By: Christian Bernard Singer

Coming to the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery on June 27 will be Alfred Engerer’s installation of handblown neon tubes entitled Invisible Streams: As Above, So Below, an installation that evokes the unseen energies of air currents, underground streams and ‘streams of consciousness.’

Alfred Engerer – Invisible Streams: As Above, So Below, 2012 – Hand-blown neon tubes, hardware, trees – First Canadian Place, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012, Toronto

First commissioned by the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery for its presentation at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012 in Toronto, Engerer’s experience-driven installation of handblown neon tubes and found neon signage was suspended within the canopies of several trees at First Canadian Place Park in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. More than one million people attended Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012 over a 12-hour period that began on September 29 at 7:03 p.m.

Alfred Engerer – Invisible Streams: As Above, So Below (detail), 2012 – Hand-blown neon tubes, hardware, trees – First Canadian Place, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012, Toronto

For the Scotiabank Nuit Blanche installation, lines of vibrantly coloured undulating light and found letters, logos and symbols moved through several trees, converging in a whirlwind of activity around one central tree. The work emulated the inner ring structures within the tree trunks while evoking the unseen energies of air currents, underground streams and ‘streams of consciousness’ travelling through urban and rural locations. Engerer teamed up with Orest Tataryn of Outlaw Neon to create the work.

Concept Drawing for Invisible Streams: As Above, So Below for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2012 at First Canadian Place [Drawing by Calder Schantz]

In speaking about the installation, Engerer says: “like a non-linear narrative of the absurd, the whole of this work represents a  ‘tornado’ of possible interpretations through free association. It is meant to be understood on a subconscious or intuitive level with a conclusion that might only ever be half-formed or understood.”

Alfred Engerer and team hanging neon for Invisible Streams

Invisible Streams: As Above, So Below will be on view in the Mutual Group Tower Gallery at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery from June 27 to September 1, 2013. Once again, the installation will illustrate these unseen energies while also making direct reference to Laurel Creek, the underground stream flowing under Uptown Waterloo’s city centre. Laurel Creek begins in the Township of Wellesley, flows into Waterloo, rests in Silver Lake before making its way beneath the Gallery, continuing underground past King Street, until it emerges again at City Hall. It then runs northeast until it eventually reaches the Grand River.

Alfred Engerer

Born in Malta, Alfred Engerer’s work has been included in over 150 exhibitions including the 3-person exhibition, The Passage of Light at the Canadian Embassy Gallery in Washington and is part of important collections internationally including the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Four Seasons Hotel (London, UK), Hart House (University of Toronto), Helm Collection (Chicago), McDonalds Canada Collection, Anna and Joe Mendel Collection, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Ontario Crafts Council, Royal Bank of Canada, Speedy Muffler King Collection and X’teresa Performance Art Centre (Mexico City).

About the author: Christian Bernard Singer is an eco-installation artist and sculptor whose ‘living works’ have been exhibited across Canada. He is also the Curator of the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery.

St-Michael’s-Cemetery, Toronto, 1992
Skunkworks-Outlaw Neon

Webster’s-Falls, Hamilton, 1992
Skunkworks-Outlaw Neon

By: Debbe Ebanks Schlums

I spent an afternoon viewing Art-O-Matic: Art Meets New Technology, the current exhibition at the Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario.  Curator Christian Bernard Singer takes us to the future-present by showcasing Canadian and American artists who are employing 3-D printing technology, a method that has been available to engineers for decades, but is now becoming accessible to artists.  This technology gives artists new ways to play with colour, water-solubility, scale, multiples, and other factors to produce an exciting range of possible outcomes.

Art-O-Matic is as much about introducing the viewer to the mode of production as it is about the art produced.  As you walk around the gallery, the art seems somewhat naked due to the exposé of the Maker-bot placed in the middle of the gallery printing out 3-D frogs, laying bare the magic of the making of the pieces.

Guillaume Lachapelle makes sculptures that look like, but would be impossible to make, in porcelain – so delicate for their size they seem as if they would snap at the slightest touch.

Machinations (series title) by: Guillaume Lachapelle

Susan Shantz explores digital sculpture from all angles, including the comparatively archaic method of slip-casting, making for an interesting juxtaposition between the old and the new. Claire Brunet and Future Retrieval bypass the mold-making process by simply scanning animal carcasses and manipulating them digitally before printing them out in 3-D and casting in aluminum or clay.  Brunet’s eerie exploration into family and childhood is especially compelling.

I am especially fascinated by the work of Neri Oxman, an MIT architecture and new media professor with a medical degree who has shown at Centre Pompidou.  Her work dismisses the boundaries between art, science and design. Inspired by biology and possessing real-world applications, it stands alone as works of art.  The objects themselves are aesthetically pleasing and balanced in a mathematical sort of way, but when I look at her art, my mind begs for more because there are so many different ways to engage with the work.  An example of this multifaceted perspective is the Stalasso series. As explained on her website :

“Stalasso” by:Neri Oxman

Mineralization processes form many natural structures and introduce metals, such as gold, into a rock. The resulting rock composition is stiffer and stronger. By using the ratio of stiff to soft materials, Stalasso mimics these mineralization processes for design purposes. This leads to construction based on performance requirements. For example, a bed, a table or a building’s ceiling could be tailored to respond to different weights across its surface according to specific requirements and preferences.  www.nerioxman.com

The exhibition at first seems somewhat misplaced at a gallery that specializes in clay and glass, however it serves to inform the public of cutting edge technology being used by ‘traditional’ ceramic or glass artists. For me, this show is about possibility and it challenges all artists to think about their medium in new ways and to continue innovating.  Art-O-Matic is on until March 17, 2013.

Debbie Ebanks Schlums is a pate de verre artist working in Mulmur, Ontario. Holding a degree in International Relations, the topic of technology transfer and cultural change in small communities has engaged her curiosity for the better part of two decades.

Art-O-Matic – Critique

Par : Debbe Ebanks Schlums

Je suis allée passer une après-midi à la Clay and Glass Gallery de Waterloo en Ontario pour visiter leur exposition du moment,  Art-O-Matic: Rencontre de l’Art et des Nouvelles Technologies. Christian Bernard Singer, le conservateur,  nous entraine dans un futur-présent en présentant des artistes canadiens et américains utilisant des techniques d’impression en 3D, méthode accessible aux ingénieurs depuis des décennies mais devenue à la portée des artistes que récemment.  Cette technologie donne aux artistes de nouveaux moyens de jouer avec les couleurs, la solubilité de l’eau, les échelles, les multiples et d’autres facteurs pour parvenir à tout un éventail de possibilités attrayantes.

Art-O-Matic présente aux visiteurs ce mode de création tout autant que l’art qui y est exposé. En se promenant dans la galerie, l’art semble en quelque sorte mis à nu avec l’exposé de Makerbot au milieu de la galerie qui imprime des grenouilles en 3D, révélant brutalement la magie de la création des œuvres.

Guillaume Lachapelle crée des sculptures qui semblent, mais ce serait impossible à réaliser, être en porcelaine ; si délicates pour leur taille qu’on dirait qu’elles vont se briser au moindre contact.

Machinations (series title) by: Guillaume Lachapelle

Susan Shantz explore la sculpture digitale sous tous ses angles, juxtaposant entre autre la méthode archaïque de coulée en barbotine avec la nouvelle, ce qui rend la comparaison très intéressante. Claire Brunet et Future Retrieval contournent l’étape du moulage en scannant tout simplement des carcasses d’animaux et en les manipulant ensuite digitalement avant de les imprimer en 3D, puis de les mouler en aluminium ou en argile. L’étrange exploration de la famille et de l’enfance de Brunet est vraiment séduisante.

Je suis particulièrement fascinée par le travail de Neri Oxman, qui est professeur d’architecture et des nouveaux media au MIT, diplômée de médecine et a déjà exposé au Centre Pompidou.  Son œuvre repousse les frontières entre l’art, la science et le design. Inspirée de la biologie avec propriétés tirées du monde réel, rien que ça en fait déjà des chefs d’œuvre. Les objets en eux-mêmes ont une esthétique plaisante et un équilibre quasi- mathématique, mais lorsque je regarde cet art, mon esprit en voudrai toujours plus, tant il y a d’interprétations possibles. La série Stalasso est un parfait exemple de cette perspective aux multiples facettes. Tel qu’expliqué sur son site web :

“Stalasso” by:Neri Oxman

Le processus de minéralisation prend de nombreuses formes et introduit des métaux tel que l’or dans la roche. La composition de la roche qui en résulte est plus dure et plus solide. En utilisant le ratio pour passer de matériaux solides à mous, Stalasso imite ce processus de minéralisation dans un but esthétique. Ce qui nous mène à une structure basée sur des qualités de performance. Par exemple, un lit, une table ou le plafond d’un bâtiment pourraient être ajustés pour soutenir différents poids répartis en leur surface en fonction de qualités et de préférences spécifiques. www.nerioxman.com 


Au départ, l’exposition semble en léger décalage avec la galerie qui est spécialisée dans le verre et la poterie. Pourtant, elle sert à informer le public de l’utilisation de technologie de pointe par les artistes “traditionnels” du verre et de la céramique. D’après moi, cette exposition traite du possible et pousse tout artiste à reconsidérer son matériau autrement et à continuer d’innover. Art-O-Matic est ouvert jusqu’au 17 mars 2013.

Debbie Ebanks Schlums est une artiste travaillant la pâte de verre à Mulmur en Ontario. Elle détient un diplôme en Relations Internationales, le thème de la passation technologique et des changements culturels au sein des petits communautés a piqué sa curiosité depuis ces 20 dernières années.

By Brad Copping

Compass/North Bowls, Jeff Goodman, 6.5″ X 6.5″ X 4″ Photo credit : Jeff Goodman Studio

Just recently announced, the Ontario Craft Council will host an exhibition of selected works from the past 25 years of Jeff Goodman’s career.  The exhibition will run from January 10 to February 24, 2013, which will provide a focused bookend to the Glass Art Association of Canada’s survey exhibition, which opens on November 15, 2012.

Elevated Balance #5, Brad Turner

The Last Glass Show is being curated by Ryan Legassicke, a graduate of the Crafts and Design program at Sheridan College, glass program at Alberta College of Art + Design, and MFA program in Studio Practice from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Legassicke, a contemporary Canadian artist whose international practice combines aspects of art, design and material culture, has the daunting task of bringing together a diverse collection of works, which have been created by the members of a national association.  His approach is as much about the culture that this organization supports as it is about how we contribute to it.

Landscape XI, Jesse Bromm

In an attempt to reflect the organization as a whole, and dealing with the limitations of a 900-square-foot exhibition space, the curator has decided to present a number of actual objects and a larger number of personal photographs providing an intimate view into how glass objects are lived with and experienced on a daily basis, from the eyes of those who produce it.  As Legassicke has written in his curatorial statement, “The Last Glass Show (the NEXT glass show) offers a glimpse into the ideas and efforts that, in many ways, define our collective identity from coast to coast and beyond.”

Armour, Tanya Lyons

It somehow seems rather poignant that the exhibition to follow The Last Glass Show will be a posthumous exhibition of work by Jeff Goodman who was a longtime member and supporter of both the Glass Art Association of Canada and the Ontario Crafts Council.  The idea for the exhibition, initiated by Emma Quin, executive director of the Ontario Crafts Council, is meant to celebrate Jeff, and his incredible contribution to the glass and broader craft community.  Timing the exhibition to follow the GAAC member show and align it with the 15^th annual international Interior Design Show held in Toronto seems a respectful way to acknowledge Jeff, his personal contributions to our community and the significance of the work he developed.

Detail of Enso Chandelier, Dims: 40′ l x 9′w Photo credit: Tom Arban

When asked about the choice of co-curation for this exhibition Quin replied, “I really feel there is an emotional connection to handmade work, and I thought having the exhibit curated with a personal connection would draw on those emotions to a greater degree.” As a result Melanie Egan, head of craft at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, curator of numerous contemporary craft and design focused exhibitions, and co-founder/artistic director of the Toronto International Jewellery Festival, was approached to curate the exhibition.  Goodman’s long association with Harbourfront Centre, initially as an Artist-in-Residence, and for several terms as an Advisor to the Glass Studio, was how many around the glass community had come to know and respect him as a person.

Quin went on to say that, “at the same time it felt like a statement needed to be made about the significance of Jeff’s work to Canada’s craft scene, and Alan Elder was the logical person for this reason; so co-curation was the answer.”   Elder is the acting director of Ethnology and Cultural Studies and continues as the curator of Craft and Design at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Table (with Ovelles), Dims: 72″ x 14″ x 26″h Photo credit: David Whittaker

While Goodman’s work has spanned a vast territory, from his early cement and cast glass sculpture (I fondly remember a massive suspended boat-like piece shown at the York Quay Gallery) and lamps, his vessel work, the public art, to the more design oriented commission work and the recent architectural work for the Baha’i Temple in Santiago, Chile, the curators have noted that Goodman’s work is grounded in craft, making the venue a natural choice.

