Mirror, mirrorRosslynd Piggott and Rudi Williams 
InterviewExhibited works

Interview:
Rosslynd Piggott and Rudi Williams 
In conversation with Sue Cramer


Melbourne, July 2024 

Material and Process



    • [Sue cramer]
Neither of you has gone for any easy or shorthand options in making your works. Can you briefly describe your materials and processes?

  • [Rosslynd Piggott]
Although I primarily make paintings, over the years I’ve incorporated a wide range of material and processes for my object and installation works, as demanded by the driving idea of each work. For me, materials and methodology denote content. As an example, Collection of Air 1992-93 was a homage to Marcel Duchamp’s Air du Paris 1919, which was air collected in a sealed glass pharmaceutical vial. In response, I collected my 63 or so samples of air in glass test tubes, which were sealed with cork and sealing wax, bound with thread, and labelled with ink on paper, drawing a clear reference and distinction to Duchamp. A long vitrine was then made to display the linear journey of the air collection. Each material was carefully chosen to denote weightlessness. There are countless other examples where content is embedded in my chosen materials and methods—from printed leather gloves constructed by a glove maker in Naples, to a model house made from sugar-cubes, or the fringed Japanese obi, cotton and silk, that I used to reconstruct 19th-century nightdresses. 
  • Glass and glassmaking have been of particular importance in my work since the early 1990s. I see glass as a material in flux—originating from sand, heated to become fluid, formed, and then cooled. It is both solid and liquid, strong and fragile, an exquisite refractor of light, with the quality of being there yet not there. I continue to work in close communication with expert artisans in their fields, whose connection to their medium is finely tuned, to realize some of my ideas. For me it’s important to pay this absolute respect to others' years of applied dedication and expertise, whilst acknowledging that my area of experience is in painting and drawing. Although, I have to say, along the way I have accumulated knowledge of materials and methods—their physical properties and limitations—by working in close proximity with such skilled artisans. 



Rosslynd Piggott, detail - Constructing Paris 1996-97. printed leather, synthetic fibre, cotton, painted wood. Glove construction- Antonio Murolo, L’Excelsior Guanti, Naples, wood construction- David Poulton.


  • [RUDI WILLIAMS]
For me, printing in the darkroom is enjoyable because the process requires all of the senses, especially colour printing, which requires working in complete darkness. I love being stripped of vision in that final stage of a process that is typically reliant on sight, and instead having to use my senses of hearing, touch and muscle memory to complete the work.
  • The prints in the exhibition were made at Wet Lab, a new open access colour darkroom in Brunswick. However, one image was a pigment print made at CPL Digital because it required contrast adjustments that couldn't be achieved through hand printing processes. After printing I spot out dust marks from the handprints using water soluble dyes and a fine brush. 
  • I used two different cameras to make the photos in the exhibition: a tripod-mounted 5x4 view camera, which I used when access was possible, and a handheld 35mm camera when access was limited.



Rudi Williams working in the colour darkroom; Wet lab.
Photograph by Kiah Pullens, 2024.