Looking through glass
It was the chance to work on big projects in a country in love with public art and to become more intimately engaged with art in South East Asia that drew B. Jane Cowie to Singapore.
Today she lives in Singapore, working for the Synergraphic Design Company, one of Singapore’s leading specialist glass producers.
A glass artist with impressive international experience, Cowie recently graduated from UniSA with a Master in Visual Arts, examining the history and practice of glassmaking in SA from the glassmaker’s perspective.
Cowie certainly has the credibility for that specialist research. She worked for 10 years at SA’s premier glass art centre, The Jam Factory, owned and operated the Spinifex Glass Studio in SA, and founded the Blue Pony glass makers’ cooperative studio in Adelaide.
“I am not just a glass artist and designer – I am a maker who is a thinker and some of those thoughts are controversial,” Cowie said.
A great advocate for artist’s rights, Cowie’s approach to her thesis was ethnographic, looking at glassmaking from the perspective of the artists and their community engagement.
“I have always believed that the art is secondary to the community in which I practice and that influences my approach heavily.”
Cowie has exhibited in Australia, Europe and Asia and her work is included in a number of public and private collections. And very much in keeping with her ideas about place and community and its role in influencing and shaping art, she has worked around the world to learn more.
In glass studios and factories in England, Europe, USA and Japan, Cowie has been keen to develop her technical skills and gain a more intimate understanding of glass. She has also taught in Turkey and Germany.
“I thought my experience and my approach might be a bit challenging for many visual arts educators but UniSA’s lecturers were encouraging and really supportive of my research,” she said.
“Choosing to study with UniSA for my Masters turned out to be the right decision and I was really proud to cross the stage at the Singapore graduation in July to receive my Master in Visual Arts.”