“His sculptural work is deeply grounded in the vessel.  His commissions for architecture are grounded in the history of the decorative arts and design,” said the curators. Elder and Egan go on to say that, “Jeff’s work matters because of the nature of the work itself and Jeff’s attitude toward the work.  We believe his work was/is a reflection of what Jeff enjoyed the most about glass: the process, heat, gravity and movement. He considered himself a craftsperson and designer more than an artist, yet his work had a lot of artistry.  And he had that ‘lets just try it’ attitude as well, which was a big part of his success.  He was a role model and mentor – both modest and maverick.”

Detail of Table, Dims: 72″ x 14″ x 26″h Photo credit: David Whittaker

Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to see some of Goodman’s iconic vessels, as examples from his Lima and Ovelle Series will be included, as well as a selection of Compass/North Bowls.  The curators have also chosen to include examples of his commission and architectural works. Most excitingly, two tables, the stunningly beautiful tops of which Goodman developed through the expertise he and his team gained from creating the wall panels for the Baha’i Temple project, will be exhibited for the first time.

Enso Chandelier at the Ritz Carleton Hotel in Toronto, Dims: 40′ l x 9′w Photo credit: Tom Arban

The continuation of Jeff Goodman Studios is, as Emma Quin noted,  “a legacy to the work that Jeff created”. While his designs are being made by other hands this is, as Elder and Egan have stated, “an evolution of an older tradition in craft.  The ‘master’ comes up with the designs and the journeymen/apprentices make the work – all the while honing their skills.  This is when Jeff’s mentoring pays off.”

The focused examination of one of Canada’s best know (and best loved) contemporary glass makers following a dynamic overview of the work made by members of an association he cared greatly about is making Toronto the destination of choice for glass enthusiasts this winter.

The Ontario Craft Council Gallery is located at 990 Queen Street West in Toronto.

The Last Glass Show opens November 15^th, from 6-9 p.m. and runs until December 28, 2012.  Jeff Goodman opens January 10, from 6-9 p.m. and runs until February 24, 2013.

Exposition de Jeff Goodman, après The Last Glass Show/ La dernière exposition de verre à la Galerie OCC

Par Brad Copping

Compas/North Bowls, Jeff Goodman, 6.5”X6.5”X4”, Crédit photo: Jeff Goodman Studio

Le Conseil des arts de l’Ontario vient d’annoncer qu’il présentera une exposition d’œuvres choisies dans les  dernières 25 années de la carrière de Jeff Goodman. Cette exposition se tiendra du 10 janvier au 24 février 2013 et couronnera l’exposition de l’Association des Arts verriers du Canada, ouverte le 15 novembre 2012.

Elevated Balance #5, Brad Turner

The Last Glass Show/La dernière exposition de verre est sous la direction de Ryan Legassicke, diplomé du programme Crafts and Design du Collège Sheridan, du programme de verre du Collège d’Art et Design de l’Alberta, et du programme MFA en Pratique de Studio de l’Université d’État de New York à Buffalo. Legassicke, un artiste canadien dont la pratique internationale combine les aspects de l’art, le design, et la culture du matériel, à l’audacieuse tâche d’assembler une collection d’œuvres diverses créées par des membres d’une association nationale. Son approche représente autant la culture que cette organisation supporte, que la façon dont nous y contribuons.

Paysage XI, Jesse Bromm

Dans un désir de montrer l’organisation comme un tout, et forcé de respecter les limites d’un espace de 900 pieds carrés, le conservateur a choisi de présenter un certain nombre d’objets réels et un plus grand nombre de photographies personnelles présentant une vue intime des façons de vivre quotidiennement avec des objets de verre, depuis les yeux de ceux qui les ont produits. Comme Legassicke l’a écrit dans sa présentation, “The Last Glass Show/La dernière exposition de verre (the NEXT glass show/la prochaine exposition de verre) présente un aperçu des idées et des efforts qui, de plusieurs façons, précisent notre identité commune d’un océan à l’autre et au-delà.

Armure, Tanya Lyons

Il semble, d’une certain façon, émouvant que l’exposition qui suivra The Last Glass Show/La dernière exposition de verre soit une exposition posthume des œuvres de Jeff Goodman  qui fut longtemps membre et partisan aussi bien de l’Association des Arts verriers du Canada que du Conseil des métiers d’art de l’Ontario. L’idée pour cette exposition, choisie par Emma Quin, directrice du Conseil des arts de l’Ontario, voulait célébrer Jeff et son incroyable contribution au verre et à toute la communauté artisanale. Programmant cette exposition après l’exposition des membres de GAAC/AAVC et l’alignant avec la 15è  présentation annuelle international du Design d’intérieur semble une façon respectueuse de reconnaitre Jeff, son apport personnel à notre collectivité et la pertinence de l’œuvre qu’il a développée

Détail du chandelier Enso, Dim.:40’l X 9’L,credit photo: Tom Arban

Quand on l’a interrogée sur son choix de conservation adjoint de l’exposition, Quin a répondu: “Il me semble réellement sentir une connexion émotive pour le travail manuel, et j’ai pensé que de joindre une connexion personnelle à la conservation  pourrait hisser ces émotions à un plus haut dégrée”.  C’est pourquoi Melanie Egan, directrice des métiers d’art au Centre Harbourfront de Toronto, conservatrice de plusieurs expositions contemporaines de métiers d’art et de design et co-fondatrice/directrice artistique du Festival International de Bijoux de Toronto a été approchée pour assurer la conservation de cette exposition. Goodman a eu une longue association avec le Centre Harbourfront, d’abord comme un artiste-en-résidence et pour plusieurs mandats comme Conseiller de l’Atelier de verre. Voilà comment tant de personnes du milieu verrier en sont venues à le connaître et à le respecter comme personne.

Qin poursuit en disant: «il semblait en même temps qu’un énoncé devait souligner la portée du travail de Jeff sur la scène des métiers d’art du Canada, et Alan Elder était la personne qui s’imposait pour cette raison’’ donc une collaboration s’imposait. Elder est le directeur des Études en Ethnologie et Culture et continue d’œuvrer comme conservateur des Métiers d’art et Design du Musée canadien des Civilisations.

Table (avec Ovelles),Dim.: 72”X14”X26”h, credit photo:David Whittaker

Goodman à couvert un vaste territoire, depuis sa première sculpture de ciment et de pâte de verre (Je me rappelle d’une pièce massive suspendue aux allures de bateau, montrée à la York Quay Gallery) des lampes, son travail de bateau, d’art public, jusqu’au travail plus orienté vers le design et son travail architectural récent pour le Temple Baha’I à Santiago au Chili. Les conservateurs ont pris note que l’œuvre de Goodman est ancré dans le métier d’art, justifiant cette présentation.

“Son travail sculptural est profondément ancré sur le navire. Son travail commissionné pour l’architecture s’alimente de l’histoire des arts décoratifs et du design”, disent les conservateurs. Elder et Egan poursuivent en disant: «Le travail de Jeff est important à cause de la nature même de son travail et son attitude face au travail. Nous croyons  que son œuvre était et est une réflexion sur ce qui plaisait le plus à Jeff dans le verre: les étapes, la chaleur, le poids et le mouvement. Il se considérait comme artisan et designer plus que comme artiste, bien que son travail reste très artistique. Il présentait cette attitude “essayons pour voir” qui lui a valu une grande part de son succès. Il a été un modèle et un conseiller, aussi bien modeste que rassurant.

Détail de table. Dim.: 72”X14”X26”h, credit photo:David Whittaker

Les visiteurs auront l’opportunité de voir quelques vaisseaux iconiques de Goodman, comme ces exemples des séries Lima et Orvelle ainsi qu’une sélection de Compas/North Bowls. Les conservateurs ont choisi d’ajouter des exemples d’œuvres commissionnées et des travaux architecturaux. Principalement deux tables, montrées pour la première fois, dont la surface supérieure a été développée grâce à son expertise et celle de son équipe lorsqu’ils travaillaient aux panneaux muraux du Temple Baha’i.

Chandelier Enso à l’hôtel Ritz Carleton à Toronto, Dim.:40’lX9’L, credit photo:Tom Arban

La suite de l’atelier de Jeff Goodman est, comme le note Emma Quin, “un héritage au travail que Jeff a créé”.  Pendant que ses designs sont réalisés par d’autres mains, comme l’affirment Elder et Egan “C’est une suite de la vieille tradition de l’artisanat. Le maître vient avec un dessin et les travailleurs et apprentis réalisent l’œuvre, tout en affinant leur habileté. C’est alors que l’encadrement de Jeff rapporte.”.

La concentration sur l’œuvre d’un verrier canadien contemporain très connu (et très aimé) après avoir vu les travaux de membres d’une association chère à son cœur, fait de Totonto une destination de choix cet hiver pour les passionnés du verre.

Le Conseil des métiers d’art de l’Ontario est situé au 990 Queen Street West, à Toronto.

The Last Glass Show commence le 15 novembre, de 6-9 p.m. et se poursuit jusqu’au 28 décembre 2012. Jeff Goodman commence le 10 janvier, de 6-9 p.m. et se poursuit jusqu’au 24 février 2013.

By: Larissa Blokhuis

This summer, I had the pleasure of seeing some new work by Adele and Lisa Samphire. The artists showed in an exhibition called Samphire Fusion, which ran July 6 – 31, 2012 at Circle Craft in Vancouver.

An excerpt from the artist statement states: ”Samphire is a succulent plant that grows in salty marshland in various parts of the world. The ashes of Samphire yield soda ash which is an important ingredient in glass making and in glazing pottery.

“We chose Samphire Fusion as the title for the exhibition, in part, because of the history of the plant and because of our decision to make art objects that would incorporate both clay and glass. We made plans to explore various approaches to achieving our goal.”

Reef, 2012, work by Adele and Lisa Samphire, photo by Lisa Samphire

Lisa is well-known in the glass world, be it as former proprietor of Starfish in Victoria, or summer series teacher at Red Deer College, or for her numerous exhibitions across the country and internationally.  Lisa has distinguished herself as a glass artist with amazing technical ability, and her work is recognized by her superb use of murrini, surface work, incalmo, and lush colours.

As I discovered at the exhibition, Lisa follows a history of artistic talent in her family. Her mother, Adele Samphire, is an accomplished ceramicist.  She studied at Leeds College of Art, and Birmingham College of Art between 1959 and 1964, and began working with clay in the late 1960s.  Oddly enough, Lisa has never tried wheel-throwing, nor have the two ever collaborated before planning their July 2012 exhibition together.  Lisa is represented by Circle Craft year-round, so you can still see her work there even if you missed the exhibition.

Metal Mark, 2012, work by Adele and Lisa Samphire, photo by Lisa Samphire

The work included in Samphire Fusion is an excellent example of successful collaboration. The primary type of work shown is a series of panels, where one artist makes the first panel, and the second artist creates a response panel.  The panels create interesting play between the light hitting the curves of the clay, while moving through the transparent glass.  The varying textures and colours are effectively used to highlight the good qualities of both mediums.

Vase, 2012, work by Adele and Lisa Samphire, photo by Lisa Samphire

For me the most successful panel piece was a set of white panels called “Sea Shore.” The light colour creates an ethereal feeling, a quality not immediately associated with a heavy, solid medium like clay.  The minimal palate allows the piece a simple elegance and beauty, and leaves the viewer to focus on the skilfully made textures.

Sea Shore, 2012, work by Adele and Lisa Samphire, photo by Lisa Samphire

Collaboration is a great way to move beyond your usual process.  It requires communication, and openness to your partner’s ideas.  Without these soft skills collaboration can go awry, even for accomplished artists.  Luckily for the viewer, the Samphire women are not only talented artists, they are talented collaborators as well.

Author Bio:  Larissa Blokhuis attended ACAD and graduated with a major in glassblowing in 2008.  She currently works at New-Small and Sterling, where she blows glass weekly.  Larissa has also attended Red Deer College in 2007 and Pilchuck in 2011.  She looks forward to developing further as a glassblower and gaining more exhibition experience.  blokhuisglass.weebly.com.

By: Brianna Strong

One of the most excruciating aspects of the human condition is experiencing distance; distances between people, birth and death, understanding, moments, communication.   I find the greatest moments of satisfaction and drive are born out of feeling coalescence with different ideas, people, environments, movements, happenings and experiences.

