Consuelo Cavaniglia: through the door that holds you

The work of Consuelo Cavaniglia considers how we see and understand space. She is interested in how bodies inhabit spaces, often developing immersive installations that expose the ways in which the structure of a space situates and shapes us. The work unsettles the relationship between viewer and space through the use of reflective and transparent materials and subtle structural devices. Her work challenges the perceptual expectations of forms and surfaces through angling, layering, and offsetting reflections and shadows.

Cavaniglia’s new body of work uses glass to extend her interest in colour and optics. Following a residency at Canberra Glassworks, the work features handmade glass for the first time. Sheets of glass are supported by a series of modular structures and spatialised within the gallery forming a visual trail through the space. Understandings of transparency and opacity, smoothness and texture, and colour relationships are created and changing depending on where they are approached from. It invites us to question what shapes our perception and in turn how perception guides our position in space.

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Presented with the support of Canberra Glassworks, Australia Council for the Arts and Create NSW.
Cavaniglia's project is also presented at Canberra Glassworks from 5 October to 27 November 2022, curated by Aimee Frodsham

ESSAY  LIST OF WORKS

 

 

 

Public Program

In-Conversation: Contemporary Glass
2.00pm 15 October 2023 | UNSW Galleries

During the United Nations International Year of Glass, we celebrate some of Australia’s most fascinating practitioners working with glass. This panel discussion brings together Consuelo Cavaniglia, Mel Douglas, Liam Fleming and Louis Grant who each move between studio glass and interdisciplinary practice. Together with Aimee Frodsham, Artistic Director of Canberra Glassworks, the panel will reflect on glass making and the way their work facilitates exchanges between space, history, and architecture.

Banner and Tile Image: Consuelo Cavaniglia, Untitled 2022. Courtesy of the artist, Gadigal Land (Sydney) and STATION, Naarm (Melbourne). Installation view, ‘Consuelo Cavaniglia: through the door that holds you,’ UNSW Galleries, 2022. Photography: Jacquie Manning.
Installation Images: Installation view, ‘Consuelo Cavaniglia: through the door that holds you,’ UNSW Galleries, 2022. Photography: Jacquie Manning