Man at work: Glassmaker Philip Stokes.
DONALD YIP
In 2005, Philip Stokes stayed at an $8000-per-night hotel. The glassmaker was accommodated gratis at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons, where, on the 45th floor — which has a private study, marble bathroom, powder room, spa tub, king-sized bed and three plasma televisions — he suspended amber, red and olive-green forms from the ceiling of the 12-seat dining room.
“That’s the only time I think I’ll spend a night in the presidential suite,” he says, laughing.
For 13 years, Stokes has created unique glass sculptures, lighting and art. His fluid shapes made from blowing and shaping hot glass and realised from striking colour — turquoise, amethyst, lime, daffodil and orange — adorn the Crown Casino (now the Altira) and Okura Hotel in Macau, the Sheraton Hotel in Xiamen, China, and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.
Stokes defines his style as “sensual, human and not too confined by symmetry”. Inspired by “the fluids and flesh of the body”, he likes to transpose inner bodily textures onto the outside of the glass: his Sinew series of vessels that are shaped like tendons reveal the strings of muscle on their gloss surface.
“Where other glassmakers show a lot of reserve, I feel I am the opposite,” he says. “I am pushing the medium and my ideas as far as I can to show how exuberant glass can be.”
Glass, he says, offers “heat, excitement, transparency, solidity, colour and ongoing challenge”. What also appeals are the emotions a work can capture at the time of creation.
“A piece is very much dependent upon your state of mind at the time, and your emotional well-being,” he says. “Everything you make reflects something of that day, and is frozen in that moment of time.”
Stokes’ creative life began at Victoria College, where in 1991 he studied acting in the hope of a fulfilling career in theatre. After completing the two-year course he spent several years in Sydney, but the brutality of auditions wore him down. Time interstate amounted to “a lot of retail and hospitality work — I was a very good waiter”.
Disillusionment with the craft saw him return to Melbourne. Once he saw his mother cast glass at Monash University, the idea of physically making something appealed and he enrolled in the campus’ bachelor of applied arts — it also revisited memories of HSC art, where the Melburnian had made a stained-glass car window based on a painting by American pop artist Tom Wesselmann.
“I saw that working with glass was similar to performance and acting,” he says. “Especially in terms of blowing, where cues are really important and timing is essential. Plus, people like to watch, so I have an audience, too.”
Works of art: Kinetic streaming.
ANDREW BARCHAM
In the course of his studies, Stokes won the Pilchuck Partnership Scholarship and in 2000 attended a two-week workshop at the experimental Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. He soon applied for and received government funding and set up Freeformed Studio in Fitzroy in 2002.
Established for himself and other glassmakers to work, his first space cost $80,000 to fit out. Rather than importing annealing ovens (used to cool), glory holes (to reheat glass) and furnaces, Stokes and his business partner built the equipment. Hand tools were imported from the US and Europe and kilns were bought locally. When working, his uniform comprises shorts and singlet, a protective face shield and heat-resistant gloves.
“When the kiln door opens it’s like a domestic oven, only 300 degrees hotter,” he says. “It is highly fan-forced and can take off your eyebrows and fringe, anything that gets in the way.”
From 2006 until the end of last year, Philip Stokes Studio Glass operated from the Mercator Studios at Abbotsford Convent. A home to artisans such as lighting designers, jewellers and visual artists, he was immediately drawn to the idea of being part of a creative exchange.
“I thought the space was magic,” Stokes says. “Such a grand hall with lots of beautiful light. For the past eight years I have shared my workspace with others. I do that to share the overheads and also because I never wanted to work in isolation. It takes me back to the acting days, to that sense of collaboration and teamwork.”
In his bright studio, the gallery featured pieces such as jewellery (an elegant glass rectangle threaded on a silver necklace hoop); sculpture (a dark-cyan, entwined piece); and vessels (a round, fuchsia shape with bulging bubbles). While Stokes’ work achieves a refined simplicity, he says: “A basic vase may take 90 minutes to craft, but it’s taken 20 years’ experience to perfect.”
Works of art: Amorphous.
ANDREW BARCHAM
Like any specialised craft, Australian glass blowing is confined to a small, expert scene. It is highly competitive and jobs are scarce. For many, attachment to an institution such as the Canberra Glassworks or Adelaide’s JamFactory provides career sustenance. Stokes, however, has never had such a prop and instead relies on reputation and hard work.
“My success can be attributed to my partner, Scott Redding, who manages the hotshop floor, assists me, and does the admin work,” he says. “Also the artists I have worked alongside and the people who were able to find us (at Mercator Studios) and bought things from us. Plus, hard work. We have done seven days per week for the past five years.”
PSSG now resides at 20 Gwynne Street, Richmond, in the design hub of Cremorne. There, he resides among architects, upholsterers, artists and designers. The location of his new studio and gallery marks greater commerciality, and also a new chapter.
“These premises allow me more time as an artist,” Stokes says. “An idea I wish to realise is a ciliated environment. Hundreds and hundreds of little glass fingers that (follow the) contour on the wall and, using LED technology, will send waves and colour and light through it. It’s about an experience, a theatrical experience. That part of me will creep back in.”