This prevailing desire for connectedness and to bring things together that would otherwise remain at a distance is the governing force behind identifying the parallels between the critical-creative inquiries of glass and drawing.

I am perplexed by the gap that exists between fine art discourse and craft theory and find any sort of discipline-specific determinism counterintuitive as an organic human being.  Research and practice in different fields offer specific visual or functional vocabularies that contribute to a greater language that informs an artist’s approach and navigation of any unknown phenomena that lies in advance.

My intention with this article is to perpetuate the dialogue between fine art and craft and begin to articulate how metaphor and relational aesthetics are bridges that span across the distance between drawing and glass.

It is important to acknowledge my more extensive background in drawing, as opposed to an introductory look into glass, as a way of providing a potential survey of my ignorance.

As a drawer, I employ image and metaphor as a way of navigating sets and systems of symbols and signs.  My way of synthesizing ideas from the content that I investigate is arbitrary and in its most realized forms a mere reflection of something essential.  When I entered my first glass class, I was incompetent as a maker and not indoctrinated with the traditions, methodologies and material knowledge associated with glass.  As consequence, I enthusiastically immersed myself into this novel way of working as if it were my own drawing practice and without making any distinctions between craft and fine art.

I was taken by the profound nature of working with glass and recognized that there is something essential and not arbitrary about material thinking, embodied research and tactic knowledge.  The most appropriate metaphor for this revelation between drawing and glass, between the arbitrary and the essential is the relationship between the nature of drawing and glass materials and light itself.  How symbolic to have paper reflect light and glass capture it.  As a drawer, it is through an experience of metaphor both in conception and in the content of the work that I find access points to glass.

Rachael Wong, Sound System 112"(h) x 221" x 120" 2007

The conception of a metaphor requires a cognitive process by which two ideas are brought together over a distance. The root of the word metaphor literally means, ‘to transfer or carry over’. Stephen Hawking in The Grand Design validates metaphorical thinking as an effective and essential way of navigating the world. Hawking says: “There is no picture-or-theory independent concept of reality.  Instead, we will adopt a view that we will call model-dependent realism: the idea that a physical theory or world picture is a model … and a set of rules that connect the elements of the model with observations.”

He continues to say, “Model-dependent realism applies not only to scientific models but also to the conscious and subconscious mental models we all create in order to interpret and understand the everyday world.”

This speaks to the development of an underlying experience-based framework that enables a subjective conceptual cartography of reality.  This use of sensory input as a means of forming and building a ‘picture of reality’ through an accumulation of understood systems and models that can then be used to inform an understanding of other ideas validates the dominance of metaphor in cognitive functioning.

The significance of this operation in our mental faculties lies in the ability to amass an infinite number of different models or correspondences that we can then lay out relative to one another.

By extension, the inherent design of this mental structure and processing of information has no predetermined constraints or borderlines between the terrains of different disciplines. Through this mental process that organizes our sensory intake across a conceptual plane we effectively become the cartographers to our own ‘world picture’ or view of reality. As viewers and artists, we essentially have the capacity to navigate all fields of study and to understand one thing in terms of other.

Rachael Wong, Red Effect detail 126"(h) x 231" x 10" 2009.

The amassing of information that takes place in a conceptual mapping of the world and in subjective experience can be diagrammed, metaphorically, as dots connected with lines.  This subsequent network or constellations can parallel the use of a map, where the moments that are born from experiences and the sensorial data function as ‘dots’, or points of interest, in cognitive compilations of the world.  More importantly, they function as a coordinate system that informs and connects to one another with lines of thinking that will produce a latticework of conceptual paths to guide an ongoing navigation.

With regard to the nature of discipline-specific points there is the risk of becoming enclosed, self-referential and inaccessible.  However, to abandon the constraints of a discipline-specific determinism, an interdisciplinary approach – which observes the essential and arbitrary qualities of the chosen content – allows the glass artist and drawer to create linkages between images, ideals, models, systems, forms and relational experiences without boundaries.

This sprawling map of intersections and growing networks not only illustrates how the mind processes information but is also a microcosmic example of how people interact with their surroundings, one another and in visual culture.

As Nicolas Bourriaud elaborates in Relational Aesthetics with an explanation of ‘critical materialism’, “The world is made up of random encounters.  Art, too, is made of chaotic, chance meetings of signs and forms.  Nowadays, it even creates spaces within which the encounter can occur.”

Bourriaud’s emphasis of ‘art is a state of encounter’ is important to the realization of an artwork – as simultaneously object and experience – having the capacity to function as a coordinate in a broader system and ever-expanding survey of a conceptual and cultural terrain in contemporary discourse or a subjective experience for the viewer.  The assertion that art ‘creates a space for encounter’ acknowledges the inventive power of art making and the capacity of the artist to contextualize the artwork into correlative measurements to life.  In other words, a drawer or glass artist can produce a connecting line between art form and viewer as a way of providing an enhanced way of navigating the world and influencing their public’s ‘world picture’.

Glass artist Rachael Wong divulged the significance of a viewer’s navigation in a room full of moments during an interview I conducted in October 2011.  Wong defines the art object as “a physical manifestation of experience” and “an embodiment of the moment”.

Her artwork is not only punctuated in space by time, but through her process, there is an amassing of information, navigation of internal and external content and finally an arrival at a captured moment.  When her work is surrendered to the external realm of the public, the art form becomes a coordinate for a viewer’s experience.  In her words, “It is a cyclical process where the making-experience produces a viewer-experience.  It is experience manifesting experience.”

In any discipline, for a latticework of embodied and conceptual points of departure to propagate further experiential latticework that will then influence more, resonates deeply. The relational aspect of the art object is of the utmost relevance in its ability to transcend the constraints of categorization and prompt a perpetual dialogue of experience in a vast field of infinite possibilities.

Rachael Wong, Red Effect, 126"(h) x 231" x 10" 2009.

Brianna Strong

Brianna Strong is a recent graduate from the Alberta College of Art + Design. Her critical-creative practice is invested in observing the underlying designs, concepts and parallels in art, physics, and being.  Strong identifies with Bourriaud’s definition of a “semionaut”, as it makes the end of NASA’s space shuttle program a lot easier to handle.

By: Larissa Blokhuis

In Vancouver, this year has started off with a bang for the glass community.  On January 5, 2012, members of the glass community were invited to a launch party and meeting with Terminal City Glass Co-op. Holly Cruise, Joanne Andrighetti, Jeff Holmwood, and Morley Faber are at the helm of this new Co-op, located at 1191 Parker Street in the Mergatroid building in east Vancouver.

An interview with Holly Cruise, of Terminal City Glass Co-op in Vancouver:

Q: How did the Co-op come about?  Who approached whom?
A: Initially, Morley Faber invited the glass community to a meeting to discuss the prospect of building a Co-operative studio in Vancouver.  He had a bunch of equipment and was interested in hearing the level of interest in bringing glass back to the artist’s studio building that he owns and manages.  He’s also a real advocate for the Co-operative model.  About a year later, Morley and I got together to discuss his ideas and worked together on creating a framework for the Co-op.  Then we brought Joanne Andrighetti and Jeff Holmwood into the project.  And now Naoko Takenouchi is also working with us to develop the sandblasting studio and cold shop.  We also have almost 30 members so far

Q: What kinds of classes will be available and how does registration work?  What equipment will be available for Co-op members?
A: Right now we are offering beginner classes in glassblowing and flameworking, with some micro-coldworking classes and a sandblasting class coming up this summer.  We are still developing our education department, and we will be offering more advanced classes as we grow.  Approved Co-op members will have access to flameworking, hot shop, coldworking and sandblasting equipment.  All of our classes are on the website, and our schedule for the studio will be available for booking online soon.  We are also looking forward to partnering with educational institutions to offer courses as part of their arts education program.

Title: Boro Annealer Photo credit: Larissa Blokhuis Caption: Annealer for flameworking classes.

Q: What do you hope to personally achieve through the Co-op?
A: Our vision for the Co-op is to build a centre for glass arts, a place where amazing work is being made, and where students and the community can learn all about our fascinating medium.  I really look forward to the collaborative creativity and artistic growth that will happen in the Co-op.  I really feel like we are building a future for glass arts in Vancouver, and that is pretty special!

Q:  What type of influence do you want Co-op members to have on the glass / art community?

A: I hope the Co-op will help the glass community grow and become stronger and lead to a more considerable impact in the Vancouver arts landscape.

Q:  Describe some of the lucky events and goodwill that has been directed toward the Co-op.
A: From the beginning we have been super lucky.  When we first set out to set up the Co-op, we consulted with the British Columbia Co-operative Association and they gave us the gift of a Co-operative incorporation rules writer, Melanie Conn.  People in the glass community have been incredibly generous including Bocci, who generously donated the materials for our furnace, which was a huge expense.  Also, Nortel Mfg. donated six torches to our flameworking shop.  And really, we have Morley to thank for about $40,000 worth of equipment.  There’s way too much goodwill to list here and it’s really made us all feel great about the project.  So far, the studio has been built almost entirely on volunteer hours.  People are really committed to seeing the Co-op built and operational.  I can’t even begin to list everyone who has helped, but their help has been instrumental to the progress we have made.

Q: Talk about the history of the neighbourhood where the studio is located.  It’s a great place to connect with artists working in different mediums.
A: Strathcona is a really amazing neighbourhood, and of course we are at the epicentre of the Eastside Culture Crawl, a yearly event that brings thousands of people into the neighbourhood for an artist’s open house weekend.  This neighbourhood is filled with artists, and our building houses a wood Co-op and a ceramics Co-op, both built by Morley, as well as textile artists, painters, weavers, ceramicists, a youth Co-op, a specialty artist’s paint manufacturer and more.

Q: What do you want people to know about the Co-op?

A: Being part of a Co-op is owning a small part of the business, so all of our members own shares in the company.  As well, we are a non-profit Co-op, so all of our profit goes right back into the studio, whether this means we buy new equipment, or reduce the rental rates.  It’s really a great model for a business where we want to share a resource.

Q: If someone is interested in donating, what is the procedure?

A: Call us!  Email us!  Look at the wish list on our website.

Some brief information about our founding members:

Holly Cruise has been working with glass since 1995.  She first apprenticed at UrbanGlass in New York.  After two years, she re-located to New Orleans, Louisiana, to work in production.  Her last move in 1999 brought her to Vancouver, where she has been actively involved in the community through the BCGAA and various other organisations.

Joanne Andrighetti is a well-established name in BC glass.  She has owned her own glassblowing studio, and her flameworking studio has been incorporated into the Co-op.  Joanne has extensive experience as a glass teacher and supply shop owner.  Her shop continues to run adjacent to the Co-op providing the same easy access to supplies that was enjoyed at her previous location.

Title: Boro Rods Photo credit: Larissa Blokhuis Caption: A portion of the supply available in Joanne’s shop.

Jeff Holmwood began his BFA in glassblowing in 1990, and has gone on to own his own studio.  Originally located in Edmonton, his shop has since moved to Vancouver to serve as the production studio for Bocci.  Jeff developed a community for his Edmonton studio by teaching others, and has taught extensively at various locations including ACAD, Red Deer, Pilchuck, and Penland.

Title: Hot shop Builder Photo credit: Larissa Blokhuis Caption: Jeff Holmwood mugs in front of the hot shop he is building.

Morley Faber is one of the few non-glassblowers among us, but his contribution to the Co-op has been vital.  He is part owner and building manager of the Mergatroid building.  Morley has assisted in the development of other successful Co-ops located in the Mergatroid.  He has donated several pieces of equipment kept in storage from the defunct Joe Blow studio.

Volunteers and new members have performed admirably, transforming the space into a fresh-looking studio in a short amount of time.  The glass community of Vancouver has united to create an open membership, non-profit studio; offering glassblowing, flameworking, coldworking, and sandblasting.  Flameworking classes began in May, followed by glassblowing classes in June.  If you’re in Vancouver, we invite you to come check us out!

Larissa Blokhuis attended ACAD and graduated with a major in glassblowing in 2008.  She currently works at New-Small and Sterling, where she blows glass weekly.  Larissa has also attended Red Deer College in 2007 and Pilchuck in 2011.  She looks forward to developing further as a glassblower and gaining more exhibition experience.  blokhuisglass.weebly.com.

By: Cheryl Hamilton

Road trips are usually a fun, carefree adventure with a come-what-may attitude for me.  I mosey and detour; sometimes the destination is never reached.

Not this time.

My sculpture partner Mike Vandermeer and I packed a van full of blown glass and metal and were about to do the 4,000 km trip to Dallas, Texas.

