On display until Sunday 9 October 2022 | National Art Glass Gallery

Image: Megan Bottari, Post-Modern Tokenism III 2007-2013 (detail) lost wax cast crystal.

Curated from the National Art Glass Collection, You can’t see White, if you won’t see Black seeks to comment on the coexistence and unity of opposites as well as duality in politics, spirituality and morality.

Day, light, and good are often linked together, in opposition to night, darkness, and evil. These contrasting metaphors represented as White and Black go back in human history, and across cultures, including in the Judeo-Christian tradition, ancient Chinese Yin and Yang and ancient Persia.

As seen in this exhibition, the use of black and white creates a focused attention upon content, form, pattern, texture or upon the way in which the object has been made. Glass itself presents as a particularly expressive medium to explore abstract ideas. Both solid and fluid, glass absorbs and refracts light, and in so doing communicates spiritual purity and intensity of feeling, such as the oneness of the universe might be felt.

Resources

Curator Conversations with Andrew Halyday

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery Curator Andrew Halyday talks about new exhibition from the National Art Glass Collection, You can’t see White, if you won’t see Black.