Vertical Lines 2

"Drifting between surfaces, between the private interior, between the eternal landscape, at one In a still place. My work aims to evoke the simplicity of space and bring together my private internal space with the vast external space of our land." --Jessica Loughlin. The Australian artist Jessica Loughlin is a graduate of the well-known glass program at the Canberra School of Art of the Australian National University. She was one of four artists chosen to participate in the Bullseye Glass Company’s first International Young Artists in Glass Program in 1998. This program offers residencies at the Bullseye Glass factory in Portland, Oregon, where artists explore and experiment with the company’s glass, which is particularly suited to kiln forming processes. Kiln forming (and other methods of sagging and casting glass) are referred to as “warm” rather than “hot” processes because the glass is not worked in a molten state, directly from the furnace. (Glassblowing, for example, is a “hot” process.) Loughlin uses simple sculptural forms, often partly covered with text, to explore concepts of landscape and time, focusing on the undefined space where land and sky meet. Vertical Lines 2 is the largest work that Loughlin has attempted. With its quiet color and balanced forms, this sculpture communicates a feeling of infinity, or perhaps a memory of serenity. The long vertical ribs, which gradually disappear, are like the eternal line of the horizon, conveying a sense of endless time.