by Gerry King

"What I can say for certain is that, working with glass I will never stop learning and never stop being surprised"

Vicki Torr

An early entrant to Australian contemporary glass, commenced while undertaking a degree in ceramic design at the, [now] University of South Australia she advanced quickly, instigating and exploring new techniques. Colloidal slip was laminated within the glass to enable colour patterning. Graduating in 1983 at the age of thirty-four Vicki, the only one of her peers to major in glass studies in the final year, requested a negotiated individual programme beyond the university. In cooperation with Ian Mowbray in his studio at the JamFactory she undertook an extensive investigation of kiln forming.

While they worked independently each benefited from the enquiry and experimentation of the other. Together they later moved the studio to Unley forming the partnership, MOTO Glass that undertook commissions alongside their exhibition practices.

Her signature works are the double-edged bowls, ‘Cone Shaped Form’. Represented in the National Art Glass Collection at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery this series has a mystical presence, the delicate organic edge seemingly impossible. While it was the form that captivated, this early use of homemade frit presented a unique appeal.

Acceptance of her aesthetic led to early success with commissions, inclusion in exhibitions in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the US and Japan and acquisition by eleven public collections in Australia and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan.

For want of an available donor organ she died in 1992. Her death confounded friends and associates in contemporary glass. It was disproof of the myth of eternal life, shocking to many who saw the rise of contemporary glass as a beginning and had not yet considered an end.

Prior to the 1993 conference the executive was presented with the notion of devoting funds raised at the conference auction to a memorial scholarship honouring her name and being awarded by members’ votes to an exhibitor in the biennial Members’ Exhibition. The system is ongoing and now expanded to include an award for an emerging member exhibiting on the association’s website.