South Australian glass artist Gabriella Bisetto presents First Breath, Last Breath, Everything In Between – a glass art exhibition holding deep personal meaning, at JamFactory in Adelaide.
The exhibition explores and draws from the ancient Roman adoption of the term 'memento mori' ('remember that you must die'). Gabriella has, in recent years, become interested in the changing phases of our bodies, as our cells change tempo and production.
The works here reference and acknowledge the changing boundaries of our bodies, as we enter new phases of our lives.
First Breath, Last Breath, Everything In Between is being presented in conjunction with Chihuly in the Botanic Gardens – featuring multiple glass installations across the varied landscape, and iconic conservatories of Adelaide Botanic Garden.
Here, we speak to Gabriella – who is also a Senior Lecturer at UniSA Creative, University of South Australia – about First Breath, Last Breath, Everything In Between.
You are a glass artist. For those unfamiliar with this medium, how would you describe it?
Glass as an art medium is pretty diverse and varied. Glass can be blown, poured, cast, lampworked and kiln-formed so it has an incredible dexterity. It's once of the things I love about it. For many of us in South Australia glass is well-known as a medium for glassblowing because of the programme that we have at UniSA and the amazing glassblowing facilities at JamFactory and private glassblowing studios around the city where many hot glass artists run successful businesses.
This skin I'm in - Gabriella Bisetto
How did you find out this was something you were into?
I grew up in a regional town and had a great art teacher in high school who was totally prepared to let me put glass into a kiln to see if I could slump it into a body cast I had made. It didn’t work (because we knew nothing about the properties of glass) but it did give me an introduction to the material. When I went to university to study art I was surprised to see that they taught glass as a standalone course. Once I had tried glassblowing I was committed. I loved the physicality of the process and how annoyingly tricky it was to learn. It is also a very engrossing process – once you start blowing an object you have to see it through to the end. I loved the process. I still love the process of glassblowing but over the years I have expanded the techniques I use to make my work to accommodate and suit my ideas. The work in my exhibition uses lampworked, kiln-formed and cast glass!
And what kind of practise and perfecting goes into it?
Like every art form – a lot. Learning to make work is a progressive development I think regardless of what medium you work with. The difference with mediums like glass is that we use pretty specialised equipment to make work so we can’t practice or make work unless we are in our studios with our specific equipment. For my students who are learning to blow glass they have to fit into a weekly hot shop schedule to secure time to practise and blow glass so their progress with the medium is measured by how much access they can get.
What is the biggest reward in doing something like this?
Honestly – just being able to work creatively for your job every day is the most rewarding outcome. Making work in glass requires technical expertise, lateral thinking, perseverance, physicality and patience. It often requires working with other people as well – some glass processes you just can't do on your own so your often working with other people who invariably become your mates. It is a pretty nice field to work in.
The stars will always shine - Gabriella Bisetto
You’re presenting First Breath, Last Breath, Everything In Between. What can you tell us about this exhibition of work?
I think of the work in this exhibition as a contemporary ‘memento mori’. This is a Latin term that translates roughly to ‘remember you must die’ and has been the inspiration for art, architecture and objects throughout history. On the outside the term sounds a bit grim, but I think it is good to live life with a purpose while you can so memento mori’s act as a reminder to live life to the fullest. I have always had a fascination with the complexities of the human body so my ideas often aim to highlight the poetic qualities of our existence through my work. In this exhibition, I have used mirroring to explore the ever-shifting qualities of our reflections, work made of feathers – objects that were used as early medical devices to detect the presence (or absence) of breath in humans, and a neon artwork aiming not to promote the next consumer obsession, or marketing ploy, but to remind viewers that our lives exist within the confines of our first and last breath.
There are themes in the exhibition, like changes to the human body through ageing. Why did you decide to focus on something like this?
The kids in my life are coming into their tween and teenager years and my friends and I are in our ‘not teenage years’. The shifts in the human body are much more evident at these periods so it was easy for me to want to explore these concepts through my work.
Which is your favourite work in the exhibition, and why?
The exhibition has two versions of the work ‘The stars will always shine’ – an ephemeral and an archival version. Both works are made with the soft, down feathers of sulphur crested cockatoos that I have been collecting from my local park over the last two years. In the ephemeral version of this work the feathers are uncovered and flutter as people walk past whereas in the archival version the feathers are contained in glass-fronted frames that have small fans in them to make the feathers move. Feathers were once used as medical aids to determine if someone was breathing (or not) by being placed under a person’s nose to see if it would move when (or if) the person exhaled. In the ephemeral version of this work the feathers sway, flutter, and move in response to their immediate environment. As a material used to create an artwork they have a life of their own which I really like.
Under my skin - Gabriella Bisetto
How are you hoping attendees respond to your works?
It is easy to get caught up in the banality of everyday life and to take things for granted. I hope my work makes attendees think about how they live their life and maybe give them a little nudge to make sure they are living the life that they want while they can.
Is there something thematically that you would be really interested in exploring next?
All of the work made for this exhibition has resulted from new research so I'm excited to continue to develop it further. The process of mirroring has so much potential to not only reflect but also obfuscate what and how we see ourselves. I'm interested to see what else I can do with it in future works.
First Breath, Last Breath, Everything In Between is on at JamFactory (Adelaide) until 24 November.
