Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass
15 September - 28 October, 2023
The Mixing Room Gallery at Thor’s Hammer
Thor’s Hammer is pleased to present Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass, an exhibition featuring innovative works by Ngaio Fitzpatrick, Matthew Curtis, Jacqueline Knight, Thor Diesendorf and Small Impact Studio founders, Gina Fairley and Scott Chaseling.
As one of the most energy-intensive and extensively utilised building and manufacturing materials, glass needs a circular solution.
Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass explores material reuse innovations, showcasing a collection of works by local artists and makers that utilise recycled glass in both utilitarian and aesthetic ways.
The collection of exhibited works makes use of a variety of recycled glass forms, including televisions screens, window glass and bottles; and encompasses sculpture, installation, objects and small-scale production pieces.
Drawing together each artists' perspectives on responding to a changing environment through the intentional reuse and beautification of existing materials, the exhibition showcases a number of collaborative works, including between Canberra glass artist Jacqueline Knight and Thor’s Hammer founder, Thor Diesendorf.
Such collaborative works between artists exemplify the power of knowledge and resource sharing in responding to both entrenched and emerging environmental problems, mirroring the need for functional cooperation in the hotshop (glass workshop). They also give us reason to think critically about the role of recycled materials in art and what this might mean for artwork of the future.
Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass is showing at the Mixing Room Gallery at Thor's Hammer in Griffith (Canberra) from 15 September until 28 October, 2023.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Would you like to know more about the works in Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass?
Join us at 1pm on Saturday 14 October to meet artists Ngaio Fitzpatrick, Matthew Curtis, Jacqueline Knight and Thor Diesendorf as they explain the processes involved in making their works (please note that Small Impact Studio founders Gina Fairley and Scott Chaseling are not available to attend, though their pieces remain available for you to view).
In addition to the works on display, the artists will show samples of the raw materials they use and discuss the techniques and challenges of transforming recycled materials into finished art works.
It’s free to attend - please register for your ticket/s here.
ARTWORKS FOR SALE
The works in Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass are available to purchase, and some of the smaller works are available for immediate collection. The larger works will be ready for pick up after the exhibition ends. We may also be able to assist with shipping—please contact us to check if the piece you are interested in can be delivered.
Download the room sheet and price list below, and call (02) 9158 0817 or email hammer@thors.com.au if you have any questions about artwork sales.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Ngaio Fitzpatrick
Ngaio Fitzpatrick is an artist, Honorary Lecturer with the ANU Institute of Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, Affiliate with the ANU History and Legacies of Environmental Violence cross-campus network and recipient of both an Australia Awards Endeavour Fellowship in Berlin and an ANU Vice Chancellors College of the Arts Fellowship.
Fitzpatrick’s interdisciplinary arts practice encompasses site specific installation, performance, video and recently, collaborative experimental music interactions in real time. With a background in environmentally sustainable architecture and building informing her practice, she is particularly interested in ways in which art can be used to draw attention to the human disconnection from Earth within the context of climate change.
Learn more: ngaiofitzpatrick.com
Matthew Curtis
Over the past 30 years, Queanbeyan-based Matthew Curtis’s work has been shown across the world, having been regularly curated into exhibitions in the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia. His work is widely collected, in private collections such as Sir Elton John and public collections including the Saxe collection at the De Young Museum, San Francisco, USA; Palm Springs Museum, California, USA, The Ernsting Stiftung Museum Coesfeld Germany, Wagga Wagga, National Glass Collection, Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Matthew Curtis is represented by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney.
Learn more: curtisglassart.com
Jacqueline Knight
Jacqueline Knight is a highly skilled glass maker with over 25 years’ experience. She studied and worked in the US and Japan, receiving her Masters in Fine Arts from Alfred University in New York State. Jacqueline lectured at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and is currently based in Canberra, Australia.
She is also a dedicated member of the Canberra Glassworks staff where she manages large-scale glass commissions and delivers production lines for Canberra Glassworks as the Commission and Production Manager. In 2022 Jacqueline was appointed a Director on the Board of Ausglass Ltd.
Working between the Canberra Glassworks facility and her own studio in Sutton, Jacqueline’s practice includes one-off sculpture artworks in glass, a retail range, design products and fabrication for other artists. This new body of work looks at the relationship between the material and its place in the modern world. It explores how waste television screen glass can be reconceptualised into objects of value once again.
