Emma’s increased interest in the effects of global warming on the environment resulted in her first two exhibitions in Sydney in 2010: Into The Green at Sabbia Gallery and Long Reef at Manly Art Gallery and Museum. This was followed by intensive research and development over the next ten years, resulting in twelve solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas. Forces of Nature is the next in this series and represents a logical and natural extension of Emma’s environmental explorations and creation of related glassworks.
Usually I first have a vision of the finished object and then I look for the specific method necessary, though the way that I create pâte de verre elements leads to both providing and expressing the narrative. There is something magical involved with making thousands of small elements – even just piling them on the table bursts my imagination and leads to creating ‘stories.’
We do this work, we learn this craft, we push, we integrate, we branch out and narrow in, and once in a while, there is a piece that stands up and matters. For me, ‘Rage and Revival’ has that punch and cathartic, healing life force. Bushfires RAGE in Australia, destroying the landscape, but forces of nature bring the REVIVAL. Hence the inseparable duo of objects, offering hope after destruction.
Emma Varga 2021
