Nicole Ayliffe explores the optical qualities of glass with her elegant new series of works inspired by childhood memories of her grandparents’ home on Kangaroo Island. The titles of the pieces are based on rooms within the house and, while Nicole admits the house was not as big as the number of titles indicate, her fond recollections are formed by the patterns surrounding specific memories of the house decoration. Nicole aims to encapsulate the essence of her experiences within her works, where memories are encompassed by that “… hazy realm of memory and imagination”. Lace doilies on antique furniture, decadent wallpaper, floral tapestries and her grandmother’s garden inspire the patterns that are applied and etched into the glass surface, forever suspending Nicole’s memories as moments in time. Nicole’s memories of the house include: “The lounge room combining forest green shag pile carpet and the floral tapestry of the goose down lounge suite complete with the Steinway piano, which was the centre piece of most parties, and views over the ocean…” . The transparency of the clear glass and the suspension of a bubble within the forms create the optical illusion of space, distortion and movement, resembling the transient nature of memories. For Nicole, the bubble acts as a lens, magnifying the memories and capturing the essence of her childhood. The decorative imagery of Nicole’s work has the ability to evoke our own memories, allowing each of us to remember through pattern, similar experiences of a time past.

Nicole Ayliffe graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2005 from the South Australian School of Art. During the course of her studies, Nicole won the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Art Prize, received a High Commendation in the Glass Art Society Award and was a finalist in the Ranamok Glass Prize. Nicole’s artwork is represented in several national and international collections including Parliament House, the National Glass Collection at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Glasmuseum, Alter Hof Herding, Germany and the College of Fine Arts at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China.