Exhibition opening 6pm Wednesday 12 July 2023

Olivia Gates, Solomon Gates, Discomfort and longing, 2023, glass, sterling, silver, 6 x 6.5 x 2.5cm

Coming home: with metal and glass

Working for the first time collaboratively, sister and brother artists, Olivia and Solomon Gates use this opportunity to expand upon their existing practices of glass and metal to reflect on their concerns for environmental conservation, generational connection with place, and the ongoing ramifications of their colonial lineage, all localised to their home in Kiama, Dharawal Country.

In the exhibition, viewers are invited to physically interact with works that are a continuation of Olivia’s ‘Listening Shells’ series and Solomon’s ‘Dysregulation’ pieces. Doing so, viewers are moved away from traditional notions of material fragility and preciousness towards seeing the works as valued tools that enable sensory led self-reflection. The contrasting blown glass seashells and cast silver blackberry vine shifts the viewer’s experience between smooth and spiked, listening and feeling, restriction and flow.

Olivia Gates is an emerging artist based on Ngunawal/Ngambri Country (Canberra). She studied glass at the ANU School of Art and Design and works as a practicing artist and teacher at Canberra Glassworks.

Solomon Gates is an emerging artist based in Sydney, on Gadigal and Bidjigal land. He studied in the jewellery and object workshop at ANU and is working as an apprentice jeweller in Sydney.

See Coming home: with metal and glass by Olivia and Solomon Gates at ANCA Gallery, Wednesday 12 July to Sunday 30 July 2023.