Juniper Maffescioni

Juniper Maffescioni is an innovative glass artist and Honours graduate from the ANU SOA&D Glass Workshop in Canberra. Based in Melbourne, her work explores the interplay between vision, perception, colour, and light through a post-digital lens.

Juniper's journey into glass began as a teenager when her parents gifted her a workshop experience for her 18th birthday. The moment she first touched molten glass, she knew it was her true calling. The way glass transforms—from a molten, honey-like substance to a solid form—is what keeps her fascinated. She describes it as a symbiotic relationship; glass is both a material and a partner in creativity, evolving with every touch.

Her practice is a blend of traditional techniques and modern technology. During the pandemic, Juniper turned to digital tools to expand her conceptual work, self-teaching software to animate and render colour experiences. This resulted in a body of animated works that meld digital and physical realms, reflecting her unique approach to colour and perception.

Juniper on the Diamond Saw, cutting murrine cane

These works serve as technical and visual explorations within new methodologies of hot and cold glassmaking, taking prior works kilnformed with Bullseye during my time at the ANU glass workshop as starting points for pattern generation and conceptual interest. The repetition of red, blue, and yellow wave patterns draw from the techniques and intentions of Op Art, an abstract visual art movement originating in the 1960’s that focused on creating optical illusions via the applications of geometric design and colour theory. The use of primary colours and waveforms in my pattern construction nods to my appreciation of light, as both a complex mathematical entity, as well as an expressive real-world energy that without, we cannot produce, let alone appreciate, any visual artforms.