Simon Lewis Wards: “New Works”
(Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka)
Winter has brought a masterclass in glass art at Wanaka’s Gallery Thirty Three, with fairly aweinspiring new pieces by Simon Lewis Wards. Continuing his entertaining journey through the nation’s favourite lollies, Lewis Wards merges humour and incredible skill with Pink Twist and Purple Twist. The iconic sweets are exaggerated in size, uncannily accurate in detail, and quite beautiful as pieces of art. Looking as if you could pick them up and tear off a piece, the slicedoff ends have the smooth glossiness of a boiled sweet, offering a glimpse of the tiny bubbles trapped during the casting process. The twists bend and curve, with Purple Twist in particular taking on a sense of movement and personality, seeming to curl and writhe like a living creature. The artist has surpassed his own achievements again, however, with Clear Gust #1 and Sapphire Rose
Gust #1, reproducing pieces of bubble wrap in glass. Capturing the deceptive illusion of pliability, the works are kilncast and then shaped while hot, and the level of technical expertise involved is daunting. A mundane object — a piece of discarded plastic, blown away in the wind — becomes a feat of artistic engineering, the lines and folds graceful and dynamic, as if a strong breeze has just gusted through the gallery and sent the pieces tumbling and turning. Lewis Wards has a knack for making one medium look like another, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, and always balancing difficult technique with simple joy.