… THAT OLD EGYPTIAN SYRUP, THAT TIGHTENS AS WE TEACH IT TO SING.1

 

JEWELLERY IS A DYNAMIC FORCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE, WITH A RICH EMOTIONAL VOCABULARY EMPLOYED BY PEOPLE TO CONNECT INTIMATELY AND PUBLICLY. JEWELLERY CAN DRAW ATTENTION TO SEXUALITY, ENHANCE OUR BEAUTY, SHOW OFF WEALTH, SIGNAL STATUS OR PROJECT POWER. THESE GESTURES DEPEND ON THE MAKER, WHO WORKS TO EMBODY IDEAS THROUGH FORM AND MATERIALS, AND THE WEARER, WHO CHARGES JEWELLERY WITH LIFE.2

 

GLASS REMAINS AN ALMOST MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FOR BLANCHE TILDEN, WITH ITS MATERIALITY, HISTORY, MEANING AND METAPHORIC CAPACITY RIPE FOR ENDLESS TRANSFORMATION AND CONCEPTUAL AND CREATIVE POSSIBILITIES. FROM HER SIGNATURE WORKS BASED ON THE MECHANISM OF THE BIKE CHAIN TO HER RECENT NECKLACES COMPRISED OF FOUND AND REPURPOSED CAMERA LENSES, TILDEN DEMONSTRATES HER EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY TO TAKE OBJECTS FROM ONE CONTEXT AND SET THEM IN ANOTHER, CREATING NEW ASSOCIATIONS FOR HERSELF AS MAKER, FOR THE WEARER OF HER JEWELLERY, AND FOR THOSE WHO EXPERIENCE IT AS AN OBSERVER ON ANOTHER’S BODY.

AFTER COMPLETING A BACHELOR OF VISUAL ARTS AT THE CANBERRA SCHOOL OF ART (NOW THE ANU SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN) IN BOTH GLASS (UNDER KLAUS MOJE) AND GOLD AND SILVERSMITHING (WITH JOHANNES KUHNEN), TILDEN WORKED WITH MASTER FLAMEWORKER PETER MINSON. SHE THEN WENT ON TO COMPLETE A GRADUATE DIPLOMA OF VISUAL ARTS, GOLD AND SILVERSMITHING, AGAIN AT THE CANBERRA SCHOOL OF ART, BEFORE UNDERTAKING AN AUSTRALIA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS TRAINEESHIP WITH CELEBRATED MAKER SUSAN COHN (NOW SU SAN COHN), WHOSE PRACTICE HAS LONG STRADDLED THE ART-CRAFT-DESIGN DIVIDES.

TILDEN’S DETERMINATION TO CHART HER OWN COURSE IS MARKED BY THIS UNUSUAL COUPLING OF DISCIPLINES AND HER ALMOST GUILD-LIKE TRAINING IN EACH.

ACCORDINGLY, HER PRACTICE IS GROUNDED IN AN IN-DEPTH WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF BOTH GLASS AND METAL – ANODISED ALUMINIUM, STERLING SILVER AND, CHARACTERISTICALLY, TITANIUM. AS SHE HAS REMARKED, THE LATTER ‘IS THE ONLY METAL THAT CAN TOLERATE BEING ANNEALED ALONG WITH THE GLASS; IT IS LIGHT, AND EXCEPTIONALLY STRONG, BUT VERY DIFFICULT TO WORK – IT BLUNTS TOOLS.’³ GLASS MAY WELL BE THE HEROINE OF TILDEN’S OEUVRE, BUT IT IS THE SEAMLESS COMBINATION OF THIS MATERIAL WITH METAL THAT ENABLES THE ONGOING EXPLORATION OF PRECISION, REPETITION, GRADATION, GEOMETRIC FORM AND MOVEMENT IN HER WORK.⁴ IN NECKLACES SUCH AS LONG BICYCLE CHAIN OR SHORT CONVEYOR (BOTH 1997), FOR EXAMPLE, THESE INTERESTS RESULT IN HIGHLY CONSIDERED FORMS THAT HANG WITH INTENT, TOUCHING THE BODY AS THEY WERE DESIGNED TO DO AND MOVING IN A WAY THAT CREATES A SENSE OF GRACEFUL ANIMATION, ALL THE WHILE ANTICIPATING HOW EACH ARTICULATED PIECE WILL EVENTUALLY SETTLE WHEN STILL. DESIGNED TO GIVE PLEASURE TO THE WEARER, TILDEN’S NECKLACES ALSO HAVE A MUSICAL QUALITY, AS WEARERS PLAY WITH THEM WITH THEIR HANDS AND GLASS PIECES JOSTLE AND CHINK IN TIME WITH THE RHYTHM OF THE BODY.

