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Tom Malone Prize 2018


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Introduction

The Tom Malone Prize was established in 2003 as an annual Prize for Australian glass artists.

An acquisitive prize, each year’s winning entrant is awarded $15,000 while their work becomes

a part of the State Art Collection. Since its inception, the Prize has facilitated the entry of significant

glass works by the country’s best artists in this medium into the Collection. Winners have been:

Nick Mount (2003), Jessica Loughlin (2004 and 2007), Clare Belfrage (2005 and 2011), Benjamin

Sewell (2006), Kevin Gordon (2008), Cobi Cockburn (2009 and 2015), Charles Butcher (2009),

Deirdre Feeney (2010), Brian Corr (2012), Tom Moore (2013), Mel Douglas (2014), Gabriella Bisetto

(2016) and Marc Leib (2017).

The Gallery is thrilled to acknowledge that this year, and for the next four years, the Tom Malone

Prize is presented with the generous support of Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation

Benefactor Sheryl Grimwood. The Tom Malone Prize was initiated in 2003, and supported until 2017,

by Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation Governor Elizabeth Malone to whom we offer our

continued thanks.

The Tom Malone Prize 2018 features 13 short-listed works by: Joanna Bone (QLD), Benjamin Edols

and Kathy Elliott (NSW), Judi Elliott (ACT), Peter Kovacsy (WA), Holly Grace (WA/VIC), Gerry King

(SA), Marc Leib (WA), Jeremy Lepisto (ACT), Tom Moore (SA), Nick Mount (SA), Jason Sims (SA),

Blanche Tilden (VIC) and Kayo Yokoyama (NSW).

This year’s judges were Elizabeth Malone, Stefano Carboni (Director AGWA), Adelaide-based

furniture designer Khai Liew and myself. We were very excited to have been able to include Khai in

the judging panel. He is one of the sharpest designers in the country (and well represented in

the State Art Collection), and has also worked with glass artists on various collaborative projects.

Between us, we are proud to have selected as the winner of the Tom Malone Prize 2018 Tom Moore

for his work Pyrotechnic puffer fish. We congratulate Tom on his incredible entry and his ongoing

commitment to Australian glass and to the Prize. We also thank so much the other short-listed

artists. Their work is truly exceptional and a testament to the world class quality of Australian

glass today.

Robert Cook Curator of Contemporary Design and International Art, AGWA

Pyrotechnic puffer fish 2016


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Judges’ comments

“Tom Moore is arguably the country’s most consistently humourous and out-there glass artist. His

practice moves across installation in locations as diverse as galleries and gardens, and also includes

output in drawing and animated video. Over the years, he has given Australian and international

audiences access to new creatures in glass as he has been responsible for the evolution of countless

strange types of hybrid species. And now we have his Pyrotechnic puffer fish. It is a remarkable

breed that comes into being via a gamut of historical Italian references to the famed properties of

glass that would shatter if touched with poison and more modern and contemporary surrealism.

We love it for its detail, its evidence of glass mastery, its straight-faced hilarity, dazzling technical

spirit, and, above all, for seeming to come straight out of a dream as most of Tom’s creatures do.

It really is like nothing we have seen before. Tom won the Tom Malone Prize in 2013. He is now,

therefore, the fourth of the double winners of the Prize, joining Cobi Cockburn, Jessica Loughlin

and Clare Belfrage in this position. With this award he is part of a truly elite group of Australian

artists excelling in this most demanding of mediums”.

Elizabeth Malone (Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation Governor), Stefano Carboni

(Director AGWA), Khai Liew (Adelaide-based furniture designer), Robert Cook (Curator of

Contemporary Design and International Art, AGWA).

Portrait of Tom Moore, Photo credit: Grant Hancock


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Urchins 2017blown glass, Swedish overlay (purple urchin) and cane roll up technique,

cold-worked on lathe and engraver then sandblasted

7.5 x 10 x 10 cm (green urchin)9 x 11 x 11 cm (purple urchin) 11 x 13 x 13 cm (red urchin)

Joanna Boneborn 1970 Portsmouth, England

works Brisbane, Queensland

Artist’s statement: “Nature at its best. I love the form that the urchin test* provides. They offer a world of colour combinations and patterning that becomes addictive to the challenges that present themselves technically in the glass hot and

cold shop”.

