This 25-year survey of the work of Melbourne-based jeweller and maker Blanche Tilden reveals her remarkable and critically acclaimed practice. Tilden has a unique approach to her materials, in particular, glass, which she explores both as a material for jewellery making and deploys as a metaphor for the connections between making, industry, the wearable object and the body. Her fascination with mechanical devices, fuelled by a desire to understand how things work, continually inspires her work.

This first comprehensive survey of Tilden’s career included historical and contemporary works loaned from numerous public and private collections. Tilden has reinterpreted previous work to create new forms that expand on her preoccupations with value, mechanical movement, and industrial and architectural uses of glass, translating something of the macro immensity of the built and material world to the intimacy of the jewellery object.

This exhibition celebrated the City of Greater Geelong’s designation as a UNESCO City of Design and Blanche Tilden’s remarkable 25 year career at the nexus of art and design.

Image:

Blanche Tilden, Grand Palais (necklace) 2015, borosilicate glass and oxidised 925 silver. Private collection, Adelaide. Photographer: Grant Hancock © Blanche Tilden.