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BLANCHE TILDEN IN FIVE MOVEMENTS — JULIE EWINGTON

Bio_24_Portrait_2006_StudioHacienda

A BEGINNING

A SMALL GIRL STANDS AT THE EDGE OF THE OCEAN. SHE OBSERVES THE SLAP- SPLASHING WAVELETS, CONSIDERS HOW THE TIDE RIPPLES AND FLOWS, THE IMMENSITY. EVERYTHING MOVES, NOTHING STAYS STILL. HER MIND RACES TO ENCOMPASS THIS UNFATHOMABLE THING, TO MAKE SENSE OF ITS TRANSIENCE AND ITS TRANSPARENCY. SHE IS ACCUSTOMED TO GATHERING AND SORTING — STONES, SEEDS, SHELLS — AND ALREADY HAS A PASSION FOR ORDER: IN THE COURSE OF HOLIDAY DRUDGERY, SHE WILL BECOME SOMETHING OF AN EXPERT AT GRADING FRUIT. BUT THE CONSTANT SURGING SEA IS BEYOND HER GRASP. SHE LOOKS AGAIN. SHE STORES UP THESE SENSATIONS FOR ANOTHER TIME. THEN SHE HOPS BACK INTO THE ROCK POOL BESIDE THE SEA, FLOATING FREE IN ITS SALTY EMBRACE, DIVING AND SPLASHING AND SWIMMING.

I — KINETICS

BLANCHE TILDEN IS A JEWELLER. SHE MAKES OBJECTS TO BE WORN AND, CRUCIALLY, THESE ARE CONSTANTLY IN MOTION. NOT IN THE SIMPLE SENSE THAT JEWELLERY MOVES WILLY-NILLY WITH ITS WEARER BUT, CRUCIALLY, BECAUSE TILDEN’S PIECES ARE ALWAYS ARTICULATED, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. HER JEWELLERY EMBODIES THE PRINCIPLE OF MOTION: SHE MAKES WORKS COMPRISED OF MOVING PARTS, WITH COMPONENTS SHIFTING ALONG CHAINS, OR SLIP-SLIDING LINKS, OR MARRIED PARTS THAT FLEX AS THE WEARER MOVES: NECKLACES, CHAINS, PENDANTS, EARRINGS, ONE BRACELET. IN PARENTHESIS: TILDEN MAKES BROOCHES ONLY RARELY BUT EVEN THESE, SUCH AS THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY WORKS MADE WITH PHOEBE PORTER AT STUDIO HAÇIENDA, MOSTLY INCORPORATE MOVING ELEMENTS; AND THE MUCH-LOVED RING MINIATURE (CAT 21), A PRODUCTION CLASSIC FROM 2000, IS A TINY MACHINE CHAIN.1

HERE IN THE EXHIBITION TILDEN’S WORK IS MOMENTARILY STILL, BUT WORN IN THE WORLD IT ANNOUNCES ITSELF BY CONSTANTLY SHIFTING ON THE BODY, BY GLINTING IN THE LIGHT, GLASS TINKLING ON METAL. COMMENTATORS HAVE LONG NOTED THIS EXPLORATION OF MOVEMENT — KEVIN MURRAY TITLED AN EARLY ESSAY ‘MOVING PARTS’ AND IN 2009 MERRYN GATES WROTE ‘MOVING RIGHT ALONG’ FOR TILDEN’S EXHIBITION CARTE BLANCHE — AND IT IS ALWAYS LOCATED IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE.2 TILDEN IS FASCINATED BY MODERN FORMS OF MOTION AND THE BEAUTY OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES THAT EXPRESS IT; SHE LOOKS TO MACHINERY, BICYCLES AND ARCHITECTURAL FORMS LIKE WINDOWS, TO EVERY KIND OF LINKING STRUCTURE. IT FOLLOWS THAT HER KINETIC LANGUAGE OF JEWELLERY IS PHRASED IN THE MODERN MATERIALS OF GLASS AND METAL; IN HER HANDS BOROSILICATE GLASS, AND STAINLESS STEEL AND TITANIUM, ARE COAXED INTO ARTICULATED JEWELLERY THAT IS LIGHT, HARDY AND COMFORTABLE TO WEAR, EVERY DAY. TAKE PARALLEL,1995 (CAT 4). WITH ITS NEATLY EXPRESSED PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN GLASS RODS AND SQUARE STAINLESS STEEL PLATES, IT SPEAKS TO THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF THOSE CRUCIAL MATERIALS IN MODERN ARCHITECTURE. NEITHER IS PRIVILEGED. AS TILDEN NOTES: ‘THE GLASS PARTS I MADE FOR THIS NECKLACE ARE NOT BEADS, THEY AREN’T THREADED ON A STRING — I CONNECT THEM SEAMLESSLY WITH THE METAL PARTS BY CREATING A RIVET AT THE TWO ENDS OF EACH U-SHAPED GLASS COMPONENT.’3 THERE ARE ONLY A FEW EXCEPTIONS TO THIS VOCABULARY DRAWN FROM INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: VERTEBRAE,1995 (CAT 5), MADE IN THE SAME YEAR AS PARALLEL, EMULATES BODILY ARTICULATION, THOUGH IN CIRCULAR FORM; AND MUCH LATER SWIMMING, 2009 (CAT 34), SUMMONS THE EXPERIENCE OF ENTERING THE WATER, ITS FLOATING GLASS ELEMENTS GRADUATING FROM THE DEEP BLUE OF THE SEA TO THE PALE TINTS OF THE SHALLOWS. BUT EVEN THESE WORKS, WITH THEIR CORPORAL REFERENCES, RELY ON REITERATED UNITS, WHICH, IN THEIR PRETERNATURAL PERFECTION, EVOKE THE STANDARDISATION THAT IS THE BASIS OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION. IN SHORT, TILDEN IS NOT ONLY MINING THE IMAGERY OF THE MODERN ENVIRONMENT, SHE IS ALSO RECAPITULATING ITS CHARACTER-ISTIC FORMS OF MAKING: THE REPETITION OF UNIT FORMS, CONSISTENTLY, IMPECCABLY. WHICH BRINGS US TO MOVEMENT IN DURATION. TILDEN ALMOST ALWAYS MAKES WORKS DESTINED TO CIRCLE THE WEARER’S BODY ENDLESSLY: THE CIRCULAR FORMS OF HER NECKLACES AND CHAINS RECAPITULATE THE REPEATED CYCLES OF OUR DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS. AND, NOT COINCIDENTALLY, THE RHYTHMIC STRUCTURES OF TILDEN’S WORK REITERATES DISCO BEATS AND THE MUSIC VIDEOS THAT FIRST SHOWED HER TEENAGE SELF A WIDER WORLD. THE BEAT GOES ON, THE RHYTHMIC CIRCLE IS UNBROKEN: TILDEN SAYS OF PARALLEL: ONE THEME IS THE ENDLESS CIRCLE — THIS NECKLACE HAS NO CATCH.4

“I CAN CLEARLY REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME
I WATCHED COUNTDOWN — IN 1980 —
I WAS 12. THIS WAS MY WINDOW ONTO
THE WIDER WORLD BEYOND THE ISOLATED
WORLD OF FAMILY, SCHOOL AND CHURCH.
COUNTDOWN WAS A HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK…
MUSIC VIDEOS SHOWED ME A WAY OUT
OF MY CHILDHOOD, THEY SHOWED ME
EXCITING GLIMPSES — OF FASHION, DESIGN,
DANCE, CREATIVITY — AND OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF LIVING A CREATIVE LIFE.”

