Jessica Loughlin

Jessica Loughlin (Australian, born 1975), Visible Distance 2, 2008, kiln-formed glass. Gift of David Kaplan and Glenn Ostergaard, 2019.164.

Jessica Loughlin earned a BA degree at The Australian National University School of Art in Canberra and has established herself as one of Australia’s most frequently awarded artists in the field of contemporary studio glass.

Loughlin continues an ever-evolving exploration of the relationship between exterior space and interior experience. “To me, the Australian landscape is defined by its vast space…There is an inherent quiet and stillness,” explains Loughlin. “It is portraying this stillness that has remained a constant aim within my work.”

Inspired by time spent at Lake Gairdner, Australia’s fourth largest salt lake, Loughlin aims at the experience of the landscape rather than its representational image. “I felt the most overwhelming sense of space – no activity or noise – just salt and sky,” she writes. “The boundary between air, water, and ground blurred. Light became the landscape and I looked down into the sky….My work aims to find the quiet space within the viewer, the aesthetics evoking an emotional reaction rather than domination with symbolism or narrative.”

Through multiple firings, Loughlin combines fused and cast glass components to create illusions of graduating density, translating the airborne into solid space. She addresses the perception of moisture held and suspended and sees her forms as freestanding pictures that use light as their canvas.