Blanche Tilden

Australia, b.1968

Blanche Tilden is a Melbourne based artist who graduated from the Canberra School of Art with a Bachelor of Art (Visual) specialising in Glass, followed by a Graduate Diploma of Art in Gold and Silversmithing. She went on train with renowned designer Su san Cohn as part of the Australia Council Traineeship program from 1996-97 and is has recently completed her PhD at Australian National University, Canberra.

 

Tilden’s work has been included in major exhibitions internationally, inluding Unexpected Pleasures at NGV and London Design Museum, the Rigg Award (2006) and Melbourne Now (2013) both at NGV and SOFA Chicago. Her work is held in many pretigious collections including the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Toledo Art Museum, Ohio and Australian state and regional public galleries.

 

In addition to her solo practice, Tilden has undertaken major commissions and collaborative projects, among them several projects with Australian designer Mary Featherstone and artist Maree Clarke. Tilden has developed a unique approach to her materials, in particular glass, which she explores both as a material for jewellery making and a universal metaphor. Her fascination with mechanical devices, fuelled by a desire to understand how things work, continually inspires her work.

 

A major retrospective exhibition Ripple Effect: a 25 year survey, curated by Jason Smith, Director of Geelong Gallery, toured Australia between 2020 and 2022. This first comprehensive survey of Tilden’s career included historical and contemporary works loaned from numerous public and private collections. To mark this career event, Tilden produced a range of new limited edition works, reinterpreting previous jewellery pieces to create new forms that expanded 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.

 

As a child, I operated a conveyor belt used to pack the lemons my dad grew on his hobby farm. I knoew how a conveyor belt worked and I knew how to fix it when it broke down. So this elegant interpretation of the seamless, fluid mechanical movement of a conveyor belt held a deep personal meaning for me when I made [Long Conveyor, 1997]. Blanche Tilden



Flow 03 necklace, 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, titanium

More work by Blanche Tilden

Flow 03 necklace by Blanche Tilden Flow 03 necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, titanium ,
Orbit necklace by Blanche Tilden Orbit necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, titanium, sterling silver ,
Spin 03 necklace by Blanche Tilden Spin 03 necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, titanium, sterling silver ,
Spin 01 necklace by Blanche Tilden Spin 01 necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, titanium, sterling silver ,
Buoy necklace by Blanche Tilden Buoy necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, sterling silver ,
Clarity necklace by Blanche Tilden Clarity necklace , 2016, flameworked borosilicate glass, sterling silver ,
Dutert necklace by Blanche Tilden Dutert necklace , 2012, flameworked borosilicate glass, sterling silver ,
Brunel I necklace by Blanche Tilden Brunel I necklace , 2012, titanium, silver ,
Earrings by Blanche Tilden Earrings , 2010 - 2014, silver, flameworked borosilicate glass ,
Empire IV pendant by Blanche Tilden Empire IV pendant , 2012, flameworked borosilicate glass, silver ,
Empire I pendant by Blanche Tilden Empire I pendant , 2012, titanium, silver ,
Long Grand Palais by Blanche Tilden Long Grand Palais , 2012, flameworked borosilicate glass, blackened silver ,
Petite Palais necklace by Blanche Tilden Petite Palais necklace , 2012, flameworked borosilicate glass, blackened silver ,
Petite Palais necklace by Blanche Tilden Petite Palais necklace , 2012, flameworked borosilicate glass, silver ,
Dilute necklace by Blanche Tilden Dilute necklace , 2006, flameworked borosilicate glass, silver ,
U-rings by Blanche Tilden U-rings , 2000 - 2014, titanium, flameworked borosilicate glass ,

Exhibitions

Wearable Cities

July 31 to August 25, 2012

Modernism’s dreams of the future may have become the stuff of our past, but through her jewellery, Blanche Tilden recognises in its most utopian moments an idea which still has the power to enchant us: that of a building made of glass…

New Edition

April 23 to May 18, 2013

To launch Gallery Funaki’s new interior, we’re pleased to present New Edition; a curated exhibition that explores the multiple/edition in contemporary jewellery.

20/20

October 6 - 31, 2015

Gallery Funaki celebrates its 20th anniversary with an exhibition by some of our longest-standing artists.

Clear Cut

July 12 - August 13, 2016

In Blanche’s hands, glass and metal are transformed into limpid jewellery that spills and flows and falls down and round the body, circling it with light, […] yet in this latest work we see a fundamental shift in direction — a clear cut.

 

2016 Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery

August 24 - September 24, 2016

The Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery is a biennial international Award that showcases excellence in international and Australian contemporary jewellery.  35 artists have been shortlisted from an international field of 413 entries from 48 countries.

2018 Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery

15 August - 15 September 2018

The 2018 Mari Funaki Award presents work by 30 emerging and established artists from around the world.

Blanche Tilden + Marcus Sholz: Colour Shift

26 April - 28 May, 2023