AND SENSUAL PLEASURE IN THE CONSTANT DAILY WEARING OF HER WORK MATTERS TO TILDEN. AMONG AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERS SHE IS PARTICULARLY ATTENTIVE TO THE WEARER’S EXPERIENCE: HER PUBLICATIONS ALWAYS INCLUDE PHOTOGRAPHS OF HER JEWELLERY WORN BY OWNERS, TOGETHER WITH FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PHYSICAL SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONAL AFFECTS OF THE PIECES. MY FAVOURITES AMONG WEARERS’ REPORTS: ROBYN MCKENZIE’S ‘BIKE CHAIN FOR BEST’, SPEAKING OF HER 2002 NECKLACE NIGHTRIDER (REF. CAT 18), AND MERRYN GATES ON HER 1995 NECKLACE VERTEBRAE: ‘THE GLASS IS COOL AROUND MY NECK AND I HEAR IT ALL THE TIME I AM WEARING IT.’5 AND FINALLY, MANY RECENT PORTRAITS OF OWNER/WEARERS WERE MADE BY TILDEN’S HUSBAND MARCUS SCHOLZ, A COLLABORATION THAT UNDERSCORES THE PERSONAL NATURE OF THE ENTIRE JEWELLER/OWNER/WEARER/OBSERVER TRANSACTION. THE DOUBLED CONTINUOUS MOTION IN TILDEN’S WORK — ITS CHARACTERISTIC ARTICULATION, COUPLED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF WEARING IT — PROPOSES IT AS A SPECIALISED FORM OF KINETIC ART, WHICH BECAME A MAJOR FORM OF LATE MODERNIST ART IN THE 1960S. TILDEN’S EXPLORATION OF WORN MOVEMENT ALIGNS WITH RECENT THINKING ABOUT KINETIC SCULPTURE: THAT THE WORK IS ONLY FINALLY AND FULLY MADE WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF THE SPECTATOR AND, IN THIS CASE, THE WEARER. THE AMERICAN ART HISTORIAN ALEXANDER ALBERRO, WRITING ABOUT LATIN AMERICAN KINETIC ARTISTS SUCH AS MARTHA BOTO AND JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO, HAS ARGUED THAT THE DEGREE OF SPECTATOR PARTICIPATION REQUIRED TO FULLY REALISE KINETIC ART RECONFIGURED THE EXPERIENCE OF MODERN ART.6 THIS IS CERTAINLY THE CASE WITH ALL JEWELLERY, BUT CRUCIALLY SO WITH BLANCHE TILDEN’S. IT MUST BE MADE TO MOVE TO ACHIEVE ITS FULL POTENTIAL, FOR THE WEARER AND, IN SERENDIPITOUS ENCOUNTERS, FOR THE VIEWER — HOWEVER FLEETINGLY, AS MAKERS OF JEWELLERY AND WRITERS ABOUT IT HAVE LONG UNDERSTOOD. THE EMINENT DUTCH JEWELLERY HISTORIAN LIESBETH DEN BESTEN SUMS IT UP: ‘JEWELLERY IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM FINE ART AS IT IS MOBILE, WEARABLE AND THEREFORE SEMANTICALLY CHANGING ACCORDING TO THE CONTEXT AND CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH IT IS VIEWED’.7

THE KEY TO TILDEN’S KINETICS IS THE CONSTANCY OF HER EXPLORATION OF JEWELLERY’S ENGAGEMENT WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOVEMENT, AND THE PAIRED MATERIALS SHE USES COUPLED WITH COMPLEX MOVING PARTS ADD A DEGREE OF UNPREDICTABILITY TO EXPERIENCING THEM, BOTH FOR WEARER AND VIEWER. THIS IS A HAPPY OUTCOME, IN MY VIEW: TO QUOTE JEAN TINGUELY, THE GREAT SWISS KINETIC SCULPTOR:

THE CONSTANT OF MOVEMENT,
OF DISINTEGRATION, OF CHANGE AND
OF CONSTRUCTION, IS STATIC.
BE CONSTANT! GET USED TO SEEING
THINGS, IDEAS AND WORKS IN THEIR
STATE OF CEASELESS CHANGE.
YOU WILL LIVE LONGER.8

BUT THIS COMMITMENT BEGS THE QUESTION, WHAT MECHANISMS DOES TILDEN EMPLOY IN HER CEASELESS SEARCH FOR MOTION?

 

II — MECHANICS

A COUNTRY KID ALWAYS WANTS TO KNOW HOW THINGS WORK. ON HER PARENTS’ HOBBY FARM TILDEN CAME TO KNOW PULLEYS, CONVEYOR BELTS AND CHAINS INTIMATELY, AND SHE CARRIED THIS WORKING KNOWLEDGE WITH HER TO ART SCHOOL, FIRST AT SYDNEY COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, THEN AT CANBERRA SCHOOL OF ART, AND TO HER VARIOUS MELBOURNE STUDIOS, STARTING WITH SU SAN COHN’S WORKSHOP 3000 IN 1995. HER INTEREST WAS ALWAYS IN HOW THE WORLD WORKS, RATHER THAN HOW IT LOOKS, IN STRUCTURE MORE THAN COLOUR. DURING HER STUDENT DAYS TILDEN TRANSFORMED HER CHILDHOOD FASCINATION WITH GLASS INTO A DETERMINATION TO SET IT INTO MOTION IN JEWELLERY.

