It is a lovely conjunction; the master and the former apprentice holding exhibitions in the same part of the country at the same time. Bruce Munro talks to world-renowned New Zealand glass artist Ann Robinson and her heir apparent Mike Crawford.
Milford Galleries director Steve Higginson sounds understandably delighted about staging exhibitions this month by Mike Crawford and Ann Robinson.
Glass art has become part of the success story that is New Zealand art. To have Ann Robinson - who has been given the lifetime achievement award by the American Glass Society (the Nobel Prize of glass art) - exhibiting in the Queenstown gallery this month, and her former pupil and rising star Mike Crawford exhibiting in Dunedin, also this month, is something to celebrate.
Late last year, Mr Higginson was in Brisbane at the eighth Asia Pacific Triennial Of Contemporary Art.
‘‘The topic at what is regarded as the pre-eminent art show in Asia Pacific was how important and significant New Zealand art now is,'' he says.
‘‘At the forefront of it in many respects has been glass.''
New Zealand's relative isolation, once felt to be a disadvantage, has facilitated the evolution of an art form so distinctive and extraordinary that it is being noticed around the world.
‘‘And so Ann Robinson, for example, her work is distinctively from New Zealand,'' he says.
‘‘It talks to the flora and fauna of our environment ... Yes, these are vases, these are bowls, but they are about something.
‘‘While she is acknowledged as one of the great glass artists of the world, and acknowledged also as the inventor of the cast glass technique, she has built a practice here from invention ... and over time has developed her language ... to make her work utterly and identifiably hers.''
In Crawford, Mr Higginson has no doubt that we are seeing ‘‘the emergence of the great new figure of New Zealand glass''.
Crawford's subject matter is primarily birds native to New Zealand. His creations paraphrase the characteristics and qualities of the bird represented, reducing it to its elements but portraying it with strength and beauty and individual character.
‘‘One of the elements so significant in Mike's work is the power of suggestion; how he involves the audience a lot ... As you walk around a work you come to see the bird reveal itself.
‘‘His use of glass as a medium, like Ann, is one where revelations occur and surprises happen.''
The first phone call to Crawford has to be cut short. He is at home, in St Kilda, with his children, and one has hurt themself.
The family has been in Dunedin almost a year. They shifted from Hawkes Bay when his wife, Lucy Hammonds, was appointed gallery curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
The South has already informed his work, inspiring some of the pieces in this exhibition: the toroa (albatross) and karearea (New Zealand falcon).
‘‘I like to push myself continually to go further with the ideas and techniques,'' Crawford says.
‘‘This exhibition includes some larger works which I've been doing since coming to Dunedin. I knew it was technically possible, but I had to work hard to achieve it in practice.''
He gets satisfaction from viewing a finished work and knowing it is as good as he can make it.
‘‘The hard part is getting it there.''
Coming up with the ideas is a substantial part of the process, he says.
It takes time, but it is something for which he has a decided talent.
‘‘I have a feeling of what I want to create, for example, the way it is holding its head. Then I work towards achieving that.
''Crawford does some sketching, but finds he is best able to ‘‘draw'' with wax. It is not surprising given he first trained in sculpture.
The concept is fashioned in wax, a mould is created around it and then the wax is melted out. The mould is then put upside down in a kiln.
On top is placed a terracotta pot filled with billets (blobs) of hard glass. The kiln is heated to more than 800degC, melting the glass to a treacle-like consistency which drips through the hole in the base of the pot, filling the mould.
The kiln is then cooled slowly and steadily over several days to minimise the risk of cracking, as the different thicknesses of glass cool and contract at different speeds.
‘‘Now you are about halfway through the process,'' Crawford says with a laugh.
The mould is carefully removed. Painstaking grinding and polishing follow to produce the finished work. The finishing work was Crawford's job in Robinson's studio for about 10 years as he learned the glass-art trade.
‘‘I didn't know anything about glass before she took me on,'' he says.
‘‘She was a great person to work for; a great teacher who is free with the knowledge she worked hard to build up over a long time.''
Speaking from her studio by the river in Henderson, West Auckland, Robinson recalls that Crawford was one of her first acolytes.
‘‘I wondered if you could teach people to make the decisions you would make ... and I found that you could.
‘‘You could use other people - in a way it sounds terrible, but - as an extension of yourself. And that some people in particular you could really trust to ... have the same sort of sensitivity that you do.
‘‘Mike was worth his weight in gold.''
Glass is like people in that respect; you do not know exactly what the result will be.
‘‘I don't know, and that is the wonderful thing. You don't know until you have made it,'' Robinson says.
‘‘It's so often a surprise; the way the light moves through a form, or the way a particular colour might look in a particular form.''
At 71, she still finds joy in her craft and art. Robinson has even taken up the grinders and polishers again, returning to the finishing work she did so much of when she was developing the techniques decades ago.
‘‘I enjoy a lot of what I do. And from time to time I am really pleased; you get a piece come through that is just so good, and often so unexpected.''
The shows
•Ann Robinson exhibits at Milford Galleries Queenstown until March 30.
•Mike Crawford's exhibition ‘‘Kohanga'' is at Milford Galleries Dunedin until April 6.