Mike Vandermeer with a wrapped section of one of the mobiles in ie creative studio. Photo credit: Cheryl Hamilton

We had a public art commission for the Texas Discovery Gardens to deliver and install.  This was to be the centerpiece sculpture in the lobby as part of the museum’s new renovation:  seven different mobiles depicting different elements from the world of plants and insects.  Each mobile had individual blown glass pieces perfectly balanced with cast stainless steel elements.

Although we had brought seconds with us in case of disaster (ie. in the event of a piece breaking), we were loath to deal with such an event.  Replacing a broken piece of glass would also mean re-balancing the mobile.  This would be a frustrating task without our studio full of tools and jigs.

Shipping was out of the question.  We had spent thousands of dollars and months working on this art, and our previous experiences with shipping had all been a disaster.  We had just shipped a foam core full scale mock-up of the mobiles from Texas to Vancouver only to have the crate arrive looking like it had been dragged by a chain behind a pick-up truck all the way north.   It sat in our studio like an ominous harbinger from the universe.

You must drive the sculpture to Texas yourselves

We decided on a rented extended cargo van as our conveyance.  We predicted there was enough room to pack the seven mobiles in the back; the tight configuration adding more support and cushioning for the trip.  The van would be easier to drive than a cube truck, and we would need a vehicle to drive around in when we were in Dallas.  We also had to drive home and I had always wanted to do a road trip reminiscent of all the rock and roll bands that I had read about.  A cooler of refreshments in the back, along with the leftover foam from the unwrapped sculpture would make for a luxurious trip.

Some of the glass had already journeyed across the border as we teamed with Erich Woll at Benjamin Moore’s studio in Seattle for some of the larger pieces.  The smaller pieces were made in Vancouver with myself, Mitch Wren and Elizabeth Curry at New-Small and Sterling Glass on Granville Island.  With Erich and Mitch’s skill, we produced some of the most beautiful sculptural glass I have ever seen.

How to pack a van in eight hours

Mike and I immediately began to worry about the hardships this glass would see before it got to its final home, the largest piece of glass being about 27 inches in diameter and weighing about 30 pounds.  Some of these pieces had taken a team of five people in a hot shop to produce.  Before it would hang in the museum in Dallas, it would have to be lovingly cold-worked and custom-fit to metal and rubber attachments, and then it would hit the road for an epic road trip.

We made a plan for the back of the van after measuring each piece of sculpture.  We had constructed a plywood crate for the glass on one side of the cargo hold, which was the inner sanctum; we stored all the precious fragile components in this box.  It had layers of foam and bubble wrap and would be a nightmare to dismantle at the border, but what could we do?  We had a shedload of unknown trail before us and who-knows-what gauntlet of potholes and road tomfoolery lay ahead?

It took six people eight hours to pack the van.  Once the final pieces were in, it was so packed that Mike had to squeeze his clothes into spaces around the sculpture in white kitchen-catcher garbage bags.  This would prove to be a discussion point at every motel we checked into for the entire trip.  We had a specific order in which we had to load ourselves in the van every morning after unloading ourselves for the night.  My toiletries had to sit behind my laptop behind the drivers’ seat and the map book and snack bag sat on top of that, etc. . . .

Cheryl Hamilton packing the van for the road trip to Dallas. Photo credit: Mike Vandermeer

The result of all of this careful packing made the back of the van look like a tightly wrapped bug’s nest.  Instead of spinning a silk cocoon, this large imaginary insect had used bubble wrap and cardboard to protect its larva.  I wondered if this had occurred through fluke or if it was an unconscious act, since we had been working with the bug vernacular for months.  Were we mimicking the process of transformation of pupae to imago with the shipment of our sculpture?  When we arrived in Dallas I imagined the sculpture emerging from the van like a butterfly from its chrysalis.

We had had months of discussion on which route to take. What would be the easiest to drive?  What was the fastest route?  Where was the least amount of bumps? With most of my previous road trips, the route was planned (if planned at all) with priorities like good scenery, interesting destinations for the end of the day, and sometimes (although not always possible) decent food.   None of these priorities even got on the table.  We had concerns like which border crossing would we have to use, what highway was the most modern and flat?  Where could we park our van while we slept, knowing it would be safe?

Seeing the mountains (of paperwork)

Then there was the paperwork.  There was immediately a mountain of forms and special documents that had a labyrinth of offices to report to and approvals to acquire.  As we started our journey into international red tape and talking to the beadledom on the other end of the phone, we quickly realized we were in way over our heads.  We would need to hire a broker.

Luckily, we knew someone who knew someone who knew the broker for the band Nickelback.

The broker gave us a list of tasks.  And there were forms, tons of forms, to be filled in with only blue ink.  In triplicate.  We listed everything in the van, to what seemed like ridiculous triviality.  Who cared how many #6 Robertson screws I had in that box?  Did it really matter if I had thrown in an extra pair of vice grips and roll of masking tape?  Well, apparently it did.

The Nickelback broker warned us of border guards that reacted to bad paperwork like sharks reacting to a drop of blood in the ocean.  Or as Texans like to say, “like buzzards on a meat wagon”.

We enlisted our friends the evening before our departure and shared our fears of our impending carnage.  The result was neatly printed labels and lists.  We had our friends dutiful writing, safeguarding the contents of each box, with an inventory and photo of the contents taped on the side.  Mike and I inspected each box as it was numbered and loaded into the van.  We had a copy of each in a file folder to present to the border officials.  We had also sent pictures of the sculptures hanging in our studio, along with a copy of our contract from the City of Dallas, to the border in advance.  We had an arranged time to cross the border so they knew we were coming, and alerted the public art officials in Dallas to be ready for a phone call at the time of our crossing if there was a snag.  It was a herculean effort, but worth the worry when we presented our inventory to the officials.  I’m sure the acknowledged respect for protocol and the smell of fear on us had quelled any aggression or show of dominance on their part.  Our van was x-rayed and we were sent on our way after a few friendly questions.

It almost seemed like an ambush of some sorts.  Could we really be driving through the border with our artwork?  The Nickelback broker had done the incredible task of putting together all the necessary paperwork and preparing us for the worst.  He was worth every penny as far as I was concerned.  It took a few miles for us to realize that we were actually on our way.

Texas or bust

The trip took us from the West Coast through the Midwest U.S. down South.  We traveled through eight states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally Texas.  We immersed ourselves in the homogenous highway culture of the U.S.  Another gas-up at another giant trucker stop, mid-westerners staring gap-mouthed in the windows of our van and commenting on how far away Canada was; another Denny’s Moon-over-my–Hammy meal.  I wasn’t feeling the romance of the open road when I lost my wallet and passport in Oklahoma.  (Mike later lost his wallet in Dallas; we got them both back eventually.)

We slept with one eye open at every motel each night.  We would circle the motel first and make sure it either had cameras in the parking lot or we could see the parked van from our room.  If either of these was not possible or the vibe was funky in any way, we would move on to the next motel or sometimes the next small town.  When we finally had a place to sleep for a few hours, the sound of a distant car door opening or closing would wake us up and compel us to check the van.

We drove through storms and tornado warnings, each time thinking that if the van crashed, the emergency responders would be astonished as they sorted through the colourful wreckage of shiny stainless steel and blown glass.

We shared the road with a restless cross section of humanity:  mini-vans with families, retirees in motor homes, army convoys, bikers, truckers, farmers and commuters.  Our “Great Canadian Van Rental” stickers feeling more and more odd the further we got into the U.S.

I could not help but think that this was a perfect way to anoint a public art installation.  This was not a couple of jet-set artists materializing in the protected walls of an art gallery with this work.  No, we made this artwork in Dallas, Seattle and Vancouver, and it would arrive at its final destination with the dusty patina of the road on us.  Art for the people, via the people!

Cheryl on the lift with one of the seven mobiles at the Texas Discovery Gardens in Dallas. Photo credit: Mike Vandermeer

We arrived in Dallas on our fifth day on the road. As we unpacked the van, we discovered that with the few exceptions of some fatigued welds on some very small, unprotected pieces, every bit made it to Texas intact.  The glass was perfect, each piece still pristine inside our friends’ neatly wrapped packages.  Over the next four days we installed our artwork and felt the relief of getting each piece of glass up where it was finally destined.

The “Chrysalis “ mobile hangs in front of the Butterfly Vivarium Photo credit: Cheryl Hamilton

With that kind of luck, we planned to hit Vegas on the way home.

About the Author:

Cheryl Hamilton is one half of the artist team of ie creative artworks. A graduate of Emily Carr College of Art and Design, and her recent training in the techniques of glass blowing at Alberta’s Red Deer College and Pilchuck Glass School coupled with her metal working experience now enable her to animate light and colour within her monumental steel structures.

She works out of the ie creative studio on Granville Island in Vancouver. Cheryl has completed public and private artworks across North America.

By Julia Reimer

November has been declared Canada Month in the Glass Studio at the Jam Factory.  During this month there will be several well-known Canadian glass artists either creating work at the Jam Factory or doing presentations about their work.  Some of the artists that will be infusing the Jam with some Canadian culture are as follows.

Julia Reimer

Julia Reimer will be the artist in residence at the Jam Factory for the month of November.  During that time, she will be doing a special project in the Glass Studio developing a series of work that reflects on nature’s ability to reclaim itself.  Julia has resided in Adelaide for the past nine months and during this time has researched the influence of the landscape on Australian craft design and examined how a different landscape, natural environment and culture inspire and influence craft artists.  During this project, she will create pieces with the associates in the Jam glass program, each of which, through their forms and texture, allude to the generative forces in nature.  Julia will also give an artist talk on her practice on November 2^nd.

Clear Nest and Red Nest by Julia Reimer

Tyler Rock

Artist and instructor Tyler Rock will be at Jam Factory for an artist talk and to demonstrate his work in the glass studio on November 7^th.  Tyler is currently doing his Masters in Visual Art by research at the University of South Australia in Adelaide.  During his Masters he has focused on the notion of a craft object as a false artefact, and its engagement with phenomena.  Specifically, his research is exploring the use of crafted objects as ‘instruments’ in order to engage phenomenological experience within site-specific environments.  As well, he is an instructor at the UNISA glass department.

 

Caroline Ouellette and Patrick Primeau

 

For a distinct perspective of Canadian glass, Caroline Ouellette and Patrick Primeau will be at Jam Factory for an artist talk and hot glass demo on November 14th.  Caroline is currently also doing her Masters in Visual Art by research at the University of South Australia.  The focus of her Masters is curiosity and the mechanism of seduction.  Patrick is renting time at the Jam Factory to create his work as well as working as an assistant for many glass artists within the large glass arts community in Adelaide that is based out of the Jam Factory.

 

Christine Cholewa

 

Christine Cholewa works with five other talented artists as part of the Glass Studio management team, which runs the Glass Studio at Jam Factory.  She is the organizer of Canada Month.  Christine was born near Toronto in 1979 and is the granddaughter of farmers who migrated from Poland and the Ukraine after the war.  Growing up on a vegetable farm is one of her favourite childhood memories.  After she graduated from Alberta College of Art and Design with her Bachelor of Fine Art, she made the long journey to Adelaide to participate in the two-year Associate Training Program at the Jam Factory Contemporary Craft and Design.  As well as working at the Jam Factory, she has a space at the beautiful Blue Pony studio. She enjoys making of all kinds, glassblowing, gardening, good food, and trying to learn the ukulele and piano accordion.

 

 

Wireless Connection by Christine Cholewa

 

 

Jaan Poldaas (another Canadian) will be around telling Canadian jokes and helping out!  Brad Bonar (another Canadian who works at the Jam) will be filming some of these events to put up on the internet and link this with the Glass Art Association of Canada web site.

 

There is a vibrant glass community in Adelaide that has a significant influence on Australian glass and the hub of this community is the Jam Factory. Perhaps, for this moment, given the number of Canadians that are working at the Jam Factory there can be a small exchange of ideas between these two similar but distant glass communities.

Tyler Rock

Tyler Rock

By Jocelyne Prince

This video documentation is of a live event held at K-Arts in Seoul, Korea. A makeshift tree construction is covered with hot glass “clouds”. Four teams of Korean women glass blowers work to the sounds of French musette music. They are producing mold blown glass that is then placed, while still hot, on the limbs of the tree. The performance is an attempt to re-enact the Asian phenomena of cherry blossom viewing.

Due to the short but intense life span of the cherry blossom, Buddhists liken it to mortality, to the ephemeral and temporal conditions of life. Similarly much of the hot glass breaks as the tree is covered with glass parts; the tree ignites with small fires – a proverbial burning bush.

Cherry Blossom Live Event from jocelyne prince on Vimeo.