THIS ENTAILED AN ARDUOUS PROCESS OF STUDIO EXPERIMENTATION WITH DIFFERENT METALS AND FORMS OF GLASS, AND A SERIOUS STUDY OF TRADITIONAL MECHANICS. AT FIRST TILDEN EXPLORED A VARIETY OF CHAINS AND LINKS FROM TRADITIONAL AND MODERN JEWELLERY, BUT VERY SOON THIS INVESTIGATION OF LINKING STRUCTURES TOOK HER TO MECHANICAL APPARATUSES FROM INDUSTRY. A BREAKTHROUGH WAS THE PURCHASE IN MELBOURNE IN 1997 OF THE 1868 CLASSIC FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVEN MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS BY HENRY BROWN, WHICH HAD RECENTLY BEEN REPUBLISHED.9 IT CODIFIES AND ILLUSTRATES A WEALTH OF PULLEYS, WHEELS, COGS, LEVERS, EVERY KIND OF DEVICE THAT THE KINETIC SCULPTOR MIGHT NEED, NICELY INDEXED: TILDEN’S SLIDING PULLEY,1997 (CAT 9), AND PULLEY, 1998 (CAT 10), ARE BASED DIRECTLY ON SEVERAL OF BROWN’S VERSIONS OF BASIC INDUSTRIAL PULLEYS — LIGHTWEIGHT, MINIATURE APPROXIMATIONS OF MACHINES DESIGNED TO LIFT HEAVY WEIGHTS, WHICH HERE, IRONICALLY, SUPPORT ONLY THEIR OWN STRUCTURES. THE BEAUTIFUL ECONOMY OF THESE INDUSTRIAL MODELS AND THEIR MOVING PARTS STIMULATED A NUMBER OF OTHER KEY WORKS: SHORT CONVEYOR,1997 (CAT 6), WITH ITS EMPHATIC ALTERNATION OF GLASS CYLINDERS AND FLAT TITANIUM BARS, AND THE 1998 CONVEYOR, STILL IN PRODUCTION TODAY, A SIMPLE NECK-RING WITH ONLY ONE SLIDING ELEMENT THAT GIVES A RADICALLY ABBREVIATED ACCOUNT OF THE ACTION OF THE STANDARD CONVEYOR BELT. THE UBIQUITOUS BICYCLE WAS AN IMPORTANT SOURCE: IN HER EARLY MELBOURNE YEARS, TILDEN’S STUDIO WAS BEHIND A BIKE REPAIR SHOP THAT SHE HAD OPENED WITH KATY O’ROURKE IN WEST MELBOURNE. THE LONG BICYCLE CHAIN, 1997 (CAT 8), MADE ENTIRELY OF BOROSILICATE GLASS AND TITANIUM, REMAINS A SIGNATURE WORK FOR THE ELEGANCE OF ITS CONSTRUCTION AND THE AFFECTION WITH WHICH ITS QUOTIDIAN SOURCE IS REGARDED. IN 2000 TILDEN ADDED THE PRODUCTION PIECES MEDIAN (BRACELET) AND MINIATURE (RING) (CAT 24, 21), BOTH RESEMBLING MINIATURE BIKE CHAINS, THOUGH THESE WERE MADE WITH FOUND, MASS-PRODUCED STAINLESS-STEEL CHAINS, THE CHAIN FOR THE RING HAVING BEEN USED ORIGINALLY IN JAPAN FOR PACKAGING MEDICINES BECAUSE IT IS ABLE TO TOLERATE STERILI-SATION.10 AND FINALLY THE TWO NECKLACES NIGHTRIDER, 2000, WITH ITS NIGHT-DARK, ANODISED ALUMINIUM LINKS, AND THE BRIGHT-RED EVERYDAY (REAR REFLECTOR), 2000 (CAT 19), ALLUDING TO THE DAILY EXPERIENCE OF BIKING ABOUT THE CITY. TILDEN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE STRUCTURE AND USES OF COMMON MOVING PARTS OF MODERN MACHINERY ARE NOT STRAIGHTFORWARD; NEITHER ARE THEY SIMPLY NOSTALGIC OR A TRIBUTE TO URBAN GRUNGE. HER PERFECTLY PRECISE CHAINS ARE ANALOGUES OF INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES THEY CALL INTO QUESTION — THE LABOUR AND THE PAINSTAKINGLY ACQUIRED CRAFT SKILLS REQUIRED TO PRODUCE THEM ARE IN DIRECT CONTRADICTION TO THE ORIGINAL PURPOSES OF INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY, WHICH WAS TO SUPPLEMENT AND ALLEVIATE HUMAN LABOUR. THE 5-METRE NECKLACE LONG CONVEYOR, 1997, WHICH HAS BEEN REMADE IN 2020-21, IS A CASE IN POINT. THE SAME LENGTH, AS IT HAPPENS, AS SOME OF THE SHORTEST INDUSTRIAL CONVEYOR BELTS, THE LONG CONVEYOR NECKLACE WAS ORIGINALLY MADE TO FIT THE DISPLAY SHELF IN MELBOURNE’S GALLERY FUNAKI, AND WAS, ALMOST EXCEPTIONALLY IN TILDEN’S OEUVRE, DESIGNED NOT TO BE WORN. THE 1997 WORK WAS MADE ENTIRELY BY HAND. THE 2020-21 ITERATION HAS BENEFITED FROM THE AVAILABILITY OF WATERJET CUTTING FOR THE METAL COMPONENTS; THE HUNDREDS OF GLASS PIECES, HOWEVER, ARE STILL MADE ENTIRELY BY HAND, EACH FLAMEWORKED INDIVIDUALLY.

“AS A CHILD, I OPERATED A CONVEYOR BELT
USED TO PACK THE LEMONS MY DAD
GREW ON HIS HOBBY FARM. I KNEW HOW
A CONVEYOR BELT WORKED AND I KNEW
HOW TO FIX IT WHEN IT BROKE DOWN.
SO THIS ELEGANT INTERPRETATION OF THE
SEAMLESS, FLUID MECHANICAL MOVEMENT
OF A CONVEYOR BELT HELD A DEEP
PERSONAL MEANING FOR ME WHEN
I MADE IT. (I HAVEN’T SPOKEN ABOUT
THIS, UNTIL NOW, UPON REFLECTION.)” 

IN TILDEN’S HANDS, THESE BORROWINGS CELEBRATE THE ELEGANCE AND INGENUITY OF INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY, WHETHER FROM FACTORY OR FARM. CONVEYOR BELTS WERE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED TO SPEED UP INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES, TO MAKE THEM MORE EFFICIENT AND LESS DEMANDING OF HUMAN LABOUR. TILDEN IS ACUTELY AWARE OF ‘THE SISYPHEAN NATURE OF WORK’,11 BUT IN HER CHAINS THOSE NEVER-ENDING MOVEMENTS HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER SET OF ACTIONS. AS ANNE BRENNAN NOTED, THEIR INDUSTRIAL FUNCTION HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED:

NO LONGER ABLE TO DRIVE THE PARTS
OF A MACHINE, THEY HAVE BECOME
AN OBJECT WHICH IS A KIND OF
HYPOTHETICAL PROPOSITION, KEPT IN
EXISTENCE BY A VERY CAREFUL AND
MINDFUL ACT OF WEARING. THE WEARER
ALWAYS KNOWS THAT ONE ACCIDENTAL
SLIP, ONE ACT OF CLUMSINESS CAN
BRING IT ALL UNDONE.12
THE LIGHTNESS AND SENSUALITY OF THESE WORKS INSPIRED BY MACHINERY, AND THE PARADOXICAL FRAGILITY OF THEIR PERFECTLY FUNCTIONING STRUCTURES IS CAPTIVATING: VIEWERS CAN COMPARE TILDEN’S MOVING PARTS WITH MACHINES AND MECHANICAL PROCESSES WHICH THEY KNOW FROM THEIR OWN LIVES. AS KEVIN MURRAY POINTED OUT IN 1999 WHEN THE WORKS WERE FIRST SHOWN: ‘THE SKILLED CRAFTSMANSHIP OF THEIR ASSEMBLY IS A HOMAGE TO THE MACHINE ITSELF’.13

 

