Stephen Procter Fellowship

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As the 2015 recipient of the Stephen Procter Fellowship through the Australian National University, and through the additional support of the Australia Council for the Arts, I had the opportunity to travel to Scotland to undertake research, and then develop new work through a post-travel residency at ANU.

I chose to travel through Scotland to explore the many Pagan and Christian sacred spaces, as research into new glass work that explored the notions of place and the sacred. I had the chance to travel to many of the sacred cairns and stone circles in Scotland, Like the ring of Brodgar and the standing stones of Stenness, as well as many sacred cairns and historical points of significance in the country. Through this travel I wanted to explore in particular the link between the natural landscape and the idea of the sacred, and how that was interpreted in Pagan myth and ritual, and then appropriated by the Christian  movement.  My intent was to then create works that referenced the natural formation of rock and landscape, and also the notions of place and the sacred through refraction, repetition and scale. 

During my residency at the Australian National University, I worked on exploring these ideas, and developed works using mold blowing and hot-joining techniques. I also developed some small works using carious carving techniques, and explored scale and used lenses to adjust the perception of the cut glass pieces. This project has started the beginning of a new body of work, and I look forward to exploring how this will develop and I continue on.