Edward Waring

The Boom Boom Bap evolved out of my recent body of work Memory Sticks, which investigates the sculptural potential of vintage glass. These objects are recognisable to anyone who came of age in 20th century Australia and New Zealand. Once prided gifts and cherished heirlooms, they were set aside for ‘best’, accumulating in display cabinets and on mantlepieces before being cast out into second-hand shops. This is where I find them - from op shops to auction houses - before assembling them into new forms which explore the history of sculpture and the role of memory in our changing relationship to the material and form of glass.

My studio is lined with shelves crammed full of vintage glass. I work instinctively, seeking formal balance in combinations of vases, candle-holders and other glassware, upending the function of the object, literally and metaphorically.

Painting the volume rather than the surface of these vessels highlights their interior curves and allows light to play across the varying thickness of the glass. Filled with colour and brought to life, they invite the viewer to imagine occasions where clinking glasses were filled to the brim, surrounded by vases bursting with flowers, and glowing candlelight.

Earlier works in this series drew on the epergne, or decorative rococo table centrepiece. The composition of this work, The Boom Boom Bap, evolved as I investigated the potential of more unusual modernist glass pieces; its stacked totemic forms evoking modernist sculpture as well as echoing the human form.

While past bodies of work have each been visually distinctive, they share aesthetic and conceptual through-lines. From a children’s game to a favourite tinned food, from once-loved dolls to dust-collecting ornaments, my approach is led by sustainability, and an instinct for the re-invigoration and re-imagining of materials.