III — LINKAGES AND SEPARATIONS

TILDEN’S WORK IS STRIKING FOR HER MASTERY OF GLASS AND METAL, IN COMBINATION. IT’S A NICE MARRIAGE: BOTH MATERIALS ARE EXCEPTIONALLY DURABLE AND ARE ADAPTABLE TO MANY PURPOSES, THOUGH THE TRANSPARENCY OF GLASS ALWAYS ALERTS US TO ITS FRAGILITY. IN SOME OF TILDEN’S PIECES COLOURED GLASS IS THE UNDOUBTED STAR, AND THERE IS ALWAYS A PARTICULAR REASON WHEN THIS IS THE CASE — WITH THE NECKLACE EVERYWHERE, 2000 (CAT 15), WHERE GLASS IS MOST PROMINENT, THE TITLE POINTS TO THE UBIQUITY OF THE PARTICULAR TYPE OF PALE GREEN SHEET GLASS USED IN WINDSCREENS AND WINDOWS; AND WITH THE MATTE BLACK NECKLACE ABSORB, 2006 (CAT 32), WHERE GRADUATED GLASS BATONS FLOAT ON A DISCREET STAINLESS STEEL CABLE, THE POINT IS THAT LIGHT IS, COUNTER-INTUITIVELY, ENTIRELY ABSENT FROM THIS GLASS. BUT FOR THE MOST PART, TILDEN WORKS WITH TRANSPARENT GLASS, ITS PLAY WITH LIGHT AND ITS REFLECTIVITY BRINGING JEWELLERY, WEARER AND SUCCESSIVE LOCATIONS INTO THAT KINETIC COMPLICITY CAPTURED BY ANNA WALDMANN WRITING ABOUT HER LONG BICYCLE CHAIN NECKLACE OF 1997: ‘I WORE THE NECKLACE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE — IT GLITTERED, SHIFTED IN THE SUN AND MIRRORED THE WATER IN THE CANALS AND THE DUSTY LEAVES IN THE GIARDINI.’14

ON THE OTHER HAND, WITH STIFF LINK (CAT 16) AND BUREAUCRACY (CAT 17), BOTH 2000, COLOURED ANODISED ALUMINIUM IS THE KEY, AND IN WORKS AS DISTANT IN TIME AS U-CHAIN, 1995, AND FLOW 02, 2016 (CAT 50), METAL SEEMS TO SERVE THE GLASS, PROVIDING A LINK, OR A HINGE. IN MANY PIECES THE TWO MATERIALS ARE EQUAL PARTNERS, EACH DEPENDING ON THE OTHER: SCISSOR, 1998 (CAT 11), WOULD NOT MAKE THE SENSE IT DOES WERE THE TAPERED BLADES NOT CONNECTED, IMPROBABLY, BY TRANSLUCENT GLASS.15

THIS DUAL MASTERY, APPARENTLY WORN SO LIGHTLY, WAS HARD-WON. FROM THE EARLY 1990S TILDEN LEARNED TO FLAMEWORK GLASS WITH THE EVER-GENEROUS PETER MINSON, THE DOYEN OF AUSTRALIAN FLAMEWORKERS; IN THE SAME PERIOD, WITH TEACHERS AND MENTORS INCLUDING JOHANNES KUHNEN, THE LATE ROBERT FOSTER AND SU SAN COHN, SHE EXPLORED STEEL, ALUMINIUM AND PARTICULARLY TITANIUM, RATHER THAN TRADITIONAL SILVER, AS THE PARTNER METALS FOR HER GLASS ELEMENTS. AS TILDEN EXPLAINS:

TITANIUM IS THE ONLY METAL THAN CAN TOLERATE BEING ANNEALED ALONG WITH
THE GLASS; IT IS LIGHT, AND EXCEPTIONALLY STRONG, BUT VERY DIFFICULT TO WORK —
IT BLUNTS TOOLS.16

IMPORTANTLY, TILDEN PURSUED THESE DEMANDING MATERIALS FOR THEIR EXPRESSIVE CAPACITIES, IN TANDEM: THE INCOMPARABLE COMBINATION OF THE FRAGILITY OF GLASS AND THE STRENGTH OF METAL, SET INTO REPEATED UNITS. IT FOLLOWS THAT SHE TAKES THE SYMBOLIC POTENTIAL OF EACH MATERIAL SERIOUSLY. ABOUT GLASS, THE DOMINANT PARTNER IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, SHE SAYS:

GLASS IS MADE FROM SAND —
IT SEEMS GLASS IS MADE BY
MAGIC BUT IT IS SIMPLY SAND
MELTED BY HEAT INTO A LIQUID
THEN COOLED INTO A SOLID; ALSO
IT’S AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN
YOU AND SOMETHING ELSE —
A PARADOXICAL MATERIAL,
I GUESS BECAUSE IT IS
SIMULTANEOUSLY THERE
AND NOT THERE?17

THINKING TODAY ABOUT HOW GLASS SHAPE-CHANGES, TILDEN RECALLS READING MELBOURNE CURATOR GEOFFREY EDWARDS’S IMPORTANT ESSAY ‘GLASS: THE MEDIUM AND THE METAPHOR’ WHEN IT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1998, AND THE IMPACT ON HER IDEAS ABOUT MAKING THEN, AND NOW, OF EDWARDS’S EXPANSIVE ACCOUNT OF WHAT HE CALLED A ‘CHAMELEON-LIKE SUBSTANCE’.

AT THE HEAD OF THE ESSAY EDWARDS QUOTED A LINE FROM LES MURRAY’S WONDERFUL 1989 POEM ‘WORDS OF A GLASSBLOWER’ — ‘THAT OLD EGYPTIAN SYRUP, THAT TIGHTENS AS WE TEACH IT TO SING’ — THAT SHE SAYS ‘SUMS UP MY LIFELONG FASCINATION WITH GLASS’.18

BETWEEN 2010 AND 2015 TILDEN UNDER TOOK TWO EXTENDED BODIES OF WORK THAT INVESTIGATE THE HISTORY OF THE INTERDEPENDENCY OF GLASS AND METAL, AND TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN THE TWO MATERIALS THAT ARTICULATE EACH OTHER. FER ET VERRE, 2010, AND WEARABLE CITIES, 2012–15, WERE SERIES BASED ON RESEARCH INTO EARLY MODERN ARCHITECTURE, STARTING WITH NINETEENTH-CENTURY EXPERIMENTS IN GLASS AND IRON, AND CULMINATING IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY SKYSCRAPER. FOR THE 2010 FER ET VERRE EXHIBITION IN CANBERRA SHE CONSTRUCTED PIECES FROM GLASS SQUARES AND SOLDERED SILVER WIRES, TAKING INSPIRATION FROM THE GRAND NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRYSTAL PALACE, FIRST BUILT TO HOUSE THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN LONDON IN 1851 AND THE MODEL FOR LATER EXHIBITION HALLS AND THE NEW METROPOLITAN RAILWAY STATIONS. THE QUASI-MAGICAL COMBINATION OF STEEL AND GLASS WAS FAMOUSLY DERIVED BY THE ENGLISHMAN JOSEPH PAXTON FROM UTILITARIAN GREENHOUSES, AND TILDEN’S PALAIS NECKLACES, FROM 2010 TO 2015 (CAT 37,44,49), TAKE OFF FROM HER RESEARCH INTO GLASS AND METAL BUILDINGS; HOWEVER, SHE POSITIONS EACH UNIT ALONG A STRAND, RATHER THAN ACCUMULATING THEM IN AN ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE; TWO NECKLACES FROM THE WEARABLE CITIES SERIES ARE NAMED FOR ISAMBARD BRUNEL (1806–1859) AND FERDINAND DUTERT (1845–1906), BOTH GREAT NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGINEER–ARCHITECTS.

IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THIS CENTURY, TILDEN EXPLOITED HER CONSOLIDATED MASTERY OF MATERIALS TO EXPLORE THEIR COMMUNICATIVE POTENTIAL. THE NECKLACE BUREAUCRACY, 2000, FOR EXAMPLE, IS A FINE, DENSE, COMPLEX CHAIN MADE ALMOST ENTIRELY FROM GOLD AND BLACK ANODISED ALUMINIUM. IT TERMINATES IN A SMALL GLASS CAPSULE ENCLOSING A GOLDEN BAR. SHOULD THE GLASS BE BROKEN IN CASE OF BUREAUCRATIC STALEMATE? FROM CHAIN REACTION, TILDEN’S FIRST MAJOR EXHIBITION AFTER LEAVING HER INTERNSHIP WITH COHN AT WORKSHOP 3000, THE PIECE WAS A CLEAR INDICATION OF HER INCREASING SOPHISTICATION:

NOW I ADDED THE METAPHORICAL
LAYER OF THE POTENTIAL MEANING
OF CHAINS … A BUREAUCRACY —
LIKE A BICYCLE CHAIN — IS A DEVICE
USED FOR TRANSMITTING POWER.
IN A MACHINE, ENERGY IS TRANSMITTED
FROM ONE OBJECT TO ANOTHER TO
CREATE MOVEMENT. IN A BUREAUCRACY,
THERE ARE TOO MANY LINKS, POWER
IS DISSIPATED, THE ‘CHAIN OF
COMMAND’ GETS CLOGGED BY
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT, PAPERWORK,
ADMINISTRATION.19

WITH BUREAUCRACY THE BLACK ELEMENTS EVOKE DESPAIR AND OBSTRUCTION, THE GOLD ONES RAYS OF HOPE, THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ENTIRE CHAIN SPEAKING TO THE INTERLOCKING SECTIONS OF BUREAUCRACIES AND, EVIDENTLY, TO SOMETHING OF THEIR RIGIDITY. SINCE 2000 THIS WITTY PIECE HAS RESIDED IN CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA’S FEDERAL CAPITAL AND A MAJOR ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE.

YOM HASHOAH RITUAL SASH, 2007 (CAT 33), HOWEVER, NOTABLE FOR ITS REPEATED GLASS ELEMENTS, IS NOW IN THE COLLECTION OF THE CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS, IN UPSTATE NEW YORK IN THE UNITED STATES. ORIGINALLY COMMISSIONED IN 2007 FOR AN EXHIBITION AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM IN MELBOURNE CELEBRATING CONTEMPORARY JEWISH REGALIA, IT ALSO CONSIDERS WHAT TILDEN IDENTIFIES AS ‘THE VISUAL LANGUAGE AND METAPHOR OF MOVEMENT, INDUSTRIAL PROCESS, AND BUREAUCRACY’. THIS TIME THE PIECE REFERS TO THE OBSCENE BUREAUCRACY OF THE HOLOCAUST.20 IT WAS MADE TO HONOUR YOM HASHOAH (HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY), A CONTEMPORARY JEWISH COMMUNITY CELEBRATION ON THE SEVENTH DAY AFTER PASSOVER, TYPICALLY IN MARCH OR APRIL. THE BLUE AND WHITE GLASS OF THE PIECE, WHICH MAY BE WORN AS A BANDOLIER OR A NECKLACE, REFERS TO THE COLOURS OF THE TALLITH, THE JEWISH PRAYER SHAWL; THE EVEN SPACING OF THE GLASS RODS IS ALTOGETHER MORE SINISTER IN THIS HISTORICAL CONTEXT, ALLUDING TO THE CONVEYOR BELTS AND RAILROADS TRACKS THAT CARRIED SO MANY JEWISH PEOPLE TO THEIR FATES.

“AS A CHILD, I OFTEN WENT WITH MY
MOTHER TO VISIT PEOPLE IN THE CATHOLIC
PARISH OF PICTON, ON THE OUTSKIRTS
OF SOUTH WESTERN SYDNEY, A DISTRICT
SETTLED BY EUROPEAN REFUGEES AFTER THE
SECOND WORLD WAR. ONE OF THE ELDERLY
PEOPLE WE VISITED WAS A GERMAN WOMAN,
WHO TOLD MY MOTHER ABOUT BEING A
PRISONER IN A NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP …
MY MOTHER SAT AND LISTENED, GIVING
THIS WOMAN HER FULL ATTENTION.
TOO YOUNG TO FULLY UNDERSTAND,
I PUT THIS AFTERNOON AWAY IN MY HEAD.
I REMEMBERED IT WHILE TALKING TO A
RABBI IN THE JEWISH MUSEUM.
AND THEN I KNEW WHAT I WOULD MAKE
AS A PIECE OF JEWELLERY TO
COMMEMORATE THE HOLOCAUST. ”

 

IV — FLOWS

IN LATE 2015 SERENDIPITY, IN THE PERSON OF SIMONE LEAMON, INTRODUCED BLANCHE TILDEN TO MARY FEATHERSTON, THE DISTINGUISHED MELBOURNE DESIGNER. LEAMON, THE HUGH WILLIAMSON CURATOR OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA, INVITED TILDEN TO MEET FEATHERSTON TO DISCUSS ARCHIVAL GLASS JEWELLERY COMPONENTS FROM THE 1940S MADE BY THE LATE GRANT FEATHERSTON (1922–1995), MARY’S PARTNER AND A LEADING MODERNIST DESIGNER.21 TILDEN FOUND A TROVE OF FLUID MONOCHROME LOOPS, LIMPID SQUIGGLES IN DELICATE TINTS, SOME WITH A METALLIC SHEEN. WHAT FOLLOWED, EVENTUALLY, WAS THE FEATHERSTON X TILDEN JEWELLERY COMMISSIONS, A LIMITED RANGE OF SIX WORKS — NECKLACES, PENDANTS, AND EARRINGS — THAT SET FEATHERSTON’S ORIGINAL GLASS COMPONENTS INTO SIMPLE SETTINGS DEVISED BY TILDEN.

THIS ENCOUNTER SET TILDEN ON A NEW PATH. FEATHERSTON’S BLIMPY BIOMORPHIC FORMS REVEALED NEW CAPACITIES IN THE MATERIAL WITH WHICH SHE HAD BEEN WORKING FOR SO LONG AND OVER WHICH SHE HAD EXERTED HER CONTROL. SHE WROTE THAT FEATHERSTON’S HANDLING OF GLASS ‘CAPTURES AN ESSENCE, A FEELING, THE MATERIALITY OF GLASS, THE WAY GLASS IS A LIQUID WHEN HOT AND A SOLID WHEN COLD, AND THE WAY THAT GLASS CAN HOLD LIGHT’.22 THE SUCCESSIVE PHASES OF THIS TRANSFORMATIVE PROCESS ARE ALWAYS MAGICAL: SOLID BECOMES FLUID BECOMES SOLID AGAIN. (TILDEN NOW SAYS THAT AFTER A VERY REGULATED CHILDHOOD, SHE HAD ALWAYS SEEN ‘FREEDOM’ IN THIS CAPACITY OF GLASS.)23 ENCOURAGED BY FEATHERSTON’S EXAMPLE, IN 2015 TILDEN BEGAN TO EXPLORE THE WAY GLASS FLOWED. THE RESULT WAS A MAJOR NEW BODY OF WORK EXHIBITED UNDER THE TITLE CLEAR CUT AT MELBOURNE’S GALLERY FUNAKI IN JULY–AUGUST 2016.

