The May Meeting

 

The May 8th Sculptors Association meeting had a special purpose to vote on the proposal by Jenny Rickards to recognize Valda Cuming as an Honorary Life Member of the ASV. President Gillian Govan spoke in favour of the proposal and said " Valda joined the ASV sometime in the latter 1980’s – it was after the 1985 retrospective – she didn’t exhibit there, but since joining she has exhibited at every Annual, MIFGS and Herring Island exhibition that was put on – a great contributor! Valda has won the Margaret Gunnersen William Hoggan Thomas Award – most recently in 2010. Apart from the ASV Valda has been a mainstay of the Beaumaris Art Group, the MSWPS and a member of the Eclectics exhibiting group. Valda served as President of the ASV in 1992-3 and was on the committee until 2002. Anyone who has sat an exhibition with Valda will know that she is unfailingly generous as well as charming, intelligent and talented. "

Members were invited to vote on the proposal which was then passed unanimously, and were then thanked for their recognition by Valda.

Contraction Cetta Pilati

The meeting then welcomed the presentation by Cetta Pilati, who has an established reputation as a marble mosaic artist. Cetta completed her B.A. in Fine Art at RMIT in 1992, creating sculptures from wood, glass and steel. She produced her first major work "Contraction" which was displayed long-term at RMIT and in turn satisfied her mother’s disapproval of commencing her art journey. Cetta lost her mother last August who was and still is a strong influence in her work.

 She worked for a while in concrete the material representing to her as being the "positive side of life" in its strength, and as a form of self-portrait. At this stage in her life she and her husband went to live in Jakarta Indonesia where life and two children took over from art. Like Louise Bougeouis, art was placed on hold for a decade.

To renew her motivation after this pause Cetta travelled in 2007 to study under the direction of Professor Marco De Luca in Ravenna in Italy. Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476. The perfect place to study at first hand the Romans early mastery of mosaics and their way of depicting transparent materials like diaphanous gowns on figures in their Mosaics.

Roman Frieze

Cetta struck a chord with members in describing how her artistic process sometimes falters and halts production, or better still, takes on a life of it’s own and leads her into new, sometimes unexpected and exciting directions.


Cetta is very much hands on in her production. She cuts and sorts each piece by hand using a hammer and hardie and likes the feel and smell of the different types of marble. She does not use grout in any of her works – a traditional characteristic of ancient roman method of mosaicing.

Cetta with her stone cutter

During the construction of large private commission Cetta, posted a photo of hand cut cubed marble on Facebook, which resulted in connecting her almost instantly to a contact in Drouin, in Gippsland, that had a stone cutter she may find useful. It appears the studio and estate of a famous mosaic artist Maery Gabriel (Hall) was being disbanded. Meary was the only mosaic artist to win the Blake Art Prize which she won in 1984, with her work titled "‘The Spirit of God Hovered Brooding over the Face of the Waters’ . One of the items in her estate was a mechanical stone cutter, which was offered as a gift to Cetta. As a result of a storyboard picked out of the unwanted pile, she later traced some of the other estate items to the University of Sydney, which led to co-ordination of the University and the Powerhouse Museum (whom had purchased the 1984 Blake Art Prize piece) organising a long term loan to display the prized piece in the new building currently being constructed within the University. Cetta considers this stone cutter is a gift, halving her cutting time and allowing others to have access to it also.


Cetta conducts classes and supplies hand cut marble at her studio in Alphington. She can be contacted on 0425 742 092 or through email, cetta.pilati@gmail.com, her web site is www.cetta.pilati.com.au

Report by Gordon Robertson