Ripple Effect

Blanche Tilden
born Australia, 1968

Ripple Effect 01 2019–21
salvaged glass lenses, 9 carat gold
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Funaki, Melbourne

Ripple Effect 02–07 2019–21
salvaged glass lenses, oxidised sterling silver
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Funaki, Melbourne

Mary Featherston’s mother’s glass lenses were one example of the potential of extending the life of everyday objects. Tilden soon found another in a group of superb glass lenses salvaged from analog SLR cameras. Tilden’s husband Marcus Scholz collects and uses old cameras, and leftover lenses from his collection were at hand just as Tilden was considering how to recycle and repurpose found lenses for her jewellery.

The results are Ripple Effect 2020–21, an installation of seven simple necklaces of camera lenses mounted on chains and rippling outwards from smallest to largest concentric circles, and the series Through the Lens 2021. As repurposed industrial objects, the lenses examine value, function, and meaning. Once intended to be used, now the lenses are designed to be seen: Tilden shows us that we simultaneously look at and look through glass.

—Julie Ewington