GLASS REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST UBIQUITOUS MATERIALS IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY LIFE. IT SURROUNDS US TO THE POINT THAT WE NEITHER SEE IT – IN OUR WINDOWS, OR ON THE SCREENS OF OUR MOBILE PHONES, NOR THINK ABOUT IT AS WE USE IT. YET GLASS ALSO HAS A HISTORY IN JEWELLERY AND BODY ADORNMENT DATING BACK TO MESOPOTAMIA AND ANCIENT EGYPT THAT SAW IT REVERED FOR BOTH ITS RARITY AND ITS ABILITY TO MIMIC OTHER VALUABLE MATERIALS, SUCH AS PRECIOUS STONES.⁵ FOR TILDEN, GLASS SERVES ‘AS A VEHICLE TO EXPRESS THE ARTISTIC, SOCIAL, POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND TECHNOLOGICAL FORCES THAT SHAPE OUR EVERYDAY LIVES’.⁶ CLEAR, FRAGILE, TRANSPARENT, SPARKLY, STRONG – THE PROSAIC NATURE OF GLASS HAS RESONANCE FOR TILDEN AS A MAKER AND IS REFLECTED IN HER NOW DECADES-LONG RELATIONSHIP WITH AND USE OF BOROSILICATE GLASS (COMMONLY KNOWN AS PYREX).

THE STARTING POINT FOR TILDEN’S JEWELLERY COMPONENTS IS PREFABRICATED GLASS (TUBES AND RODS) RATHER THAN AN AMORPHOUS MOLTEN FORM, ENABLING HER, RATHER UNIQUELY, TO USE THE SAME WORKING TECHNIQUES ACROSS GLASS AND METAL DESPITE THEIR VERY DIFFERENT PROPERTIES.⁷ YET EVEN WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF WATER JET CUTTING – WHICH HAS ALLOWED TILDEN TO MOVE FROM RODS AND TUBES TO SHEET GLASS WITH DESIGNS FIRST DRAWN USING CAD SOFTWARE AND THEN CUT BY MACHINE – EACH PIECE OF GLASS IS STILL REFINED AND PIECED TOGETHER BY HAND. THIS IS A METICULOUS, TIME-CONSUMING AND ULTIMATELY LABORIOUS PROCESS, UNDERPINNED BY THE ARTIST’S INCREDIBLE SENSE OF DISCIPLINE AND ORDER. HENCE THE IRONY OF A WORK SUCH AS GRAND PALAIS (NECKLACE) (2015) – WHICH WAS INSPIRED BY THE TECHNICAL AND AESTHETIC ADVANCES OF THE GLASS EDIFICES BUILT FOR THE GREAT EXHIBITIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY – IS THAT THE ACCURACY OF ITS MACHINE-MADE AESTHETIC AND EXQUISITELY CASCADING PARTS ARE THE RESULT OF A SENSE OF EXPERIMENTATION, INGENUITY AND CRAFTING SKILL BORN OF THE HANDMADE. AS THE ARTIST HAS SAID:

 

I REFLECTED ON THE IMPORTANT ROLE THE PROCESS OF IDENTIFYING, LISTING, SORTING AND CATEGORISING IMAGES AND OBJECTS PLAYED IN MY PRACTICE. I REMEMBERED THAT COLLECTING HAD BEEN A CHILDHOOD ACTIVITY, AND I RECALLED HOW THIS EARLY HABIT OF COLLECTING HELPED ME TO MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD. AT THIS MOMENT, I REALISED THAT IN EVERY PIECE OF ARTWORK MADE DURING MY CAREER, I HAVE IN SOME WAY USED CLOSE OBSERVATION, COLLECTING, SORTING AND CREATING ORDER IN A PRACTICAL AND PRAGMATIC WAY TO ACTIVATE THE MOMENTUM OF MY CREATIVE PROCESS. THIS FUNDAMENTAL ACTIVITY HAS DEVELOPED OVER TIME TO BECOME A TOOL FOR ORGANISING BOTH MY THINKING AND MAKING.⁸