WHAT WAS EVIDENT IN THIS GROUP OF PERFECTLY JUDGED GLASS CHAINS AND NECKLACES WAS A JOYFUL LIGHTNESS OF BEING, A PRONOUNCED EMPHASIS ON THE TRANSLUCENCY OF GLASS, AND A REVISED SIMPLICITY THAT NEVERTHELESS DREW ON HER LONG ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHAINS, PULLEYS AND INTERLOCKING COMPONENTS. SPIN 03, 2016 (CAT 54), FOR INSTANCE, RECALLS TILDEN’S LONG LOVE AFFAIR WITH BICYCLE MECHANISMS; HERE THE IDEA IS RADICALLY SIMPLIFIED, JUST SUCCESSIVE SINGLE GLASS DISCS CONNECTED WITH TITANIUM STRUTS IN ONE OF THE MOST REDUCED PROPOSITIONS ABOUT MOVEMENT THAT SHE HAS EVER MADE, A SORT OF SUMMARY NOTE. HOWEVER, WITH ORBIT 02 (CAT 53) AND BUOY 03 (CAT 52), BOTH 2016, SHE APPEALS TO THE WIDER WORLD OUTSIDE THE DOMAIN OF THE CONSTRUCTED MECHANISM; WITH ITS IRREGULARLY ALTERNATING GLASS DISCS IN THREE SIZES ORBIT 02 CONJURES A CONSTELLATION (SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE) AND EVEN HOW IN SOCIAL LIFE WE REVOLVE AROUND EACH OTHER, UNPREDICTABLY; WHILE BUOY 03 NOT ONLY RETURNS US TO THE SEA WITH WHICH THIS ESSAY BEGINS BUT ALSO SIGNALS THE JOYOUS BOBBING IMMERSION IN WATER.

FLOW 03, 2016 (CAT 51), WAS THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY WORK IN THIS GROUP. THE TITLE COMES FROM ITS ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED, BEAUTIFUL LIQUID MOVEMENT, WITH CURVING ELLIPSES FORMED FROM GENEROUS SEGMENTS CUT FROM A LARGER NOTIONAL CIRCLE THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN ACTUALITY. THESE SEGMENTS ARE CAPTURED BY TITANIUM RINGS, AND SIT ACROSS BULGING TERMINALS ACHIEVED BY FLAMEWORKING EACH END. THE NECKLACE HAS NO CLASP BUT MUST BE DROPPED, UNBROKEN, OVER THE HEAD. THIS EMPHASISES THE CONTINUITY OF A CIRCLE FORMED FROM TENUOUS RELATIONSHIPS THAT NEVERTHELESS WORKS PERFECTLY AND SPEAKS OF A HAPPY COMPLICITY BETWEEN THE TWO MATERIALS, LIGHTLY WORN.

MOREOVER, THE TITLE FLOW DESCRIBES THE ACTION OF THE NECKLACE WHEN WORN: IT IS A SET OF PASSAGES FROM ONE CURVED ELEMENT TO ANOTHER, SUBTLY SHIFTING AROUND THE NECK AND OVER THE COLLARBONES IN A CONSTANT CARESS. FLOW ALMOST MAKES GLASS MOLTEN AGAIN, A LIVING MOVING FORCE. IT IS UNCANNY.

“TO MAKE THIS PIECE, I HAD TO MAKE
A LEAP OF FAITH. CAREFULLY LOOKING AT
THE WORK IN GLASS CREATED BY GRANT
FEATHERSTON PROMPTED ME TO RE-EXAMINE
GLASS, AND INSTEAD OF TRYING TO CONTROL
IT, TO GO WITH THE WAY THAT IT CHANGES
FROM A SOLID TO A LIQUID WHEN HEATED
AND COOLED … I DIDN’T KNOW IF THIS
PIECE WOULD WORK, AND I HESITATED
FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE I ASSEMBLED IT.
THIS HESITATION REMINDED ME OF
STANDING ON THE EDGE OF A POOL LOOKING
THROUGH THE SURFACE OF THE WATER,
SUMMONING THE COURAGE TO JUMP IN.”

AT ANOTHER LEVEL, FLOW 03 SUMMED UP TILDEN’S NEW CONFIDENCE. THESE WORDS ARE FROM HER 2016 STUDIO NOTES: ‘01 FLOW — WORKING METHOD, LETTING GO OF OLD WORKING METHODS AND FINDING NEW ONES, LIQUID MOVEMENT, CHARACTERISTIC OF GLASS.’24 THE INNOVATION EXEMPLIFIED IN FLOW 03 SAW HER FINDING NEW WAYS TO REVEAL THE MOST DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTIC OF GLASS: ITS CLARITY. TO THE STATE OF ENERGISED ABSORPTION IN AN UNDERTAKING THAT IS KNOWN TO PRACTITIONERS IN MANY CREATIVE AND PHYSICAL DISCIPLINES AND HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS ‘FLOW’ BY MIHÁLY CSÍKSZENTMIHÁLYI, THE AMERICAN- BASED PSYCHOLOGIST OF CREATIVITY AND HAPPINESS. TO EXPERIENCE ‘FLOW’, IN THIS SENSE, IS TO BE BOTH LOST AND FOUND THROUGH ONE’S WORK. IT IS ONE OF THE BEST FORMS OF BLISS.25

 

V — TRANSPOSITIONS

AS IT HAPPENS, ANOTHER CONVERSATION WITH MARY FEATHERSTON SEVERAL YEARS LATER SET TILDEN THINKING ABOUT HER NEXT PROJECT. IT WAS A SIMPLE ENOUGH REQUEST: COULD TILDEN CONVERT A COLLECTION OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY SPECTACLE LENSES, SALVAGED FROM SUNGLASSES COLLECTED BY FEATHERSTON’S OWN MOTHER, INTO A NECKLACE? A MEDITATION ON MAKING, TIME, AND ON TIME TAKEN IN MAKING, THE COLLABORATIVE NECKLACE WITH FEATHERSTON IS TITLED A LENS ON TIME, 2018 (CAT 60). THE PROJECT OPENED TILDEN’S EYES TO FRESH POSSIBILITIES: TO HOW CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES EMBODIED SHIFTS IN VALUE. SHE BEGAN TO CONSIDER HOW INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, WHICH PROVIDES ACTUAL AND METAPHORICAL MATERIAL FOR HER WORK, IS NOW UNDERGOING A MASSIVE PROCESS OF CHANGE FROM MECHANICAL TO DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES. USING FOUND OBJECTS AND MATERIALS HAS BEEN IMPORTANT FOR HER WORK AT LEAST AS LONG AGO AS THE EARLY 1990S, PARTICULARLY THROUGH HER FRIENDSHIP WITH THE LATE NEIL ROBERTS, AN ARTIST ORIGINALLY TRAINED IN GLASS WHOSE SCULPTURES AND INSTALLATIONS PROBED THE ALLEGORICAL POSSIBILITIES OF FOUND OBJECTS AND MATERIALS.26

“I HAD A HUNCH, SITTING IN THE BACK OF MY
MIND SINCE RECEIVING NEIL ROBERTS’S
SCULPTURE MADE USING THE FOUND OBJECT
OF A RUSTY CHAINSAW BLADE, THAT THE
FORM OF THE BICYCLE CHAIN AND THE
DECONSTRUCTED ABSTRACTION OF THE
SINGLE ELEMENT OF THE BICYCLE CHAIN
LINK HELD A HUGE AMOUNT OF POTENTIAL
FOR CONVEYING MEANING. I LOOKED CLOSELY
AT THE FORM OF THE SINGLE LINK AND SAW
IN AN ABSTRACTED WAY A ‘FIGURE 8’
OR INFINITY SYMBOL.” 

