Craft / “Arranging Light: Hannah Gason” and “night changes things, you can’t see exactly how but you can feel in in your bones”, Consuelo Cavaniglia, Canberra Glassworks until December 18. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

MANY learned tomes have been written about light: its technical qualities, definitions that explain what it is – which don’t describe its magical qualities.

The contents vary, depending on who has written them, and their discipline.

Light is experienced, exploited and explored every minute of the day – generally by everyone of us. Artists and those to whom art is important are primarily interested in the aesthetic properties of light, and how it impacts our appreciation of the visual world.

It has even been said that that light is a primary tool for perceiving the world and communicating within it.

The two exhibitors – Gason and Cavaniglia – were known to each other, but not close. Both are investigating the unique properties of glass, and how it interacts with light.

Gason is exhibiting a series of grid-based works. For me, the most intriguing is “Shades of Light”. Small pieces of glass are mounted on the wall surface, and protrude about two centimetres at right angles from it, in a precise grid. The work is lit from above and behind, with a blue and pink/orange light. You experience the glass panes changing colour and shape as you walk past. Your height adds a variation to the images your experience.

Gason is exhibiting four works titled “Tracing Light I-IV”. Sheets of kiln-formed glass have been fixed between sheets of clear glass. A strip of LED lights light the work from the base of the frame. The smooth outer surfaces tease us, as the works appear to ripple.

The work in this exhibition is carefully considered, with geometric precision, but there is a playfulness in it.

Cavaniglia completed a five-week residency at the Canberra Glassworks, which opened her practice to a new medium. She enjoyed working with others, and likened working on the hot shop floor to “working in a kitchen” – where everyone knew each other’s movements.

Cavaniglia is exhibiting an installation “Untitled”, consisting of five pieces of glass mounted vertically in frames variously of stainless steel and timber. She describes these as “bodies to be navigated around, or a crowd to join”. Each sheet is carefully made, displaying the qualities of glass. I find the exhibition frame dominates the glass itself. This is frequently a problem for many glass artists who make work which is shown with light or free-standing such as these.

Both artists in this show have successfully pushed themselves and the boundaries they previously worked within and achieve interesting developments.

The exhibition is one to spend some time in, to look carefully and consider the ways in which the artists have exploited the enticing qualities of glass and light.