Jocelyne Prince

From Museum of Vancouver

Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver is an exhibition about Vancouver’s love/hate relationship with neon signs, which explores Vancouver’s gritty, urban past at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV). Opening October 13, 2011, Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver presents a fascinating look at the rapid growth of neon signs throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, and the visual purity crusade that virtually banished them from Vancouver streets.

01. Smiling Buda neon sign photo by Walter Griba

“The exhibition raises interesting questions about how we collectively construct the way our city is portrayed,” says Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver curator, Joan Seidl, Director of Exhibitions and Collections at MOV.  “There was a real push in the 60s and 70s to redefine Vancouver as a green, natural space. While we may love neon today, there was a real outcry against neon signs, which represented a more industrial, urban city.”

02. Drake Hotel neon sign photo by Walter Griba

“We’re being led by the nose into a hideous jungle of signs. They’re outsized, outlandish, and outrageous. They’re desecrating our buildings, cluttering our streets, and — this is the final indignity — blocking our view of some of the greatest scenery in the world,” says Tom Ardies in “Let’s Wake Up from Our Neon Nightmare,” Vancouver Sun, 1966.

03. Owl Drug neon sign detail photo by Walter Griba

Curated by Joan Seidl and designed by Resolve Design, Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver reaches into the riches of MOV’s historic neon collection to resurrect some of the city’s former sign magic. Signs on display show the lost art of neon, and include long-time favourites like the Regent Tailors, Owl Drug, and the Drake Hotel, complimented by recently acquired signs such as Clark’s Beauty Salon (Main Street) and the Blue Eagle Café (East Hastings Street). Visitors can also enjoy the Smiling Buddha in the History Galleries. This gritty, urban side of Vancouver’s past is also explored through the photography of Walter Griba, which is on public display for the first time.  The exhibition runs Thursday, October 13, 2011 through Sunday, August 12, 2012.  To learn more about the exhibition, visit the MOV’s website.

July 1 – August 21, 2011

By Joanne Marion and Tom McFall

This dynamic group exhibition of contemporary handmade glasswork ranges from large-scale sculpture to small vessels by 16 Alberta glass artists. It is also the first collaboration between the Alberta Craft Council, the Calgary Glass Initiative and the Esplanade Art Gallery, in bringing the exhibition, publication and website to fruition.

ROBERT GEYER, PINK MURMUR 2, 2011, hand-pulled & coloured glass rods, 9’ x 4’ x 1’

Natural Flow was initiated as a way of gathering together recent work by a wide range of Alberta-based glass artists. The theme highlights the unique ability of hot glass to embody organic and biomorphic ideas, forms and forces.

NATALI RODRIGUES, PROXIMITY AND TOUCH, # 15 , 2010, cast, hot formed & cold worked glass, 3” x 4” x 3”

The natural flow of hot glass, both as a medium and a creative making process makes it arguably one of the most mind-body connected of the craft arts. Much of the process and final form are a direct result of this: rhythm, dance, energy and movement, are typical words in the hot glass vocabulary.

The liquidity and viscosity of hot glass are inextricably linked to the mind and muscle grace of the makers. This is distinct, for example, from stages of drawing, modeling, cutting, assembling and finishing common with furniture making; none of these glass pieces would have the same visual flow had they been drawn by hand or CAD and then prototyped and produced somewhere other than in these craft artists’ studios.

JEFF HOLMWOOD, ELECTRIC KOOL-AID VASE, 2007, blown glass, 20” x 13” x 13” Collection of Alberta Foundation for the Arts

The very nature of glass as an ‘amorphous solid’ – neither liquid nor solid – thus lends itself to these qualities physically, but the works in hot glass featured here take it a step beyond, evoking natural forces of change visually and also metaphorically, through a variety of strategies from imagery to humour, satire and spiritual contemplation.

TYLER ROCK, ILLATION, 2010, blown glass, 68” x 11”

Alberta has a unique hot glass culture, recognized internationally for its “frontier” character. The personalities of the individual artists and the distinctiveness of their work preclude an “Alberta school” of glass. But, collectively, Alberta’s glass artists are a phenomenon. The 16 artists in Natural Flow are among those who have, over the past 30 to 40 years, created a distinct Alberta energy in their discipline.

JULIA REIMER , GREY SWALLOW, 2010, blown & solid sculpted glass, 23” x 13”

In her catalogue text, Jennifer Salahub has ably invoked the spirit of social historian John Ruskin, the British Arts & Crafts Movement and the development of American studio glass in creating a context for the work in this exhibition. We may add to that scholarship the wealth of global influences embraced by these artists. They are versed in a long culture of glass object making from the ancient Mediterranean and Renaissance Italy, through industrial revolution manufacturing, to French art nouveau, Scandinavian modern, central European communist modern, Italian movements such as Memphis, all of the American art glass scene from Tiffany Studio to the present, as well as oddities such as Mexican and Indian sweatshop factories. Even Coca-Cola and other famous brand glass products, space-race material developments and contemporary art can be seen as having made an eclectic material or ideation impression upon these artists.

KEITH WALKER, MIDDLE BLUE SKILLSAW UMBRELLA, 2008, blown glass assembled, 15" d x 32"

However, while the idea of ‘natural flow’ is traced through the works gathered here, it is not exemplary of all Alberta glass artists’ practices; and so this project, while comprehensive in scope, is certainly not exhaustive of the richness of Alberta glass artists.

Natural Flow: Contemporary Alberta Glass was curated by Joanne Marion and organized by the Esplanade Art Gallery in collaboration with the Alberta Craft Council and the Calgary Glass Initiative, and is accompanied by a catalogue and a website. We thank the cities of Medicine Hat, Calgary and Edmonton, for their support, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Joanne Marion Curator of Art, Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre

Tom McFall Executive Director, Alberta Craft Council

Kai Georg Scholefield President, Calgary Glass Initiative

By: Jill Allan

Naoko Takenouchi is a Vancouver-based glass artist who is, perhaps, best admired for the personal iconography that she sandblasts and sand-carves onto the surfaces of vessels and for the sculptural forms that she sand-carves out of bubbles.

I met Naoko Takenouchi when I began working for Starfish Glassworks in 1997.  She was part of the group V6, which comprised of Jeff Burnette, Lisa Samphire, Gary Bolt, Joanne Andrighetti, Morna Tudor and Takenouchi.  (V6 pooled their resources to market and promote their work and Starfish Glassworks grew out of this group.  At the time that V6 formed, in the 1990s, Samphire, Bolt and Takenouchi were working at New-Small and Sterling Studio Glass on Granville Island, and Burnette and Tudor were working out of nearby Andrighetti Glassworks.  Bolt, Burnette, Andrighetti and Tudor were all graduates of the Sheridan College program.)

Currently, Takenouchi maintains her practice in Vancouver renting time in the hot studio of New-Small and Sterling Studio Glass and using her private home studio to finish and treat the surfaces of her vessels and sculptures.

Originally from Japan, Takenouchi went to Tama Art University to learn to work with glass.  Dabbling in all the techniques, except for lampworking, she decided at school that she preferred working in blown glass but was exhausted after a rigorous four-year program and tried working as a lighting designer immediately after she graduated.  After a year of light fixture design she craved the material, hands on approach.

“After one year working in a design office, I realized how important it is for me to work the actual material with my hand,” explains Takenouchi. “For me, the most exciting part of making things is not the designing on the paper. It is the transformation from the paper to a three dimensional actual glass object.”

She went on to work in a government run glass studio in Sapporo, Japan, called the Swedish Centre Foundation.  The gaffers there were Swedish and she learned many new skills through working with them, including different approaches to colour application, form and sandblasting techniques.

Title: Fragment of a Dream #8 & #9 Dimensions: 9” d x 21” h Details: blown glass, silver foil, brass fittings, sand-carved, assembled Year: 2008 Photo credit: Naoko Takenouchi

“My early work was heavily influenced by Swedish artists when I was working in the Swedish Centre in Northern Japan. I loved Ann Wolf’s work that time,” she recalls.  “In 1998, I saw Bertil Vallien’s show at the William Traver Gallery in Seattle. I think the show was called ‘Journey’. This show gave me a very strong inspiration. It was a wonderful example of glass sculptures with a narrative element. His work showed me a deep part of the human soul by looking through glass, just like the deep ocean.”

Takenouchi also turns to nature for inspiration and increasingly considers the impact of spirituality on her process.  She credits her experience at the Atlin Centre in northern BC in 1999 for allowing her to shift to a deeper awareness of her creative process, harnessing the energy derived from her internal scrutiny into positive self-expression.  This course of looking within for inspiration has imbued her works with a sincere and original voice.  Takenouchi has always turned to making objects and drawings as a form of self-expression rather than relying on verbal communication.

Title: Sacred Ground Dimensions: 10” w x 12” d x 14” h Details: blown glass, plate glass, sand-carved Year: 2009 Photo credit: Jill Allan

“I always loved drawing and making things with my hands since I was very little, so I feel a visual expression is very much part of myself,” she explains.  “I’ve never been a strong verbal communicator, so the desire to express myself and to seek my own identity ‑ or even our identity as conscious beings ‑ through the process of making things became a very strong focus in my life.”

She is fascinated by the connections being made by quantum physics between science and the invisible, and by how our intentions and energy affect the physical world.  She explores these ideas through reflection, but also through meditative acts, such as pilgrimage, trekking the famous Camino de Santiago route through the Pyrenees.  The trail has provided inspiration for recent works manifest in new travelers’ iconography like maps, contour lines and intersections.  While temporalizing these soulful questions and environments, Takenouchi remains grounded in how to apply them to her physical world and creative process.

Title: Detail of Nautilus form from 'Unity' Dimensions: 2” x 2” Details: hot sculpted glass Year: 2009 Photo credit: Jill Allan

“We just had devastating earthquakes in Japan, and even a month later people are experiencing aftershocks. Their nuclear plants are spreading radiation and threatening our lives. Japan has over 50 nuclear reactors in that small and unstable volcanic land. This is no longer a problem of somebody else. It’s time to shift our mindset,” she implores.  “I’ve been studying energy work and energy healing over the last few years. Some people think that’s flaky, but I’m amazed by how much our intention and energy can change our physical reality. I’d like to work towards incorporating this idea in my artwork and promote the idea that we all have an ability and responsibility to change the world.  I think during the process of making, we all transmit our energy in to our work in some level, but it’ll be interesting if I can use that intentionally in my work.”

Takenouchi admits that staying true to what you want to express with your work and spontaneously following inspiration can be a struggle when dealing with the demands of the retail gallery world and her labour-intensive process.

Each step of Takenouchi’s process is carefully planned and considered.  When she is blowing the bubbles she collects layers of colour and metal foils to later carve through with the cold equipment.  She uses clear vinyl tape to cover the entire surface of the bubble inside and out then draws on top of the tape to guide her incision of the design.  This process of elimination leaves a stencil of masking material on the glass that protects the positive areas of her design.

Title: ‘Unity’ centre piece Dimensions: 8’ h x 2’ w Details: cast, and hot sculpted glass components with textile screen and twigs. Year: 2009 Photo credit: Jill Allan

”I do lots of drawings with many forms and ideas, sometimes with writings as well. I find this process is like having a dialogue with my drawings and it can be quite fun. Once I know the design of the piece, I think about the technical process. I prefer deciding the details as I go, but often with the sandblasting process, I have to decide all the details before I start,” she said.

Throughout the process, different aspects of the design are exposed to the sandblaster, building up layers of detail and depth.  She works as a printer would, from the deepest mark to the shallowest details.  Time is of the essence as the masking materials want to shrink and move.  Takenouchi uses a variety of masking materials: anchor resist for heavy pressure sand carving (50psi), clear vinyl tape for lower pressures and white glue applied with a sponge for manipulated textural effects.  These techniques have evolved over the past two decades into an extremely sophisticated system of mark-making and signature narrative expression.

Over the last 10 years at my various jobs in galleries on the west coast, it has always been a pleasure to me to watch the public respond to Takenouchi’s work.  Even without an understanding of the intense technical process involved, the works impress the viewer with their integrity and quality.  She quietly and consistently sets a high standard. It is interesting to consider her spiritual inspirations when being in the presence of Takenouchi’s work is also a powerful spiritual experience.

Jill Allan lives on Vancouver Island, is the regional GAAC representative for BC and a really big fan of Naoko Takenouchi ra ra ra!

By: Jill Allan

The BC regional Glass Gathering took place on Mother’s Day weekend at the University of Victoria.  Twenty-five local glassmakers and enthusiasts came together to listen to Kirstie Rea present her work, to promote GAAC, BCGAA and to meet one other.  The event was attended by artists from the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, Gabriola Island and Saltspring Island.