*Joanna explains that this is “the technical term for the hard skeletal structure left once the urchin has died and lost their spines and all the

organic matter has decomposed”.

Photo credit: Aaron Micallef


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Fear rises like an unbridled sea 2017blown glass with cane applications, wheel carved

34 x 23 x 23 cm

Benjamin Edols and Kathy ElliottBenjamin Edols

born 1967 Sydney, New South Wales works Sydney

Kathy Elliott born 1964 Sydney, New South Wales

works Sydney

Artists’ statement: “There are times we are swept along in the current of life happily in rhythm with its flow. Sometimes we stand on the shore and watch the tide recede, secure in the knowledge that it will return. Then come the evening hours when our fears rise within us like an ocean that is braced with power to

swell and overwhelm. Some things will be broken and some things will be lost before the sun will rise”.

Photo credit: Greg Piper


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Ceremonial vessel 2016kiln-formed glass [with glass footring by Benjamin Edols]

7 x 59 cm (diameter)

Judi Elliottborn 1934 Armidale, New South Wales

works Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Artist’s statement: “Ceremonial vessel marks the falling of rain of the parched earth.

The lines on the surface indicate the splashes of water. I believe that there is no necessity to focus change upon one’s work. The joys and sorrows are impacted on our work as we live them and are there for all the world to see”.

Photo credit: Rob Little


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Eternal ties 2017clear lead crystal, kiln cast in a mould, Australian red cedar,

carved and scorched37 x 17 x 19 cm

Peter Kovacsyborn 1953 Perth, Western Australia

works Western Australia

Artist’s statement:“When we fall into each other’s hearts eternal ties are formed.

My recent work with cast glass and timber, explores human behaviour not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes

of the person doing the behaving”.

Photo credit: Peter Kovacsy


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Gulf hut - remnants 2017blown glass, fired on glass enamel paints and decals, with sandblasted

imagery, gilded gold leaf interiors and found metal handle19 x 9 x 19 cm (Billycan I)

31 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm (Billycan II)17 x 15 cm (Billycan III)

Holly Graceborn 1969 Geraldton, Western Australia

works Melbourne, Victoria

Artist’s statement: “As night draws in, the fireplace warms; I drink tea made from one of three billycans. These small artefacts, remnants from a time long past sit pride of place, ready to be used. Darkness falls and time’s passage continues – its

journey etched onto the walls and objects that surround. In idle reflection I look upon the glimmering firelight, stories layered in time and lost in history are born within, illuminating my thoughts. These precious moments, gilded

by time, treasured forever – a legacy from our past”.

Photo credit: David McArthur, Parallax Photography


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Above clouds 2017kiln-formed glass, machine polished

38 x 100.5 x 1 cm

Gerry Kingborn 1945 Adelaide, South Australia

works Adelaide

Artist’s statement: “The forms of clouds, parched and cracked mud, salt lakes and coral reefs protruding from the ocean at low tide have some similarities. The patterns are almost regular, the variations pleasurable. This work was inspired by the clouds and landscape formations observed while flying from Hong Kong to Beijing, a journey I tend to take several times a year. The ground below is

almost discernible yet the clouds so seemingly solid might be walked upon. My landscape influenced works are not depictions of specific views but rather a record of the emotional experience occasioned by recollections

of colours and forms”.

Photo credit: Grant Hancock


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Routines, patterns, sequences 2017kiln-formed glass, cold-worked

two panels: 86 x 43 x 0.9 cm each

Marc Leibborn 1966 Johannesburg, South Africa

works Perth, Western Australia

Artist’s statement: “My inspiration for this piece is the day to day routines,

patterns and sequences we experience intentionally or unintentionally, consciously and unconsciously.

My fascination with these quotidian routines and patterns urged me to explore them in this work. Through a process of repetition,

I interacted with the material, emulating these patterned sequences over a period of time. This in itself became part of my routine”.