FEATHERSTON’S MOTHER’S GLASS LENSES WERE ONE EXAMPLE OF THE POTENTIAL OF EXTENDING THE LIFE OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS, AND A PARTICULAR INSTANCE WHERE SENTIMENTAL VALUE PREVAILS OVER THE INTRINSIC VALUE OF CONVENTIONAL JEWELLERY MATERIALS; TILDEN SOON FOUND ANOTHER IN A GROUP OF SUPERB GLASS LENSES SALVAGED FROM ANALOG SLR CAMERAS, CONSIDERED ONE OF THE FINEST MODERN PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOLS AND MADE TO EXACTING STANDARDS. AGAIN, SERENDIPITY WAS AT HER DOOR: HER HUSBAND MARCUS SCHOLZ COLLECTS AND USES THESE BEAUTIFUL OLD CAMERAS, AND LEFTOVER LENSES FROM HIS COLLECTION WERE AT HAND JUST AS TILDEN WAS CONSIDERING HOW TO RECYCLE AND REPURPOSE FOUND LENSES FOR HER JEWELLERY.

THE END RESULT IS RIPPLE EFFECT, 2019-21 (CAT 61-67), AN INSTALLATION OF SEVEN SIMPLE NECKLACES OF CAMERA LENSES MOUNTED ON CHAINS AND PLACED IN CONCENTRIC CIRCLES, EACH SUCCESSIVE NECKLACE AND CIRCLE SMALLER THAN THE OTHER. AS REPURPOSED INDUSTRIAL OBJECTS, THE LENSES EXAMINE VALUE, FUNCTION, AND MEANING; FAR REMOVED FROM THEIR ORIGINAL USE, IN THIS CONTEXT THEY ARE EXQUISITE. ONCE INTENDED TO BE USED, NOW THE LENSES ARE DESIGNED TO BE SEEN: TILDEN SHOWS US THAT WE SIMULTANEOUSLY LOOK AT AND LOOK THROUGH GLASS.27 THIS IS A PRODUCTIVE PARADOX, ONE TILDEN ENJOYS. WITH THE RIPPLE EFFECT NECKLACES, ONE RECOGNISES THE PERFECTION OF EACH LENS, ONE LOOKS THROUGH THEIR IMPECCABLE TRANSLUCENCY, ONE SEES HOW LIGHT IS CURVED BY EACH MENISCUS, WHETHER FROM THE CONVEX OR CONCAVE SIDE. DETACHED FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUSES THAT ONCE EMPLOYED THEM, THE LENSES HAVE A NEW FUNCTION: THEY MEDITATE ON LOOKING ITSELF.

“I APPRECIATE THE PERSONAL MEANING
THAT SALVAGED OR REPURPOSED OBJECTS
CAN CONVEY — THEY ARE ALREADY
CARRYING MEANING, AND THIS SEEMS
TO SAY THAT THEY CAN CARRY MORE.
AS WE GET OLDER, I THINK WE ALL PONDER
WHAT HAS VALUE IN OUR LIVES, AND AS
TIME RUNS OUT, WE CONCENTRATE
ON WHAT HOLDS TRUE VALUE AND
MEANING — WHATEVER THAT MAY BE.”

RIPPLE EFFECT EMPLOYS A PARTICULAR FORM OF THE GRADATION IN SIZE THAT TILDEN HAS LONG EXPLORED IN LINEAR FORM, FOR INSTANCE WITH THE PALAIS AND EMPIRE NECKLACES OF THE 2010S. LINEAR DIMINISHING PERSPECTIVE IS HERE REPLACED BY A CIRCULAR DIMINISHING PERSPECTIVE, AN IDEA SUGGESTED IN CONVERSATION BY THE DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN ARTIST-ARCHITECT JAMES CARPENTER, WHO TILDEN MET WHEN HE WAS A GUEST ARTIST AT THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN LATE 2018.28 CARPENTER POINTED OUT THAT A RIPPLE WAS ANOTHER KIND OF DIMINISHING PERSPECTIVE, AND TILDEN IMMEDIATELY SAW THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE IDEA FOR HER PROJECT: GRADING JEWELLERY ELEMENTS SUCH AS BEADS OR PEARLS RELATES TO PERSPECTIVE, AND SINCE PERSPECTIVE GOVERNS HOW PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGES REPRESENTATION, IT FOLLOWS, IN A LEAP OF THE IMAGINATION, THAT THERE IS A SYMPATHETIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL CAMERA LENSES AND THE IDEA OF DIMINISHING PERSPECTIVE. TILDEN IMMEDIATELY BEGAN TO SORT AND GRADE THE LENSES, GRADUALLY BUILDING THE FORM OF THE INSTALLATION.

HERE’S THE CONUNDRUM: A PERFECTLY STILL INSTALLATION OF NECKLACES GRADUATED IN SIZE, GLINTING UNDER GALLERY LIGHTS, A POOL FROZEN AT THE EXACT MOMENT WHEN A PEBBLE IS BEING DROPPED INTO IT. THAT PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT FROM CENTRE TO PERIPHERY IS INITIATED HERE BY THE SMALLEST GOLDEN NECKLACE, A VALIDATION IN JEWELLERY’S MOST PRECIOUS METAL OF THE ORIGINAL ACTION, OR INTUITION, THAT SET THIS RIPPLE IN TRAIN: A STONE DROPPED INTO A POOL OF WATER.29 IN THE END, EACH ELEMENT IN THE PIECE IS EQUIVALENT TO EVERY OTHER — NONE IS THE CENTREPIECE, ALL ARE EQUALLY NECESSARY TO THE FUNCTIONING, IMAGERY AND SIGNIFICATION OF THE WORK. THIS IS A TEMPORARY EFFECT: AT LEAST SOME OF THE NECKLACES WILL ONE DAY BE WORN, AND WILL TAKE UP UNPREDICTABLE FUTURE LIVES OF INTERMITTENT MOVEMENT. FOR THE MOMENT, THOUGH, TIME IS STOPPED.

 

A PAUSE

FROM THE 1990S TO 2021, BLANCHE TILDEN HAS BEEN ON A LONG, SLOW, LOOPING TRAJECTORY; MEETINGS AND MARKERS SHOWED THE WAY AHEAD, BUT ALSO ILLUMINATED WHAT CAME BEFORE. THE ARTICULATED CIRCULARITY OF THIS CONTINUOUS CHAIN OF MAKING IS CRUCIAL. IN 1997 TILDEN MADE A LONG MAGISTERIAL MÖBIUS NECKLACE; AND IN 1999 NEIL ROBERTS’S GIFT OF A RUSTY FOUND CHAIN, FASHIONED INTO A SCULPTURAL NECKPIECE, SET TILDEN TO PONDERING THE METAPHORIC POTENTIAL OF HER MAKING: ‘I LOOKED CLOSELY AT THE FORM OF THE SINGLE LINK AND SAW IN AN ABSTRACTED WAY A ‘FIGURE 8’ OR INFINITY SYMBOL.’30 THE PROFOUND JOY OF EACH INDIVIDUAL REPEATED ACT OF MAKING SUGGESTS THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE: IN JANUARY THIS YEAR, MAKING RIPPLE EFFECT, TILDEN REFLECTED ON HOW ‘CIRCULARITY AND MOVEMENT COME TOGETHER IN A NECKLACE’.31