Participants’ show and tell! Artists: Jill Adamson, Amanda Parker, Michael Iverson, Jill Allan, Lisa Samphire, Larissa Blokhuis, Toni Johnson (Tidelines Glass in Campbell River), Jacqueline Cornford, Chris Smith, Ben Goodman. Photo credit: Lisa Samphire

Rea presented two slideshows, one about the themes in her work and her experiences throughout her career, and the other about her technical process.  Attendees spent the rest of the time getting to know one other and looking at one others work, and discussing what GAAC and BCGAA have to offer to its membership.

Sarah Mulligan, Jay Macdonell, Mel Munsen, chatting after Kirstie Rea’s presentation. Photo credit: Lisa Samphire

After the meeting at UVic, many of the participants reconvened at the beautiful Miramontes Studio of David Calles for a fantastic potluck dinner and party.  Plans are in the works for future gatherings organized around visiting artists’ presentations.

Dinner in the studio at Miramontes Glass. Top: Craig Hellemond (Rogue Wave Glassworks Chemainus), Lisa Samphire (Starfish Glassworks); Right side: Alannah New-Small (New-Small and Sterling Studio Glass Vancouver), Carla Hellemond, Michael Hofmann, Jane Van Sickle; Left side: Kirstie Rea, Cathy Chase, Waine Ryzak, Ben Goodman, Larissa Blokhuis, Sarah Mulligan, David Calles Photo credit: Lisa Samphire

Dinner in the studio. Clockwise from bottom left: Sarah Mulligan, Waine Ryzak, David Calles, Kirstie Rea, Craig Hellemond, Bob Brown, Jill Allan, Carla Hellemond Photo credit: Lisa Samphire

We will keep the membership posted about future events in BC and would love to hear about suggestions for themes, venues, volunteers and possible presenters. Please contact Jill @ glass at jillallan.com

Dernièrement, j’ai eu la chance de participer à l’expo/vente One of a Kind du printemps.  Ayant été sélectionnée par le GAAC pour une nouvelle bourse, celle du ‘Craft Community of Canada’, j’ai été plus que gâtée! Tout d’abord, la bourse comprend la location de l’emplacement au salon, ainsi qu’un  montant pour le transport et hébergement. Elle a pour but d’aider un artiste verrier de la relève ayant 5 ans et moins de pratique, à exposer et vendre ses créations au public torontois tout en faisant la promotion de l’association qui l’a nommée. N’ayant presque rien à débourser, cette bourse est une très belle opportunité de se faire connaître et d’essayer de nouveaux produits sur le marché, à peu de frais.

Carolyne in front of her booth at the One of a Kind Show

D’autre part, les détenteurs de cette bourse exposaient tous dans une même section au salon. Nous étions 10 artisans de différents métiers d’art à y être regroupés et à avoir été sélectionnés par différents organismes. Pour cette raison, cela en faisait à mon avis une des plus belles sections du salon et je me trouve très choyée d’en avoir fait partie! C’était aussi en  quelque sorte, une belle communauté d’artisans! Nous avons eu bien du plaisir et nous nous entraidions tout au long de l’évènement. Nous avons tissé des liens et ces rencontres ont rendus l’expérience encore plus plaisante!

Carolyne with other artists who also received grants

De plus, moi et quelques unes de mes consoeurs artisanes de la relève, de cette section et d’ailleurs, avons bénéficié d’une foulée de publicités dans les médias! Plusieurs clients nous ont fait la remarque et cela donnait une valeur ajoutée à nos créations! Mes produits ont pris preneurs chez la clientèle torontoise, très respectueuse de l’art et des artisans. J’ai adoré expliquer au gens tout le travail derrière ces créations, les techniques si complexes à maîtriser mais à la fois si stimulantes et intéressantes à travailler!

Carolyne’s booth at the One of a Kind Show

En général, j’ai trouvé que le salon étaient remplis d’artisans originaux maitrisant leur art et créant des pièces de hautes qualités, au goût du jour. Il est clair que les organisateurs du One of a Kind travaillent fort  pour que ça en soit ainsi  et tiennent à rehausser l’image des métiers d’art. Je crois que plus les artisans ayant du travail de qualité exposeront leur travail, plus les métiers d’arts seront respectés par la société. Il faut élever la barre des métiers d’art afin de démontrer que de nos jours, dans le terme métiers d’art, le mot ART est plus que présent et que c’est très accessible! Je crois que c’est un très beau cadeau de la part du GAAC et un gros coup de pouce qu’il nous donne. Notre association n’est pas là pour rien et nous devons profiter des opportunités qu’ils étalent sous nos pieds. J’ai vécue une très belle expérience et si vous êtes de la relève, je vous conseil de sauter sur cette bourse l’année prochaine!

Un gros merci au GAAC!

Carolyne Brouillard,

Artiste verrier

The support of a community

By: Carolyne Brouillard

I recently had the chance to be part of the One of a Kind (OOAK) Spring show, having been selected by the Glass Art Association of Canada for a new grant offered through OOAK and I must say that I was fortunately spoiled.

Carolyne devant son stand au One of a Kind

First of all, the grant offered the location of a booth and an amount for transportation and accommodations. It has the goal of helping a Canadian glass artist with five years or less of experience in their company to show their work and promote GAAC. It was a great opportunity for getting to known and trying new products in a new market for almost no fees. As they say on the OOAK website, the grant is a ‘brand new platform for emerging artists to launch their careers!’

At the show, grant recipients had their own section. There were 10 artists from different crafts who were selected by different organizations. Mostly because of that reason, I though it was one of the nicest sections in the show; I found myself lucky to be part of it! It was in a way, a craft community itself! We had a really great time and helped each other all along the way. Links tied us up and helped the experience to be even more enjoyable!

Carolyne avec d'autres artistes qui ont aussi reçu des subventions

Also, a lot of new artisans, including myself, had the opportunity to be featured in a variety of media. Clients told us that they had seen publicity and this added great value to our work. My work was appreciated by Torontonians, who were really respectful of the crafts and artisans. I had a good time explaining to the clients the hard work behind the creations but also how stimulating and interesting it was to work glass.

Carolyne stand au One of a Kind

I thought that the show was nicer than I heard it was years ago. It is obvious that the One of a Kind Show managers have worked hard to upgrade the quality level and make the arts and crafts a nice picture.

I really think that if more artists with nice quality work would exhibit their work in this kind of show, more of the crafts would be respected in society. I also think that we have to show that in our contemporary days, of the expressions ‘arts’ and ‘crafts’, the word ‘arts’ is more than present and accessible to all.

It was such a nice gift from GAAC and a nice helping hand that they offered here. Our Association isn’t only present at the conferences, but all year long and we have to take all the chances that are waiting for us to take. I had a great time at this edition of One of a Kind Spring show and if you are an emerging artist, I encourage you to grab this opportunity next year!

Thanks a lot to GAAC!

By Kai Georg Scholefield

Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, 32" x 42 "

Internationally acclaimed artist Judith Schaechter was invited to the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary in January this year as a visiting artist to give demonstrations and lectures on her practice as a stained glass artist.

Schaechter made her start in glass after attending Rhode Island School of Design when she moved to Philadelphia, and over the next 20 years created work that has been described as “paradoxical assemblages of medieval depictions, mediated by contemporary tales of human failings.”

Child Bride, 20" x 38"

In terms of materials, Schaechter makes use of those standard to stained glass: flat glass panels or modules soldered together in a support frame.  However, in terms of process and content, her work is inventive and unique. A singular work may contain layers of coloured flash glass, flat glass with a veneer of colour on one side where the coloured side is cut, carved and sanded to create contour lines, and variations in tone and hue.  Her work generally depicts figures and each component within a piece is meticulously constructed in steps.  She even uses pigment – generally black and yellow – to refine renderings further. These pigments are then fired in a kiln to ensure they become a permanent part of the glass.  Due to the nature of Judith’s work, throughout a select piece there may be sections with more layers than others, creating a relief or landscape across the piece that adds dimension to the work literally and aesthetically. She has also been resourceful with a variety of tools and equipment in her practice, making Judith noteworthy as an innovator in stain glass technology.

Detail of process

The physical process of constructing a piece and the internal creative process are linked in Schaechter’s work and mind in that her creative process involves applying certain constraints under which conditions she believes she is more effective. Schaechter believes the tedium is what draws her to the medium. While concentrating on specific tasks, ideas to her are allowed to move and grow unrestricted from the pressure of specific meaning.  Having said that, Judith is also intuitive in her creative process, meaning she does not set out to execute a rigid plan. She instead applies patience and an amount of breathing room for dialogue between herself and the work as it is created.

When speaking about content, Schaechter suggests her work conveys an uncomfortable beauty based primarily on sex and death and, to a lesser extent, romance and violence. And while her work appears to have sarcastic undertones in its gothic depictions, it is quite refreshing in that Judith values the clichés and sentimentality that is invoked.

Joan of Arc, 35" x 31"

Schaechter has argued that glass is not a genre but a medium of expression, and while this is an ongoing debate yet undecided by the art community at large, the traditional context for stained glass in general does not touch these topics.  And so it appears Judith Schaechter is a pioneer here, breaking new ground in glass art.

The Talk, 18" x 41"

Judith is represented in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Netherlands, Germany and Korea and is the recipient of many grants, including two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and numerous private collections. Judith has taught at the Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Rhode Island School of Design, the University of the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts.

More information on Judith Schaechter can be found on her website at www.judithschaechter.com.

Judith Schaechter rend visite à l’ACAD

Par Kai Georg Scholefield

Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, 32" x 42 "

Reconnue mondialement, l’artiste Judith Schaechter était l’invitée en janvier dernier du Collège des Arts et du Design d’Alberta à Calgary pour intervenir sur son métier d’artiste vitrailliste et faire des démonstrations.

Schaechter fit ses débuts dans le verre après avoir terminé ses études à l’Ecole de Design de Rhode Island et déménagé à Philadelphie. Durant les 20 années qui suivirent, elle se mit à créer ce qui est considéré comme “des assemblages paradoxaux de représentations médiévales mixées à des situations de défaillance humaine contemporaines”.

Child Bride, 20" x 38"

Concernant les matériaux employés, cela va du verre standard au vitrail: des panneaux aux modules de verre soudés ensemble dans une structure. Cependant, en termes de process et de contenu, son travail créatif est unique. Une seule œuvre peut contenir plusieurs couches de verre flash coloré, panneaux colorés d’un seul côté par un vernis qui sera coupé, gravé et sablé afin d’obtenir les lignes de contour ainsi que créer des variations de tons et de nuances. Ses œuvres dépeignent en général des personnages où chaque élément est méticuleusement construit par étapes. Elle emploie aussi des pigments, généralement du noir et du jaune qui affinent encore plus le rendu. Ces pigments sont ensuite chauffés dans une arche afin de les sceller définitivement au verre. Dans ce genre de travail, certaines sections d’une même pièce peuvent comporter plus de couches que d’autres, créant un relief ou formant des paysages au travers de l’œuvre, ce qui lui donne de la dimension tant au sens littéral qu’au sens esthétique. Judith fait aussi preuve de créativité dans son travail avec l’utilisation d’outils et d’équipements variés, faisant d’elle une remarquable innovatrice en termes d’approche technologique de l’art du vitrail.

Détail de la conception des processus.

Lors de la création d’une pièce, les procédés physiques et créatifs internes sont reliés dans le travail et l’esprit de Schaechter car une partie du créatif implique de prendre en considération certaines contraintes qui lui permettent d’être plus efficace. Schaechter pense que l’ennui lui apporte le moyen. Lorsqu’elle doit se concentrer sur des tâches spécifiques, son esprit s’accorde à vadrouiller et à évoluer sans but spécifique ni pression. En outre, Judith a un processus de création intuitif, signifiant que le plan qu’elle se fixe reste flexible. Au contraire, elle y met de la patience et s’accorde du temps pour respirer et instaurer le dialogue entre elle-même et son œuvre au fur à mesure qu’elle se crée.

Selon Schaechter, le contenu de son travail transmet une beauté qui met mal à l’aise, principalement basée sur les thèmes du sexe et de la mort ainsi que de la romance et la violence à une moindre mesure. Et tandis que l’apparence gothique de ses œuvres leur donne des traits sarcastiques, le travail de Judith est plutôt rafraîchissant à sa façon de valoriser les clichés et la sentimentalité évoqués.

Joan of Arc, 35" x 31"

Schaechter ne considère pas le verre comme un genre mais plutôt comme un moyen d’expression. Alors que ce débat actuel est encore non tranché au sein de la communauté artistique, ces sujets ne sont que rarement abordé dans le contexte traditionnel du vitrail. Il semble donc que Judith Schaechter soit une pionnière en la matière ouvrant de nouvelles voies à l’art verrier.

