sabbia gallery

Ceramics, Glass + Fibre

Gallery Two   17 October - 08 November 2014

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello – Reed Songs

Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present this beautiful solo exhibition from contemporary glass artist, Jenni Kemarre Martiniello.

This title comes from two sources. Firstly, it refers to the main weaving material in many traditional Aboriginal countries used to weave eel traps, fish traps and other functional objects. Secondly, and more personally, it derives from my father’s saying when I was a child that ‘even waterholes have their reeds for whistling the wind but you never can tell what key the tune will be in.’ It was his way of referring to life, and what it might bring your way, but steeped in references to Hookey’s Waterhole, the place where he was born and grew up near Oodnadatta in the far north of South Australia. 

In this exhibition I have sought to show works inspired by traditional objects woven with reeds and bulrushes. In looking at these objects over time, the colours of the natural materials change, from the fresh greens, ochres and yellows of freshly cut fibres, to the multiple variations they attain during ageing and wear over time. In developing a range of multi strand glass canes I have sought to capture within each work the full scope of colours an object might have through its lifetime. 

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello, 2014