 

IN RECENT YEARS, TILDEN HAS INCREASINGLY INTERROGATED THE NOTION OF VALUE IN HER WORK. GIVEN THE NATURE OF THE MATERIALS USED IN HER JEWELLERY, THE PRECIOUSNESS OR RARITY OF HER CHOSEN MATERIALS HAVE NEVER FIGURED IN SUCH AN EQUATION; THE VALUE OF HER WORK, INSTEAD, RESIDES IN ITS CONCEPTUAL AND AESTHETIC RIGOUR, ITS CRAFTING SKILL AND IN THE PERSONAL AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSES THAT HER PIECES CREATE FOR THE WEARER. TILDEN’S REPURPOSING OF AN ARRAY OF LENSES FROM SALVAGED ANALOGUE CAMERAS IN THE MONUMENTAL RIPPLE EFFECT (2019–21), FOR EXAMPLE, POWERFULLY DEMONSTRATE HER BELIEF THAT THE USE OF THE LENS IN HER PRACTICE AS BOTH OBJECT AND METAPHOR CAN CREATE ‘CONCEPTUAL LINKS BETWEEN VALUE AND MEANING, ABSTRACTION AND TRANSLATION’.⁹ EACH LENS BRINGS WITH IT ASSOCIATIONS OF MAGNIFICATION AND CLARITY, WHICH ARE PHYSICALLY ENHANCED BY THE POLISHING OF THE EDGE OF EACH GLASS COMPONENT, HIGHLIGHTING BOTH ITS REFLECTIVE QUALITY AND ITS SPARKLE. THROUGH THE CREATIVE ACT, THE PAST OF THESE FOUND OBJECTS – THEIR ROLE, VIA THE PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE CREATION AND CAPTURING OF CONNECTION AND MEMORY – CAN INFORM THE PRESENT, ESTABLISHING A RICH CIRCULAR DIALOGUE FOR BOTH THE MAKER AND THE WORK’S RECIPIENT, WHO ULTIMATELY CREATES THEIR OWN MEMORIES AND MEANING AS THEY WEAR THE PIECE.

AS TILDEN EMERGES FROM THE SLIGHTLY OVERWHELMING POSITION OF BEING CONFRONTED WITH HER LIFE’S WORK IN THE MAJOR EXHIBITION ‘RIPPLE EFFECT: A 25 YEAR SURVEY’,¹⁰ IT IS NOT SURPRISING THAT SHE IS TAKING TIME TO PAUSE AND REFLECT BEFORE COMMENCING A NEW BODY OF WORK. WHATEVER DIRECTION THIS MAY TAKE, WE CAN REST ASSURED THAT HER NEXT ENDEAVOUR WITH GLASS WILL CREATE A FASCINATING AND TIMELY CONVERSATION AROUND PURPOSE, CONNECTION, VALUE AND SUSTAINABILITY – THE VERY THINGS, IN THESE TUMULTUOUS AND CHALLENGING TIMES, THAT REMAIN CENTRAL TO OUR BEING IN THE WORLD. FOR TILDEN, CREATIVITY IS NEVER STATIC:

 

IT IS ILLUSIVE, INTUITIVE, CONTEMPLATIVE, ALWAYS CHANGING AND IT CANNOT BE HURRIED. THIS SEARCH FOR MEANING THROUGH MAKING IS, FOR ME, A LIFELONG ENDEAVOUR THAT TRANSCENDS MATERIALS AND PROCESS. WHAT DRIVES MY PRACTICE IS MY RESOLVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, ‘WHAT IS ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS?’ FOR ME, WHAT IS PRECIOUS IS THE TIME I STILL HAVE, AND THE MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS I VALUE, EXPERIENCE AND CAN MAKE WITH OTHERS.¹¹

 

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