I'll Meet You There

I’ll Meet You There

At the top of ascending stairways and craggy precipices, Di Tocker’s cast-glass figures sit in conversation and silence with themselves and each other. There’s a peaceful stillness and a weighty resonance to Tocker’s work, where the viewer shares that sensation of rising above extraneous noise, taking a deep breath, and really listening to what’s important. As they catch the light, the sculptures seem to harness all of the elements, with trapped air bubbles suspended in the smooth, translucent surfaces, and the pale blue figures in Elevated Conversation I giving the illusion of being made from chiselled ice.

In the Elevated Conversation pieces, Tocker’s anonymous, universal people sit or stand on eroding platforms and rocky peaks, seemingly oblivious to the potential dangers below, lost in thought and meaningful dialogue. That entwining of calm serenity and powerful force is reflected in the glass medium itself — inherently vulnerable to destruction, yet also solid and substantial, forged through a lengthy, loud, and sometimes hazardous process.

The pensive figures in Intermission I and Intermission II each sit at the top of a flight of stairs, the works designed to either stand alone or be situated together, creating an entirely new silhouette where the subjects ascend from different sides and sit in company, a monologue becoming a dialogue. En masse, all of Tocker’s glass figures could be interpreted to be speaking to each other from their own land masses, sitting high enough that any differences below seem unimportant.

*Art Seen | Otago Daily Times review