Photo credit: Kevin Gordon


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Alongside 2016 (from the Container series)

kiln-formed glass and fabricated metal76.2 x 28 x 25.4 cm

Jeremy Lepistoborn 1974 Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States of America

works Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Artist’s statement:“I have made a small shipping container into a hallway. On an interior wall

is an illustrated image of my old studio building in America. This image looks as though it is being illuminated by an image of myself. The image

of the building presents like a painting and refers to the idea of recollection and the relocation of my practice through the utilisation of a shipping container. On the exterior of the shipping container (and in place of a

normal identifier code for the container) are the inscribed dates of when my studio practice was held in that place”.

Photo credit: Adam McGrath


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Pyrotechnic puffer fish 2016blown and solid glass, epoxy

50 x 51 x 28 cm (largest)

Tom Mooreborn 1971 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

works Adelaide, South Australia

Artist’s statement: “This pair of absurd goblets embody links between glassmaking and

wonder, shedding light upon sixteenth century surprises. This was a time of symbiotic collaborations between alchemists and glassmakers: devising

formulas and producing apparatus. Filigrana glasses (with fine, white, linear, patterns) were attributed with miraculous properties. It was thought

they would shatter if served with poison, and save the illustrious owner. Such glassware was collected alongside marvels of nature, including dried

specimens of highly poisonous blowfish. The forward-facing eyes and grisly smiles are apt to inspire pathos. It is supremely satisfying to imitate and

inflate these puffed-up characters in glass”.

Photo Credit: Grant Hancock


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Duck egg and enamel white still life 2017

blown, carved and polished glass, with murrini, resting on a Black Heart Sassafras base

59 x 63 x 22 cm

Nick Mountborn 1952, Adelaide, South Australia

works in Adelaide SA

Artist’s statement: “This is a still life composition in soft greys. I have used similar forms in the

fruit and the vessel, both using grey and white murrini to create pattern. The fruit is softer in colour and surface, a shape and feel that might come

from nature. The scent bottle is more mechanical and controlled with harder geometry and stature. This is a formal composition of both passive and assertive components on a wooden base that has been finely treated

and still proudly bears the evidence of its origins”.

Photo credit: Pippy Mount


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4ft link 2017Qubelok aluminium, acrylic tube, reflective glass,

LED lighting and electronics76.5 x 100 x 72 cm (including plinth)

Jason Simsborn 1981 Mt Gambier, South Australia

works Adelaide, South Australia

Artist’s statement: “4ft link forms part of a series of new work that responds to the presence and movement of viewers through the implementation of motion sensors.

Moving between reflecting its surroundings to revealing an illusionary space within, the work is intended to stimulate the viewers’ awareness

of their presence.

I use light and illusion to reference the nature of being. I like to think of my work as a collision of the physicality of our environment and perceptual

limitations – challenging perceived truths and inviting contemplation of the way we understand the world around us”.

Photo credit: Pippy Mount


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“Circularity” necklace 2017waterjet cut, cold worked and flame-worked borosilicate glass,

oxidised 925 silver3.5cm x 3.8 cm diameter

Blanche Tildenborn 1968 Kiama, New South Wales

works Melbourne, Victoria

Artist’s statement: “Composed of meticulously gradated borosilicate glass discs and silver

rings, this continuous chain celebrates the circle – a universal symbol with extensive meaning representing notions of totality, wholeness, original perfection, the Self, the infinite, eternity, and timelessness. Circularity

references the necklace tradition of gradation. The clarity and transparency of each glass disc is emphasised by intersecting black rings; metal serves

as the necessary architecture that articulates and defines the purity of each glass element, softly conforming to the curves of the body, encircling

the wearer with captured light”.

Photo credit: Grant Hancock


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Rabbit Monday 2017hand-blown and engraved glass

52 x 19 cm (outer form); 19 x 12 cm (inner form)

Kayo Yokoyamaborn 1969 Nagoya Japan

works regional New South Wales

Artist’s statement:“The white rabbit reminds me to examine and utilise the tools we have

within ourselves. The white rabbit serves as a guide to steer us toward the right direction. But just like in Lewis Carrol’s book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, it is always running late. This this is the work for us to remind

to seize the moment and take the matter in hand.”

Photo credit: Keith Rowe


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tom malone prize - artgallery.wa.gov.au€¦ · formulas and producing apparatus. filigrana glasses...

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