Craft / “Quietly Spoken” and “On Reflection”, Canberra Glassworks, Kingston, till August 14. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

THROUGH the objects generally present in garages and again sheds, glass artist Annette Blair shares her reminiscences of generations of makers in her household and acknowledges the valuable time she spent with them.

“On any given day” is a big set up work, positioned on naked timber cabinets mounted between the 2 poles within the centre of the gallery. The a number of items type one main work which were grouped into smaller preparations. Paint cans, jars of nails, paint brushes, oil cans and different relics – in sepia glass – from suburban life are included. They engender nostalgia, grouped and individually.

Blair is displaying her experimental nature within the work titled “A quiet afternoon in Could”. Two buckets are surrounded by fallen glass leaves. The floor of the vessels, that are stuffed with twigs, is matt and motley. Blair floor items of rusted metallic and allowed the sparks to decide on the floor of the newly completed buckets. This course of is probably harmful, in that the blown works might be significantly broken by the recent sparks. The impact is stunning, with rusty patches showing randomly. I noticed this work after having walked previous piles of leaves on my entrance garden – reminding me of the unending process to be undertaken.

“Nonetheless life with poppies” is a vase of vibrant flowers positioned on a shelf draped in material. A couple of petals have dropped, leaving the bare centre. They’re life like and produce again reminiscences of flowers from the Ware Assortment of Blaschka Glass Fashions of Crops in Harvard College, made by a father and son and a group of Czech glass artists over 50 years.

Kate Nixon, exhibiting “On Reflection”, and Blair collaborated on a piece titled “The Passing Autumn”. Discovered objects: a dustpan with brush, lined in recycled mirrored mosaic, are surrounded by fallen autumn leaves.

In her solo work, put in within the Smoke Stack House, Nixon celebrates trash. She has taken two wheelie bins, varied crushed plastic bottles and cans, and a rubbish bag, and lined them in tiny, recycled mirror and colored glass mosaic. Each floor is roofed.

Mosaic tiles have been present in historical archaeological websites: the method has an extended historical past. The mirror refers back to the disco balls that used to – and generally nonetheless do – twirl excessive above dancers in varied halls and dance areas.

I used to be to study that the historical past of the disco ball dates again to 1897, they have been extensively used within the 1920s and have been mass-produced within the 1970s. On this latter model, they exemplified altering society – ladies’s liberation, black rights and sexual freedom.

I discover one thing intriguing a few mirrored wheelie bin, and different throw-away detritus. I suppose Nixon is laughing at us, and with us. However maybe, in any case, she is drawing our consideration to the quantity of rubbish all of us create.

The works in these exhibitions are layered with meanings, and audiences are invited to discover these meanings. Or one can simply admire the skills of those two artists who work in glass.