The Talk, 18" x 41"

Exposée à New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, aux Pays-Bas, en Allemagne et en Corée, Judith a reçu plusieurs bourses dont deux de la Fondation Nationale pour la Confrérie des Arts et une de la Fondation Guggenheim. Ses œuvres sont visibles aux Musée des Arts de Philadelphie, Musée des Beaux-Arts de San Francisco, Musée des Arts et du Design de New York, Musée du Verre de Corning, Galerie Renwick de l’Institution Smithsonian, Musée Victoria et Albert de Londres ainsi que dans de nombreuses collections privées. Judith a enseigné à l’Ecole du Verre de Pilchuck à Seattle, à l’Ecole du Design de Rhode Island, à l’Université des Arts et à l’Académie des Arts de Pennsylvanie.

Pour plus d’informations concernant Judith Schaechter, consultez son site Internet www.judithschaechter.com.

Reprinted with the kind permission of

Denis Longchamps, Éditeur et rédacteur en chef / Publisher and Managing Editor,

Cahiers métiers d’art / Craft Journal

Spouted Vessel, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze,Photo: Janet Dwyer

In 2010, British Columbia glass artist and sculptor Lou Lynn was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.  While I have seen some of her works in galleries such as Gallery Elena Lee in Montreal, I first met Lou Lynn informally in the fall of 2009 in the office of the Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec.  We met again in May 2010 for lunch while she attended the Glass Art Association of Canada conference held in Montreal.  In the conference exhibition she also had a series of work that we discussed before going on St-Denis Street for a meal.  In the following I share with you parts of our discussion in relation to her artistic practice, and all of Lynn’s citations are from this conversation or from our email exchanges.

Mixing bronze and glass, her sculptures by their forms recall antique and contemporary tools yet deny their primary function as such by this precise choice of materials.  In her solo exhibition, Retro-Active (2008-2009), curator Helen Selebius wrote in the accompanying catalogue that,

Lynn masterfully combines materials in a manner that draws attention to their inherent qualities.  The point at which the fragility, strength and optical properties of glass meet with the durability of metal speaks about the tension that exists between her chosen materials.¹

Hooked Chisel, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

Through Lynn’s creative transformation, the utilitarian object becomes artful or expressive sculpture with the inherent tension between form and function, hard metal and glass, and the obvious fragility of the latter. In her installation of Tools as Artefacts (2008), she grouped her reinterpreted tools alternating some bronze-only sculptures with others combining metal and glass.  It is such a combination series of five that was presented during the conference in Montreal.  While some of the bronze-only pieces probably can still be used in a utilitarian way, the chosen noble metal, historically linked to the fine art of sculpture, elevates them to another level meant for contemplation; the glass on the others obliviously annihilates any possible functional usage.  In both cases, the surface textures are sensually inviting touch while their presentation on the walls and on plinths reminds us that touching is not allowed in a gallery environment.

It is in a search for developing her own formal vocabulary that she became interested in ordinary tools from other eras that she collected.  Artifacts of old ways of doing things, their forms, as Robin Laurence wrote in the Retro-Active catalogue essay, are for Lou Lynn “pure and enduring sculpture.”²

Puller, 2009, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

But how did it all start for Lynn and what brought her to work with glass.  She says,

As a child I was interested in art and I recognized quite early that my strengths lay in 3-D work and working with materials.  Like many artists, when I discovered glass I was attracted to the optical properties of the material and was fascinated by working with something that was fragile and unfamiliar.

She continues in discussing her art education and mentors,

In the mid 1980’s, I was just starting to explore glass as a sculptural material and had the good fortune to spend several summers attending classes at Pilchuck Glass School.³ This was at a time when contemporary glass in the United States was taking off and I was exposed to many artists who were pushing the boundaries of the material, in ways that I had never imagined possible.  The experience challenged my preconceived ideas of expression and I really credit the influence that Pilchuck had on me, to help me find my own visual language.

Auger, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

“Mentor: a wise and trusted advisor.”⁴

There are two people who I consider mentors … Irene Frolic, artist/educator, who taught me kiln-casting, and Helen Sebelius, artist/curator.  Both offer insightful and honest feedback about all aspects of my work/career and have taught me a lot about seeing.

We then went on to discuss sources of inspiration and her series of work titled Artefacts that suggests archaeology and history, as well as her more recent projects that are also inspired by garden tools,

I began exploring the Tool series in 2004, and I find old tools to be a continued source of inspiration.  As a maker, I contemplate the esthetic and functional decisions that were made on old tools, to embellish a handle, curve a piece of metal or join materials.

I am attracted to functional objects of all kinds, from all epochs and enjoy pondering the intended use of these things.

The combination of glass and metal is rather unusual, more so for tools, since the power of one is subverted by the fragility of the other.  Such pairing creates a formal and visual tension that is in itself fascinating. She comments,

I had been working in glass for several years, when in 1985 I began collaborating with a metal artist and we received a Canada Council grant to explore the architectural potential of combining cast aluminum and dalle de verre.  This quite naturally led me to the idea of introducing metal into my glass sculpture, since I was and still am, interested in the contrast between strength and fragility offered by combining these two disparate materials.  I soon became concerned about the health risks of casting aluminum and eventually came to casting bronze.  This progression was a very easy step for me, since the lost-wax casting methods for both bronze and glass are similar and I really enjoy sculpting in wax.

Pronged Spade, 2008, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

For the future, Lou Lynn would like to explore kitchen and domestic tools again for their inherent formal qualities.  Her philosophy in regards to her artistic pursuits is embedded in “an exploration of form and material.”

In her artist’s statement, she writes,

I am primarily concerned with the exploration of form and the use of materials.  Inspiration for my work has for the most part been informed by architecture, archaeology and industrial objects.  This has resulted in a visual language that has implied reference to functional implements and objects of the past.  The sculptural qualities of hand tools hold a particular fascination for me, as I ponder the esthetic decisions of their makers.

Pestle #3, 2008, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

And while bronze and metal seems to occupy a place of choice in her works, she insists that,

… glass has been my preferred medium, which I have chosen to explore from a sculptural perspective.  While I have investigated the fragility, strength and optical properties of the material, I have never been interested in the seductive use of color or functionality, preferring instead to focus on form.  The integration of metal provides both visual contrast and the exploration of a relationship between strength and fragility.

But as our lunch came to an end, Lynn returned to the conference, and as I am interested in the divide of craft and art and explore all the grey areas that are in between, I asked where she located her practice and she answered that her “work sits comfortably on the line between contemporary craft and sculpture” – a line that is as blurred and complex as the work of Lou Lynn.

Our sincere thanks to Dr. Denis Longchamps, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.  To see the above article in Cahiers métiers d‘art ::: Craft Journal, go to:  http://www.craftjournal.ca/en/issues/70-currentvol4no1.html.

² Robin Laurence, in Selebius, 2008:  no page.

³ Pilchuck Glass School is located in Stanwood, Washington and was founded by glass artist Dale Chihuly and patrons Anne Gould and John H. Hauberg in 1971.

⁴ Gage Canadian Dictionary

Une Conversation Avec … Lou Lynn, Artiste du Verre

Réimprimé avec l’aimable autorisation de

Denis Longchamps, Éditeur et rédacteur en chef / Publisher and Managing Editor,

Cahiers métiers d’art / Craft Journal

Spouted Vessel, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze,Photo: Janet Dwyer

En 2010, l’artiste verrier et sculpteure de la Colombie-Britannique Lou Lynn était intronisée à l’Académie royale des arts du Canada.  J’avais déjà vu son travil dans des galleries telles que celle d’Elena Lee à Montréal.  J’ai recontré Lou Lynn pour la première fois par hazard dans les bureaux du Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec à l’automne 2009.  Nous nous sommes rencontrés une fois de plus en mai 2010 pour dîner ensemble alors qu’elle participait à la conférence de l’Association du verre d’art du Canada tenue à Montréal.  Dans le cadre de l’exposition offerte de concert avec la conférence, elle a présenté une série d’oeuvres don’t nous avons discuté avant de nous render sur la rue St-Denis pour notre repas.  Dans ce qui suit, je partage avec vous une partie de notre conversation sur son travail artistique; les citations de Lynn sont tirées de cette rencontre et de nos échanges de courriels subséquents.  Associant le bronze et le verre, les formes sculptées par Lynn évoquent des outils, anciens ou contemporains, alors que le choix des matériaux nie leur fonction première.  Pour son exposition solo, Retro-Active (2008-2009), la commissaire Helen Selebius a écrit dans le catalogue que,

Lynn combine magistralement les matériaux de façon à attirer l’attention sur leurs qualités inhérentes.  Le point où la fragilité, la force et les propriétés optiques du verre rencontrent la durabilité du métal parle de la tension qui existe entre les matériaux choisis.¹

Hooked Chisel, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

Par le biais des transformations créatrices de Lou Lynn, les objets utilitaires deviennent des sculptures artistiques et expressives qui experiment las tension inhérente entre la forme et la fonction, entre la dureté du métal et la fragilité évidente du verre.  Dans son installation Tools as Artefacts (2008), elle a regroupé ses outils réinterprétés en alternant ceux en bronze seulement avec d’autres combinant métal et verre.  C’est une telle séries de cinq pièces qu’elle a présentée lors de la conférence de Montréal.  Alors que les pièces tout en bronze pourraient à la limite être utilisées, ce matériau noble qui est lié a l’histoire de la sculpture et des beaux-arts, les élèvent à un niveau mieux adapté à la contemplation; le verre des autres pièces annihile tout usage possible.  Dans les deux cas, la texture des surfaces est sensuellement invitante au toucher maix leur mode de présentation sur les murs et sur des socles nous rappelle que le toucher est interdit dans une galerie d’art.

C’est dans la recherche d’un langage formel propre à elle que Lynn s’est intéressée aux outils usuels d’une autre époque et qu’elle a commencé à les collectionner.  Comme l’écrivait Robin Laurence dans l’essai du catalogue de Retro-Active, ces artefacts des anciennes façons de faire, et leurs formes, sont pour Lou Lynn « sculpture pure et durable. »²

Puller, 2009, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

Mais comment tout a-t-il commencé pour Lynn et qu’est-ce qui l’a amenée à travailler le verre?  Elle nous dit :

Enfant j’étais intéressée à l’art et j’ai réalisé très tôt que mes forces se trouvaient dans le travail à trois dimensions et le travail a trois dimensions et le travail avec les matériaux.  Comme plusieurs artistes, lorsque j’ai découvert le verre, j’ai été attirée par les propriétés optiques de ce matériau, et j’ai été fascinée de travailler avec quelque chose d’aussi fragile et inconnu.

Elle poursuit en discutant de son éducation artistique et de ses mentors :

Au milieu des années 80, je commencais tout juste à explorer le verre comme matériau sculptural et j’ai eu le plaisir de passer plusieurs étés à prendre des cours à la Pilchuck Glass School.³ C’était au moment où le verre commençait à prendre de l’ampleur aux Etats-Unis et j’ai rencontré plusieurs artistes qui poussaient les limites du matériau d’une manière que je n’avais jamais cru possible.  Cette expérience m’a obligée a revoir mes notions d’expression préconçues, et je donne crédit à Pilchuck, à l’influence que cette école a eue sur moi, de m’avoir aidée à trouver mon propre langage visuel.

Auger, 2007, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

« Mentor :  un conseiller avisé et de confiance. »⁴

Il y a dux personnes que je considére mes mentors … Irene Frolic, artiste et éducatrice, qui m’a appris le moulage au four et Helen Sebelius, artiste et commissaire.  Les deux m’ont offert des commentaires honnêtes et perspicaces sur tous les aspects de mon travail et de ma carriére, et m’ont réellement appris comment voir.

Nous avons poursuivi en parlant de ses sources d’inspiration et de sa série d’œuvres réunies sous le titre Artefacts qui suggére histoire et archéologie, de même que de son plus récent projet qui est aussi inspiré d’outils, de jardinage cette fois :

J’ai commencé à explorer la série Tool en 2004, et je trouve que les outils me sont une source d’inspiration continuelle.  En tent qu’artiste, j’admire les décisions esthétiques et fonctionnelles qui ont contribué a la forme des vieux outils :  embellir une poignée, courber un morceau de métal ou joindre différents matériaux.

Je suis attirée par les objets utilitaires de toutes sortes, de toutes époques, et j’aime méditer sur l’utilisation destinée de ces choses.

