The Lens of Perception: A Panel Discussion on Glass
To celebrate the exhibition Consuelo Cavaniglia: seeing through you, this panel event will look at glass through the lens of perception.
From its history in the ancient world, through to contemporary glassmaking, speakers will discuss their respective glass practices within the ‘frame’ of perception and consider how the properties of glass, from its malleable liquid state to its amorphous shape, and its optical properties of light transmission, can be a metaphor for understanding the past and embracing the present.
The panel features Consuelo Cavanglia, Andrew Lavery, Bronte Cormican-Jones and Thomas Derrick and is moderated by Katrina Liberou.
This event follows a glass making demonstration at the Sydney College of the Arts' newly designed glass studios. You can book a ticket to the demonstration here.
This event is co-presented with the Sydney College of the Arts.
About the panellists
Consuelo Cavanglia is an artist. Consuelo has exhibited extensively in Australia, with key solo exhibitions at Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts, Boorloo/Perth; Gertrude Contemporary, Narrm/Melbourne, University of NSW Galleries, Gadigal land/Sydney. In 2019, Cavaniglia was included in the inaugural Macfarlane Commissions exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. She studied at the University of Western Australia followed by Curtin University. In 2017, she was awarded a Master of Fine Art, from Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. She is represented by STATION.
Associate Professor Andrew Lavery is the Co-Director and Co-Chair of Sydney College of the Arts, having previously held roles as, Director and Chair, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching. He serves on the executive of the Australia Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS). He is a practicing artist. His research interests include, urban ruin, land art, dialectical and historical materialism, Urbanism, Walter Benjamin and Henri Lefebvre, Visual perception, space and light, Op Art, Expanded approaches to studio glass.
Bronte Cormican-Jones is an emerging contemporary artist and writer, working between Garrigal lands, Sydney, and Ngunnawal lands, Canberra. Her practice is primarily sculptural, exploring the field of spatial practice through object, installation, performance and photography. Responding to architectural spaces and materials, Cormican-Jones understands the material of glass to be a lens that frames perception and our interaction with space. Her practice is interested in the ways in which glass can be both reflective and transparent and can both hold and define space. She plays with these properties within her work as a way of researching visual perception, disorientation, and direction. Her recent work explores relationships between architecture and the body, reframing our understanding of our own reflections in glass and mirrors.
Bronte graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in 2022. She was awarded the FUSE Glass Prize David Henshall Emerging Artist Award, undertook residencies at the Adelaide JamFactory, Eramboo Artist Environment and Canberra Glassworks in 2023, and has exhibited in the Milan Glass Biennale and Canberra Art Biennial in 2024. Bronte currently holds the position of President of the Australian Glass Art Society, Ausglass.
Dr Thomas J Derrick is an archaeologist who is the Gale Research Fellow in Ancient Glass and Material Culture at Macquarie University, where he is researching a large collection of ancient glass vessels and objects housed in the university’s museum. He has worked on Roman glass assemblages from the UK, Italy, and Kosovo, and is a Board Member at the Association for the History of Glass. He has also published on the senses in Roman society, and how we can uncover them through archaeology.
Header image: Consuelo Cavaniglia: seeing through you, 2024, installation view, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photograph: David James.