Quietly Spoken is a beautiful showcase of the enormous talent of Annette Blair, from reliving days spent in her father’s work shed to finding inspiration in classic still life painting and bringing them to life-like form.
Walking into the Canberra Glassworks gallery, wooden shelves hold tea-coloured forms, the colour inspiring nostalgia, redolent of old photographs you would see in grandparents’ houses.
Blair’s main work explores our connection with objects and the memories we associate with them; the artist inspired by the sheds of her father and grandfather where she spent time as a child.
Each item is created to tell a story, mark a moment in time, and allow the viewer to try and figure out what could have been happening the moments before they stepped inside. The intricate detail of each piece is flawless; brushes frozen as they bend from wet paint, liquid spills from a bucket onto the floor, a freshly eaten apple core hides among the tools.
It’s almost hard to believe the items are created out of glass; people have tried to turn the clamp as they pass by, even harder to believe is the fact that Blair created the pieces from memory alone.
“You may have a really strong attachment to this one oil can, but you know there were lots of jars and things in the periphery that are a little bit more fuzzy in your memory but they all sort of add to the experience.”
On the outside walls are more moments in time which explore other techniques with glass; one of the things that showcases Blair’s versatility is her use of paint both in and on the surface of her works.
“I first learnt it over in America; almost 15 years after that I’m still trying to develop ways of working with it, the thing you can do is sort of limitless with that stuff. I’m still trying to find exactly what I like about it,” Blair said.
Colourful flowers in a vase lose their petals, a jug of milk and two lemons bring classic paintings from the canvas, Blair laughed as she said the milk is lactose free.
Leaving the main gallery leading to Kate Nixon’s new installation is a striking piece where the juxtaposition of the two meets; Blair’s falling autumn-coloured leaves fall into the glam mosaic of Nixon’s dustpan.
Annette Blair’s Quietly Spoken continues at Canberra Glassworks until 14 August; canberraglassworks.com
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