POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Black/White/Topaz Sentinel' bottle by Jane Bruce

'Black/White/Topaz Sentinel' bottle by Jane Bruce

Object No. 2005/10/1

This is one of two bottles made by Jane Bruce, a glass artist with an international reputation who has worked in Australia for 10 years, and who has been influential as both artist and teacher. This bottle is a 'roll-up' of tiles cut from sheets of Bullseye glass. Jane Bruce calls these large vessels 'sentinels' because of the appearance of their tall, thin forms. She worked with teams of glass artists using different techniques and glass for each bottle. The black, white and topaz bottle is a 'roll-up' of fused glass tiles cut from sheets of Bullseye glass (USA), and the black, white and ruby bottle is a fine example of blown Gaffer glass (NZ), made using the 'incalmo' technique of joining two separately blown forms. Both bottles are finished by selectively cutting, sanding and polishing their surfaces. Jane Bruce was born in Buckinghamshire, England, and studied in the UK, including a masters degree at the Royal College of Art, and at Alfred University in the USA, completing her studies in 1981. She worked in a number of glass centres in the United States, including the New York Center for Contemporary Glass, before moving to teach at the glass workshop at the Canberra School of Art in 1994. She has been active in the membership organisation, Ausglass, was president for some time, and organised an international Ausglass conference during the 1990s. She returned to work in New York in July 2004, also working as artistic director of the workshops and conferences of the Northlands Creative Glass centre in Caithness, Scotland. She is known as a glassblower who then cold-works the surface of her work through cutting, engraving sanding and polishing. In recent years, like most glass blowers working on an increasing scale, she has worked with teams of glass artists under her direction. In this case she has worked with well-known artists Scott Chaseling and Tom Rowney, and teams of students at the Canberra School of Art as part of their professional experience. Jane Bruce has always been interested in making vessel forms, most impressively in recent years as bottles, that explore her interest in 'the personal, physical and psychological landscape formed by gender, history and environment.' (Bruce 1997). She calls these large forms sentinels because of their appearance as tall forms when exhibited. Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass - The Corning Museum of Glass, says: 'Jane Bruce's vessels are unfamiliar. They are constructs that are not functional or non-functional, but vaguely functional. They are not domestic or ceremonial objects that have been - for some economic, personal, symbolic, social, or ritual value - elevated to uselessness. They began as familiar forms whose elements, extracted from history, have been minutely examined, carefully taken apart visually, and logically reassembled into something that looks like a vessel, but that plays by different rules.' (Essay written for "CSA Showcase: Jubilee 2001", Recent Work by Heads of Workshop - Canberra School of Art - June 2001.) Label text for pair: Bottles, 'Sentinels', made by Jane Bruce, Canberra, 2005 English-born Jane Bruce worked and taught as a glass artist in Canberra for 10 years, and she now lives in New York. These bottles reflect the best of her recent work. To make them she worked with teams of glass artists using different techniques and glass for each bottle. The black, white and topaz bottle includes a 'roll-up' of fused glass tiles cut from sheets of Bullseye glass (USA), while the black, white and ruby bottle is a fine example of blown Gaffer glass (NZ), made using the 'incalmo' technique of joining two separately blown forms. Both bottles are finished by selectively cutting, sanding and polishing their surfaces. Purchased 2005. 2005/10/1, 2005/10/2

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Summary

Object Statement

Bottle, 'Black/White/Topaz Sentinel', kiln fused Bullseye glass tile, 'roll-up' process, wheel cut, hand-sanded with 220 and 400 mesh grit and 'wet and dry' sand paper with wax oil medium, made by Jane Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, 2003

Physical Description

Bottle, 'Black/White/Topaz Sentinel', kiln fused Bullseye glass tile, 'roll-up' process, wheel cut, hand-sanded with 220 and 400 mesh grit and 'wet and dry' sand paper with wax oil medium, made by Jane Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, 2003 Bottle form, flat base, tall cylindrical body with straight sides, with rounded shoulder and cylindrical neck with open mouth. The lower three quarters of the body is in black glass, the top quarter and neck in vertical stripes made from fused layers of white, clear, topaz and black glass, in squared sections. The surface is sanded to a matt finish.

DIMENSIONS

Height

690 mm

Width

145 mm

Depth

145 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

This bottle, 'Black/White/Topaz Sentinel', is made from fused tiles cut from sheets of Bullseye glass from Portland, Orgeon, formed into a cylinder shape using the 'roll-up' method with gaffers Scott Chaseling and Tom Rowney and a team of eight students in the Canberra School of Art glass workshop. The form was made under the direction of the artist Jane Bruce, who later hand cold-worked it by wheel-cutting and hand-sanding with 220 and 440 mesh grit and 'wet and dry' sandpaper, before waxing it with wax oil medium.

HISTORY

Notes

This bottle was kept in the artist's collection and not exhibited in Australia. It was acquired before the artist moved to the United States.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Purchased 2005

Acquisition Date

7 January 2005

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