Learn more: jacquelineknight.com
Small Impact Studio
Small Impact Studio is the project of co-creatives Scott Chaseling and Gina Fairley, and was established in November 2021 to create sustainable glass homewares. In 2023, OLIO Jewellery was added to the brand. Located in the Southern Highlands wine region (NSW), the studio uses recycled bottles as its primary material source, but it is not what defines Small Impact – it believes that good design must come first, and impact follows as people choose to live their designs.
Scott and Gina bring over fifty years of working and making in the arts to the award-winning studio. Scott has exhibited and been collected internationally across his glass practice, while Gina is a leading arts journalist and exhibition manager. The pair have run art spaces in Berlin, San Francisco and Sydney, before establishing Small Impact Studio.
Learn more: smallimpactstudio.com
Thor Diesendorf
Thor Diesendorf began making furniture from recycled timber in the early 1990’s working for Paul Lynzaat, a resourceful carpenter & joiner based in Canberra. Inspired by the beauty of the Australian hardwoods they were salvaging, Thor began to save more timber and develop new products in collaboration with local builders, leading to the creation of Thor’s Hammer in 1994.
Thor’s Hammer designs and makes furniture, joinery and architectural products from recycled timbers recovered from demolition sites around Australia. These valuable materials are renewed and reused for projects from domestic to commercial, and have been purchased by national institutions like Parliament House, Commonwealth Place, the Australian National Botanic Gardens and Old Parliament House grounds.
Minimising environmental impact is key in Thor’s work. This includes practicality and simplicity in design, and making a high quality, durable product. The ethic extends into the production process, and includes the use of plant based resins and oils for filling and finishing the timber, turning waste sawdust into clean burning fire briquettes, and investment in electric forklifts and a big solar PV array.
Learn more: Meet the Maker - Thor Diesendorf
Key Details
EXHIBITION DATES: 15 September - 28 October, 2023
‘MEET THE ARTISTS’ EVENT: 1pm Saturday 14 October, 2023. Register your attendance here (it’s free).
WHERE: The Mixing Room Gallery at Thor’s Hammer, 10 Mildura St, Griffith, ACT.
GALLERY HOURS: Monday - Friday 8-5pm and Saturdays 9-1pm.
ENTRY DETAILS: Bookings required for opening event and Meet the Artists event.
No tickets or bookings required to view exhibition.
WORKS ON SALE: Works will be on sale in the lead up to the exhibition and throughout.
Please contact us for sales enquiries on 6282 9900, or email hammer@thors.com.au
Please note: The Mixing Room Gallery is located up two flights of stairs. If you have mobility issues, we're very sorry but we are unable to cater for your needs. Our greatest apologies.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
CAPITAL BREWING CO.
Thanks to Capital Brewing Co. for their ongoing support of our exhibition opening events at The Mixing Room Gallery. Capital is a B-Corp Certified, Canberra born and bred institution and Australia’s first Climate Active certified 100% carbon neutral brewery!
Here at The Mixing Room Gallery, we curate artists and exhibitions that align with the environmental ethos of Thor’s Hammer as a business. Having support from like-minded partners like Capital Brewing Co. is incredibly important to us, and to the integrity of the Mixing Room Gallery program.
THREE MILLS BAKERY
Three Mills Bakery has recently come on board as one of our community partners, supplying delicious nibbles for our opening events at a discounted rate. Three Mills is a fixture of Canberra culture, producing delicious sourdough bread and laminated pastries using house-milled flour, local ingredients and traditional long fermentation techniques.
They’re a community-minded, purposeful local business and we’re grateful for their support as we continue to bring together the Canberra arts community for events at The Mixing Room Gallery.
BRINDABELLA HILLS WINERY
Brindabella Hills Winery is our newest community partner, contributing ‘cool climate elegance in a glass’ to our opening events. Brindabella Hills vineyard and winery is situated 25km north of Canberra on a ridge above the Murrumbidgee. The protected site of the property, with its well drained granite soils, offers a perfect environment for the production of premium grapes for table wines.
Established in 1986 and having recently undergone extensive renovations, we love the ethos and passion shown by owner Michael Anderson and winemaker Brian Sinclair. With 21 vintages now behind them, they have established the potential for premium wine production in the Canberra region.