Musings from a Darkened Corner

22 August - 24 January | National Art Glass Gallery

About

Musings from a Darkened Corner translates lived experiences with mental conditions into tangible physical objects, which can be perceived, assessed, and understood. Artist Dan De Nardis uses glass as the shears through which to cut back the curtain between the psychological world and the physical, as her personal investigations into the mind plunge deeper into introspection, and we, the audience, are invited to peer in.

Glass sculptures take on the form of colourful and fantastical monstrous figures, amalgamations of body parts, and corrupt renditions of human organs to graphically portray a series of honest vignettes from a life shadowed by persistent anxiety and recurring depressive episodes. The transformative nature of the medium and the intensive and often cyclical processes required to shape it are a mirror to the tumultuous patterns and exertions encountered on the path to psychological improvement. Here, intrusive thoughts become jabbering jaws on legs, paranoia stares back at you with far too many eyes, and snowballing catastrophic trails of thought hang perilously as knives above your head.

Inhuman symbology is wielded to portray qualities and experiences which are deeply human, as De Nardis endeavours to bring tangibility and grant faces and forms to the intangible, invisible monsters which plague us. Psychological distress becomes freed from the incorporeal trappings of the mind in the artist’s ongoing pursuit to encourage open, honest dialogue about mental illness and personal struggle, and better understand the workings of the human psyche.

Artist Bio

Dan De Nardis is a contemporary artist based in Sydney’s Inner West, living and working on traditional land of the Gadigal people. Her monstrous and fantastical glass sculptures and disquieting illustrations embody her lived experience with mental illness and represent her pursuit to better understand the workings of the mind, and challenge longstanding stigma surrounding psychological conditions.

De Nardis completed a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts at the University of South Australia in 2020, specialising in glass and jewellery while volunteering as a teaching assistant for hot glass classes. Following a relocation to Sydney, she graduated with First Class Honours in a Bachelor of Advanced Studies (honours) in Visual Arts at the University of Sydney in 2023; earning the University Medal and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Honours Prize.

‘Ponderings of a Weary Mind’, the artist’s first solo exhibition, was presented at Disorder Gallery in 2023, of which one of the featured works, ‘Depression’ (2022), would be selected for Corning Museum of Glass’s annual exhibition-in-print, ‘New Glass Review’ that same year. She has exhibited in shows nationally and became involved in public and community initiatives operating at the junction between art and mental health. De Nardis served as a Board Director for The Australian Association of Glass Artists in 2024, supporting the organisation’s activities and connecting with the national glass community, coming into the role with a particular goal of supporting emerging artists, and promoting the efforts of small glass studios nationally. For almost 5 years, De Nardis has found a niche in writing and production for glass studios in New South Wales and Victoria, and continues to teach glassmaking techniques to cohorts of students from Studio4 in Sydenham.

De Nardis’ current chapter of her practice gives form and visibility to the struggles of the mind, internal personal conflicts, the blurring between identity and social pressure, deep-rooted fear, and navigating personal narratives; delving into the darker, more uncomfortable elements of the human experience to bring them to light.

^{Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.}