Dunedin’s Scottish heritage is strongly connected to the city’s cultural identity, and this has granted a special appreciation of the bagpipe.
During Mitchell’s artist residency at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2011 he commissioned a bagpipe player to perform a funeral song while plugged into a glassblower’s pipe.
The resulting work, Bagpipe Talismans (Funeral Lament in Glass), consists of six vessels, swollen and organically-shaped, which have captured the breath and essence of a musical tradition and immortalised a moment in song.
Mitchell described the delicate nature of this process.
"The molten glass is expanded and given shape by the playing of music — in this case, funeral laments ... These are very thin glass forms — they are super-fragile — and there is a sense that they could collapse at any moment."
His practice often considers ideas of presence and absence and he enjoys working with glass for its shapeshifting abilities in suspended states.
The reference to talismans in the title of the artwork suggests that the vessels contain magical powers, good luck or perhaps signifies that a spiritual energy has been transferred through this unusual glass-blowing technique.
Bagpipe Talismans (Funeral Lament in Glass) is on display as part of the ‘‘Exploded Worlds’’ exhibition.
- Andrea Bell is the 2016 curatorial intern of contemporary art at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Film screening
• A special screening of BLOWN GLASS, which shows the making of Bagpipe Talismans (Funeral Lament in Glass), is scheduled for 3pm tomorrow at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
