Jessica Loughlin explores the meditative quality of space made tangible in “Shifting Views” at The Bullseye Connection Gallery September 1 – October 29, 2005.
Portland, OR –The Bullseye Connection Gallery is proud to present Jessica Loughlin’s “Shifting Views” from September 1 – October 29, 2005.
Between two spaces, between what is seen and what is felt.
Staring out my plane window, I watched marks on the earth created by dirt roads wandering through flat scrubby bush. The lines stretched a long way before they met. I felt their distance; I felt my distance away from the land. The land – so vast yet now so small it only took up a space of one aeroplane window. I was removed from the land, as my mind now felt removed from itself.
Then the view disappeared. Still focused on the roads below, I saw only white outside and the dark spots on the inside of my eyes.
-Jessica Loughlin, 2005
Loughlin is an Australian artist deeply inspired by the landscape that surrounds her. This body of work describes both the constrained spaces between objects and vast expanses of space, making tangible the idea of endlessness. The result is meditative; smooth surfaces give way seamlessly to rippled textures, horizon lines stretch effortlessly to sky. Her “boxes” are narrow square vessels capturing light and holding it, semi-solid, halfway between concept and form. Wall works transcend their rigid, square shape to speak of expanse and solitude. Both the vessel and wall forms use muted, quite colors layered in varied degrees of opacity and translucence. Glass, a hybrid of solid and liquid, is an apt medium for work that describes the mutable nature of space.
Loughlin earned a bachelor’s degree in glass at Australia’s Canberra School of Art under the program founded by glass visionary Klaus Moje. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions all over the world and is included in the following selected public collections:
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark
Glass Museum, Marina Grande, Portugal
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Museo do Vidro, Marinha Grande, Portugal
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
National Glass Collection, Wagga Wagga, Australia
Resource Finance Corporation, Sydney, Australia
Download: Jessica Loughlin, August 3, 2005