MAKING IS ONE KIND OF REVERIE. OTHERS COME TO MIND: BREATHING, THE PULSING ELECTRONIC MUSIC THAT TILDEN STILL LOVES AND PLAYS IN HER STUDIO, SWIMMING. WATER AGAIN. THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHER GASTON BACHELARD FAMOUSLY ASSOCIATED THE SOURCES OF THE IMAGINATION WITH THE PRIMAL ELEMENTS OF EARTH, AIR, FIRE AND WATER, ARGUING THAT IT IS ALWAYS LOCATED IN MATERIALITY. WATER MUST SURELY BE BLANCHE TILDEN’S ELEMENT, NOT FIRE, DESPITE HER LONG HISTORY WITH FLAMEWORKING GLASS. FOR BACHELARD INVOKES HERACLITUS’S NOTION OF CONSTANT MOVEMENT, WHICH IS ALSO TILDEN’S:

ONE CANNOT BATHE TWICE IN THE
SAME RIVER, BECAUSE ALREADY,
IN HIS INMOST RECESSES, THE HUMAN
BEING IS SHARING THE DESTINY OF
WATER WHICH FLOWS. WATER IS TRULY
THE TRANSITORY ELEMENT. IT IS THE
ESSENTIAL, ONTOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS
BETWEEN FIRE AND EARTH. THE BEING DEDICATED
TO WATER IS A BEING IN FLUX.32

FOR NOW BLANCHE TILDEN HAS, FOR A MOMENT, COME TO A MOMENTARY PAUSE IN THAT ENDLESS FLUX. AND SHE IS STILL LOOKING. CLOSELY.

JULIE EWINGTON IS AN INDEPENDENT WRITER, CURATOR AND BROADCASTER BASED IN SYDNEY. 

 

 

NOTES

1 TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021. THE GREAT EXCEPTION TO THE PRINCIPLE OF MOVEMENT IS THE BLURRED ARCHITECTURE SERIES OF BROOCHES, MADE IN 2014 IN COLLABORATION WITH ARCHITECT ERIN HINTON

2.  SEE KEVIN MURRAY ‘MOVING PARTS’ (2000) AND MERRYN GATES ‘MOVING RIGHT ALONG’ (2009), IN MERRYN GATES (ED.), BLANCHE TILDEN: TRUE, SFA PRESS: CANBERRA, 2018, 4TH EDITION PP.102–04 AND PP.53–56.

3  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

4  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

5  SEE BLANCHE TILDEN: TRUE, 2018, PP.86–87 AND P.115.

6  SEE ALEXANDER ALBERRO, ABSTRACTION IN REVERSE: THE RECONFIGURED SPECTATOR IN MID-TWENTIETH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICAN ART, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO, 2017, P.12. I AM INDEBTED TO SUSAN BEST’S REFERENCES TO ALBERRO’S WORK IN AN ESSAY IN ANN STEPHEN (ED.), LIGHT & DARKNESS: LATE MODERNISM AND THE JW POWER COLLECTION, CHAU CHAK WING MUSEUM/POWER PUBLICATIONS, SYDNEY, 2021, P.56 (FORTHCOMING).

7  SEE THE ESSAY ‘READING JEWELLERY’, IN LIESBETH DEN BESTEN, ON JEWELLERY: A COMPENDIUM OF INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART JEWELLERY, STUTTGART: ARNOLDSCHE ART PUBLISHERS, 2012, P.62.

8  ANN STEPHEN, ‘TINGUELY’, IN ANN STEPHEN (ED.), LIGHT & DARKNESS, P.50.

9  SEE HENRY T. BROWN, FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVEN MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS, ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN NEW YORK IN 1868, AND SUBSEQUENTLY REPRINTED IN MANY EDITIONS. TILDEN FOUND HER REPRINT OF THE 1893 SEVENTEENTH EDITION IN THE RMIT UNIVERSITY’S NOW-CLOSED TECHNICAL BOOKSHOP IN THE MID-1990S WHILE SEARCHING FOR A BOOK ABOUT MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS.

10  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021.

11  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

12  SEE ANNE BRENNAN, ‘BLANCHE’S GLASS CHAIN’, IN BLANCHE TILDEN: TRUE, 2018, P.24.

13  SEE KEVIN MURRAY, ‘BLANCHE TILDEN: MOVING PARTS’, IN BLANCHE TILDEN: TRUE, 2018, P.102.

14  SEE BLANCHE TILDEN: TRUE, 2018, P.95

15  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

16  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021.

17  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 30 DECEMBER 2020.

18  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 25 MARCH 2021. SEE GEOFFREY EDWARDS, ‘GLASS: THE MEDIUM AND THE METAPHOR’, IN ART OF GLASS: GLASS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA, NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA/MACMILLAN, MELBOURNE, 1998, P.13. THE NGV’S HOLDINGS OF HISTORICAL AND MODERN GLASS ARE THE FINEST IN THIS COUNTRY.

19  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

20  TILDEN WAS INVITED BY CURATOR REBECCA FORGASZ TO CREATE WORK FOR THE EXHIBITION NEW UNDER THE SUN: AUSTRALIAN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN IN JEWISH CEREMONY III, WHICH WAS FIRST SHOWN AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA, MELBOURNE, IN NOVEMBER 2007, AND LATER TOURED.

21  SEE GEOFF ISAACS, FEATHERSTON, MELBOURNE: THAMES & HUDSON AUSTRALIA, 2017, AND FOR MARY FEATHERSTON’S RECENT WORK, SEE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA, EMILY FLOYD: THE DAWN, 2014, FOR A COLLABORATION WITH FLOYD, AND ALSO HTTPS://WWW.FEATHERSTON.COM.AU/ FOR RECENT WORK ON CHILDREN’S LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS.

22  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

23  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021.

24  AUTHOR’S NOTES MADE IN ARTIST’S STUDIO, 2016.

25  THIS IDEA HAS BEEN POPULARISED BY THE HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST MIHÁLY CSIKSZENTMIHÁLYI, ESPECIALLY THROUGH HIS BOOK FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE, HARPER AND ROW, 1990, NEW YORK.

26  NEIL ROBERTS’S WORK IS HELD IN NUMEROUS PUBLIC COLLECTIONS, INCLUDING THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF AUSTRALIA AND THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF VICTORIA. THE MOST RECENT EXHIBITION OF HIS WORK WAS IN NEIL ROBERTS: CHANCES WITH GLASS, CANBERRA GLASSWORKS, AUGUST 2017, CO-CURATED BY BARBARA CAMPBELL AND JANE CUSH. SEE HTTP://WWW.NEILROBERTS.COM.AU/

27  BLANCHE TILDEN, UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT, 2020–21, CH. 1, P.47.

28  SEE JAMES CARPENTER IN CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD WHITELEY AT THE ANU SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN, CANBERRA, 3 DECEMBER 2018, AT HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=OZ4K0-HOZEO

29  EMAIL FROM THE ARTIST, 7 FEBRUARY 2021.

30  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021.

31  TELEPHONE INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST, 20 JANUARY 2021.

32  EDITH RODGERS FARRELL, ‘WATER AND DREAMS BY GASTON BACHELARD: AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION WITH INTRODUCTION BY THE TRANSLATOR’, DOCTORAL THESIS, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, 1965, P.281.

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