Although she occasionally branches out, very successfully, into one-off sculptural pieces, Ann Robinson has always put the traditional forms of the vase and the bowl at the centre of her practice. Since first developing her glass casting technique during the 1980s of adapting the lost-wax method used for casting bronze she has created an ever-expanding range of bowl and vase forms many of which she continues to repeat and refine. One major variant of the classic bowl form with circular rim is what she calls the 'pod', a canoe-like elliptical shape with pointed ends, standing on a circular stem. As the name suggests, Robinson's pod evokes the form devised by nature for the protection of seeds and carries connotations of generation, growth and new life. Pod forms first entered her work in the mid 1990s; some have plain surfaces while others are decorated either on the sides or at the pointed ends, as with the Te Rito Pod of which this 2006 piece is a fine example.'Te rito' is the Maori word for the overlapping V-shaped leaves at the base of the flax plant, harakeke, so that the incised design (rendered with great authority and delicacy) reinforces the symbolic associations of the pod. It is one of many decorative designs Robinson draws from the natural environment (especially plants) that are carved into the wax 'blanks' at an early stage of the complex process of glass casting (those unfamiliar with the technique can read about it on her website www.annrobinson.co.nz ). Robinson's development as a glass artist has gone hand in hand with the expanding availability of different colours from her innovative supplier Gaffer Glass, an Auckland firm which now exports lead crystal glass suitable for casting world-wide. More than 40 subtly differentiated colours are now available, almost all of which Robinson has utilised. If I am not mistaken, this particular piece uses the colour called pale jade green, possibly with some grey mixed in. It has a wonderful aqueous quality, hovering uncertainly between green and blue according to the available light. As in many of her more recent pieces the wide rim is polished to a mirror-like clarity allowing the tiny air bubbles trapped in the glass to be seen, like peering into a glass of champagne with (in John Keats's lovely phrase) "beaded bubbles winking at the brim". It is (to quote Keats again), " a thing of beauty and a joy forever".
Peter Simpson