Jeremy Maffescioni describes himself as a conceptual artist, a musician, and a problem solver with a mathematical mind. “I consider myself an aspiring polymath of sorts, I like to know how everything works, and to understand as much as I can about all that surrounds me. You could say curiosity often consumes me.”

Maffescioni moved from Melbourne to Canberra at the start of 2018 to study a Bachelor of Visual Arts, with a particular interest in glass. “Since then my biggest achievement to date is having found my highly unique artistic voice, my own methodology of making, and the skill sets needed to produce my new body of conceptual work. I came here to learn about glass, and I learned more than I ever expected or knew was possible.”

"The end of my undergrad only marks the beginning of my creative practice."

Maffescioni continues, “I've now situated myself into a field of making that is often dubbed 'post-digital craft', in which digital fabrication technology is combined with artisanal craft skills to produce works of art and design (for me, this has so far consisted of digital modelling and 3d-printing processes, combined with techniques of glass blowing). My processes have been physically established with a lot of help from the ANU Makerspace, in which digital fabrication modules such as 3D printers and laser cutters are accessible to students and staff for free.”

As for many, the year 2020 presented challenges for the artist. “My digital work and conceptual development are the result of my adaptation to the constraints of the pandemic. At the start of 2020 I was unable to keep working to pay my rent when all hospitality shut down, and I was forced to move back to Melbourne with my family. I spent the whole of the first major Melbourne lockdown stuck inside, with no access whatsoever to glass or glassmaking facilities... not ideal for a glass blower. With some direction and guidance from the glass workshop's new head, Dr Jeffrey Sarmiento, I decided to try my hand at digital modelling, so I sat at my computer for a day to start self-teaching 3d-modelling, albeit with a lot of help and resources from the Head of Ceramics, Rod Bamford.”

“I proceeded to read, write, think, and test, for the next 6 to 9 months, after which I made a new body of refined, conceptual digital art. Since then, I've further developed this body of work, in which colours are mathematically transformed into shapes and forms that interrogate and question the experiences of human colour vision. These forms were photo-realistically rendered and animated with powerful software to appear as if they were real glass sculptures floating in digital space.”

The artist has now returned to the ANU to finish his undergrad mid-year, “I'm moving into an honours project in which these digital works and skill sets will be used to manifest real blown glass sculptures. My new digital skillset allowed me to produce an artwork collaboratively with Professor Kylie Catchpole from the College of Engineering and Computer Science for the Kambri/aMBUSH Exhibition 'Insight Out'.”

“In my 3 and a half years in the glass workshop I've been introduced to both local and global communities of glass artists. I've met countless academics and glass artists - known to many around the world as some of the best - and to have absorbed their knowledge and their experience during their respective residencies in the Glass Workshop has been nothing short of an incredible and enlightening privilege."

"I've also have been lucky to be able to contribute to world-wide efforts via the ANU Glass Workshop such as the recent travelling exhibition School by Joseph Rossano.”
You can read more about the project here, https://www.thesalmonschool.com/about

Follow Jeremy Maffescioni’s practice on his Instagram account @jmaffescioniglass