was a much more developed work  - you can see it on the very fine and profusely illustrated Ranamok website http://www.ranamok.com, which features the work of all the Finalists and the Prize winners.

New Zealand winners at Ranamok have been Emma Camden (1999), David Murray (2003) Evelyn Dunstan (2007), Lisa Walsh (2009), Sue Hawker (2010) and now Kathryn Wightman. I'm delighted that my own collection includes works by all of these except Lisa (must do something about that, Lisa!) even if they are not always quite as grand as the winning pieces. New Zealand Ranamok finalists represented in my collection include Ruth Allen, Claudia Borella, Lee Brogan, Dominic Burrell, Christine Cathie, Mike Crawford, Keith Grinter, Robyn Irwin, Nicole Lucas, Keely McGlynn, Lyndsay Patterson, Lou Pendergrast-Matheson, Rachel Ravenscroft, Carmen Simmonds, Greg Smith, Hoana Stachl.  I even have works by Australian finalists Ben Edols and Michael Larwood in my small non-NZ collection. There have been other NZ finalists, of course, but not represented in my collection - I guess I've just developed a shopping list! 

But I conclude by showing my very own Wightman. You could say I was an 'early adopter' of Kathryn's work in New Zealand. She arrived to take up a position as tutor at the Glass School in Whanganui in May of 2012, and gave a presentation at the NZSAG conference Generate in Whanganui in October 2012, talking about her work printing and creating 'textiles' in glass. I found this fascinating, and struggled to understand just how she did it (I still do, rather). In the associated exhibition of work for sale, Kathryn showed three platters which were some of the last she had made in Sunderland before coming out to New Zealand; I was delighted to be able to buy one of those.
 

Nic Robb an Early Student in Glass

There have been a lot of students of glass in New Zealand since the first tertiary course was established in Whanganui in 1989. While some have gone on to make sustainable careers as professional glass artists, many others stop their glass-making once they finish their studies, or after a few years in the 'real world'.  A collector of glass like me is always delighted to buy a piece by an 'emerging artist' since that person may go on to a significant career. I have a number of pieces in my collection which are early examples by some of today's 'names' in glass - perhaps that might be the subject for a future blog. But equally, I also have pieces that are one of only a few made by a particular person, who did not carry on in glass. I treasure those as well.

I first came across the name Nic (for Nicola) Robb in June 2006 when I bought a piece on TradeMe signed 'Nic Robb Feb 89'. Just over 8cm high, it's hardly the greatest piece of glass ever made, though a competent piece for a beginner, with its iridised light brown body and the brown spiral that rises from the base.  Because I knew Tony Kuepfer was teaching glass in Whanganui in 1989, I asked him if he recalled the maker. Tony, who is ever helpful in responding to my many enquiries of him, responded saying:

"Nic Robb was in the first group of students for the Certificate in Craft Design Programme at the old Wanganui Regional Community College (UCOL). That was about the time I was getting involved with them and before they had any studio.  They sent their glass majors up [to Tony's studio at Inglewood] to get a taste of glass. Nic was in the first graduating class late 80s.

"Her piece is a nice bit of the history for your collection perhaps…"

In 2007, another piece of Nic's was offered on Trademe, but I was not successful in acquiring it - the photo at right from the TradeMe site is my only record of it.  22cm in diameter, it was also signed 'Nic Robb Feb 89'.

In February 2010, I was successful in bidding for another piece, this time signed 'Nic Robb May 89'. It's 10cm high.  One might guess the first two were made at the beginning of the academic year, and this one in the May holidays after the first term.

None of these pieces is more than a competent student product, and looking at them alone one might understand why Nicola didn't continue as a glass artist. So imagine my surprise and delight to see another piece listed on TradeMe in November 2013. 

This is a much more accomplished piece, simple yet elegant in form and very attractive in its use of two layers of coloured chip. The pontil has come away cleanly, and there are no tool marks.  It is signed 'N.Robb Mar 89', so presumably made during term time - Easter perhaps? It's 13cm high.

Nic apparently didn't continue her career in glass - I've not seen any pieces later than 1989. But she did pursue a career in arts administration, serving as PA to Dowse Art Museum Director Tim Walker in Lower Hutt from 1998 to 2003. I have not been successful in my efforts to contact Nic, though I understand she is probably still based in Wellington.

As Tony Kuepfer indicated, Nic Robb was part of the first intake of students in glass at the Wanganui Regional Community College, which had been established in 1984. The glass course began in 1989, leading Tony Kuepfer away from his Inglewood studio, to move eventually to take up full-time teaching at Whanganui. The College became Wanganui Regional Polytechnic during the reorganisation of Polytechnic education in the 1990s, before becoming part of the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in 2002. In 2007 UCOL and the Wanganui District Council entered into a partnership agreement to secure the future of the school, and in 2008, the District Council established a Private Training Establishment, the Wanganui Educational Institute, which now manages the operational activities of the Glass School facility. But that of course was long after Nic Robb had left.