La combinaison du verre et du métal est plutôt inhabituelle, surtout pour des outils, puisque la force de l’un est subvertie par la fragilité de l’autre.  Un tel appariement crée une tension visuelle et formelle qui est en soit fascinante.  Elle commente :

Je travaillais avec le verre depuis plusieurs années déjà lorsqu’en 1985 j’ai collaboré avec un artiste du métal.  Nous avons obtenu une bourse du Conseil des arts du Canada pour explorer le potentiel architectural de la combinaison de la fonte d’aluminium et des dalles de verre.  Ceci m’a amenée presque naturellement à l’idée d’inclure du métal dans mes sculptures de verre puisque j’étais, et suis toujours, intéressée aux contrastes entre la force et la fragilité offerts par ces ceux matériaux si disparates au premier abord.  Rapidement, j’ai été soucieuse des risques pour la santé de mouler l’aluminium et je suis donc passée au moulage du bronze.  Cette progression a été une étape facile pour moi puisque les méthodes de moulage à la cire perdue du bronze et du verre sont similaires et j’aime beaucoup sculpter la cire.

Pronged Spade, 2008, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

A l’avenir, Lou Lynn aimerait travailler avec des outils domestiques et de cuisine, toujours pour leurs qualités formelles inhérentes.  Pour ce qui est de sa philosophie artistique, elle est « une exploration de forme et de matériau. »

Dans sa démarche artistique, elle écrit :

Je suis principalement préoccupée par l’exploration des formes et l’utilisation des matériaux.  L’inspiration pour mon travail a surtout été nourrie par l’architecture, l’archéologie et le design industriel.  Le résultat est un langage visuel composé de références aux instruments et aux objets fonctionnels du passé.  J’ai une fascination particuliére pour les qualités sculpturales des outils manuels alors que je réfléchis sur les décisions esthétiques de leurs fabricants.

Pestle #3, 2008, Verre et bronze / Glass and bronze, Photo: Janet Dwyer

Et alors que le bronze et le métal occupent une place de choix dans ses œuvres, elle insiste sur le fait que … le verre est mon medium préféré, que j’ai choisi d’explorer d’une perspective sculpturale.  Bien que j’aie exploré la fragilité, la force et les propriétés optiques de ce matériau, je n’ai jamais été intéressée par l’utilisation séductrice de la couleur ou de la fonctionnalité, préférant me concentrer sur les formes.  L’intégration du métal procure un contraste visuel et une occasion d’explorer la relation entre force et fragilité.

Notre dîner touchait à sa fin et Lynn devait retourner à la conférence, mais comme je suis intéressé par la division entre arts et métiers d’art et que j’explore la zone grise entre les deux, j’ai demandé à Lynn où elle situe son travail.  Elle a répondu que son « travail se situe confortablement sur la ligne entre les métiers d’art contemporains et la sculpture. »  Une ligne tout aussi subtile et complexe que le travail de Lou Lynn.

Notre sincère gratitute à Denis Longchamps PhD, Université Concordia, Montréal, Québec.  Pour voir l’article susmentionné dans Cahiers métiers d‘art ::: Craft Journal, visiter:  http://www.craftjournal.ca/en/issues/70-currentvol4no1.html.

¹ Notre traduction.  Helen Selebius, Lou Lynn: Retro-active (Nelson, BC:  Touchtones Nelson-Museum of Art and History, 2008):  foreword.

² Notre traduction.  Robin Laurence, dans Selebius, 2008:  sans page.

³ La Pilchuck Glass School est située à Stanwood, Washington et a été fondée par l’artiste verrier Dale Chihuly et les collectionneurs Anne Gould et John H. Hauberg en 1971.

⁴ Notre traduction.  Gage Canadian Dictionary

Migrations and Transparencies

By Alejandra Basañes

“Migrationes et Transparences”:  Masters Research Project, exhibited at the Atelier Silex, gallery Espace 3/4, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. December 2010.

Translation by Sam Kerson and Katah

Les racines, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m. Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

Abstract:

The creative research project that I have carried out is called “Migrations and Transparencies,” and was structured around my experience of migration.  This migration has given me the opportunity to live another spatial time; virtually, another life.  Moving to another country had a destabilizing effect on the course of my life.  At the beginning of my Masters, I had not planned a research related to myself.  I had not imagined a project in which my experience as an immigrant would be the theme.  My studies have looked at the path of migration as a research topic but, as I look more closely, I find myself.  For me, exile is a wound that marks the subsequent unfolding of my existence. Exile is a structural break.  Exile is also an extraction (uprooting) from the place of origin, followed by integration (transplanting) in a new society. As it happens, in my case, this new society has come to nourish my discourse and multiply my affiliations.

Les racines, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m. Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

My research has made me question the creative techniques I use to produce my work. I have also had to rethink some ideas and concepts, which were central to my practice in the past. My current work addresses different issues such as migration and territory. I wanted to consider the possible combinations of different artistic disciplines and, more to the point, the fusion between drawing, digital photography, manipulating the image and glass printing, all in transition towards installations.

Les objets en verre, 2010

I used the canning jar, an industrial object produced in series, which is made for holding foods such as jams and sauces.  In this way, an industrialized jar, a common object of our everyday life, used out of context, becomes a unique piece and evolves towards a work of art or part of a work of art.  I transformed jars by heating them to a temperature of 715 degrees Celsius.  Under these conditions the jars, which previously were identical, underwent a transformation that did not affect all of them in the same way.  During the firing process, the jar collapses and finds a new form, a new balance.  The form becomes irregular and asymmetric.  The industrialized piece, the jar, now becomes a unique object.  Randomness plays a part in the collapse of this object because of the natural physical properties of the glass and the weakness of the edges of the jar.

Les objets en verre, 2010

Just as jars change under the effect of heat, human beings will also differ in the way they go through stressful situations in their lives such as migration or other passages more or less traumatic or painful.  There is a certain distortion that everyone goes through.  Like my jars, some will always be able to continue to function, but others will flatten completely and will not be able to hold anything.  They will loose their primary function.

Les objets en verre, 2010

Once the jars were transformed by the heat, I placed them on the ground on a rectangular bed of sand, making the link between both suspended images.  At the center of the installation, the jars are laid on a bed of sand, a fragment of the territory.  The sand rectangle is a metaphor to the territory, of the land and of the place; a fragment of land which is necessary for roots to establish themselves.

Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

The installation “Migrations et transparances” is a metaphor of my migratory trajectory from my own land to a new territory.  During this journey, I felt the extent of the uprooting.  It is merely my own way of seeing the world.  The elements of the piece form a script of images that are a fulfillment of who I am, as well as representing my migratory journey.  The piece has its own story:  it is a reminder of a movement that tilts an established environment over an indeterminate time period; an interlacing of time and space, represented by the roots that have taken time to grow.  The map of an unknown city, for the spectator, also needed time and space to develop, depending on the circumstances of the life of the society.    The map expands and leaves marks in one’s memory.  This way, the temporal dimension of the piece becomes relative.  The jars will suggest the trajectory and the transformation in time.  The determination takes the form of a creation:  the determination to create, also the determination to leave and finally most important, to accomplish one’s migratory process.

Une carte de la ville de San Juan, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m, détail, Migrations et transparences. 2010

Masters thesis presented at the Faculté des études supérieurs de l’Université Laval, intended for the completion and achievement of a Masters in Visual Arts (M.A.)

Advisor:  Richard Baillargeon

Migrations et transparences

by Alejandra Basañes

Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures de l’Université Laval dans le cadre du programme de maîtrise en arts visuels pour l’obtention du grade de maître ès arts (M.A.)

École des arts visuels Faculté d’aménagement, d’architecture et des arts visuels Université Laval. Québec. 2010

Les racines, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m. Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

Résumé

La recherche création que j’ai effectuée s’intitule « Migrations et transparences », elle s’est articulée autour de mon expérience de la migration. La migration m’a permis de vivre un autre temps spatial : une autre vie. Ce changement de pays est lié à un rôle déstabilisateur dans ma vie. Au début de mes cours de maîtrise, je ne pensais pas investiguer des phénomènes dans lesquels j’étais moi-même immergée. Les recherches m’ont conduite à parcourir le sentier de la migration comme sujet de recherche, où je me trouve totalement immergée. Pour moi, non seulement l’exil est-il une blessure qui marque le déroulement subséquent de mon existence — une fracture structurante en quelque sorte — mais l’exil est aussi un arrachement (déracinement) du lieu des origines, suivi d’une intégration (enracinement) dans une nouvelle société qui vient nourrir mon discours des appartenances multiples.

Les racines, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m. Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

Ma recherche m’a fait remettre en question mes moyens de production et certaines notions et concepts par rapport à mon travail précédent. Différents concepts y sont abordés, tels que la migration, le territoire et sa représentation (la carte). Je me suis intéressée à développer une réflexion sur les possibles combinaisons de différents moyens, plus concrètement: la fusion entre le dessin, la photographie numérique, la manipulation de l’image et l’estampe sur verre en transition vers des installations.

Les objets en verre, 2010

Je me suis servi des pots de confiture, objets industrialisés et en série destinés à contenir des aliments (confitures, sauces, et autres). Ainsi, un pot industrialisé, un objet du quotidien hors de son contexte usuel, devient une pièce unique, et évolue vers une œuvre ou une partie d’une œuvre. J’ai transformé ces pots par une cuisson au four à une température de 715 degrés Celsius. Sous l’effet de la chaleur, les pots de forme identique ont subi une transformation qui ne les a pas tous affectés de la même manière. Au moment de la cuisson, le pot s’effondre et retrouve une nouvelle forme, un nouvel équilibre. Cet équilibre devient asymétrique et la forme devient irrégulière. De pièce faite en série, le pot, devient un objet unique. Le hasard joue et l’effondrement se produit à cause de la nature physique du verre et de la faiblesse des parois du pot.

Les objets en verre, 2010

Un peu tout comme les pots sous l’effet de la chaleur, les êtres humains vont vivre différemment les mêmes situations de vie, comme la migration ou d’autres passages plus ou moins traumatiques et douloureux. Il y aura une certaine déformation pour tous, quelques uns seront toujours capables de continuer à fonctionner comme contenant, d’autres vont s’aplatir totalement et incapables d’être remplis, ils vont perdre leur fonction première. Une fois les pots transformés par la chaleur je les ai placés par terre sur un rectangle de sable, faisant le lien entre les deux images suspendues. D’un coté, l’image de ma ville d’origine, San Juan (Argentine), la carte topographique modifié par moyen des coups de pinceau sortis de ma mémoire (Sérigraphie sur verre texturé par fusion); Del autre coté, une image composée avec dessins et photographies d’énormes racines d’arbres, retournées par la mer sur une plage en Gaspésie, Québec (Canada).

Les objets en verre, 2010

Au centre de l’installation les pots sont posés au sol sur un lit de sable, un fragment du territoire. Le rectangle de sable est une métaphore du territoire, de la terre et du lieu. Un fragment de terre, celle qui est nécessaire pour prendre racines et s’établir.

Migrations et transparences (vue partielle de l'installation), 2010.

L’œuvre, l’installation Migrations et transparences, est une métaphore du trajet migratoire de mon territoire d’origine vers un nouveau territoire. Lors de ce trajet, j’ai senti l’ampleur du déracinement. Elle est simplement ma manière de voir le monde, une écriture d’images qui est un accomplissement de moi-même, et aussi de mon trajet migratoire. L’œuvre possède sa propre histoire : elle rappelle un mouvement qui fait basculer un environnement, et ce, à travers un temps non déterminé. Un entrecroisement de temps et d’espace représenté par les racines qui ont mis du temps à grandir. La carte d’une ville inconnue pour le spectateur, a eu aussi besoin de temps et d’espace pour se propager selon les circonstances de la vie d’une société. La carte qui se répand pour laisser des traces dans la mémoire. Ainsi, la temporalité de l’œuvre devient une chose relative. L’ensemble des pots en verre va suggérer le trajet et la transformation dans le temps. La détermination prend la forme de la création : la détermination de créer, celle aussi de partir et enfin celle très importante : de réaliser la migration.

Une carte de la ville de San Juan, verre, 1,50 x 1,50 m, détail, Migrations et transparences. 2010

Alejandra Basañes, « Migrations et transparences »
Exposition de maîtrise dans la salle Espace 0…3/4 de l’Atelier Silex.  Trois-Rivières

Décembre 2010

September 2010

By Diana Fox

For Canadians, the allure of Australia is completely understandable.  We perceive it to be warm waters, sandy beaches, friendly people and long beautiful summers.  For Canadian glass artists, you can add to that appeal highly respected Graduate programs and artist residencies, as well as opportunities to work with some of the best glass artists in the world.  Truly, it’s a wonder then that Canadian glass artists aren’t shipping themselves off to Australia in droves.  Indeed, there are those who go and come back, and those who go and stay, but both will tell you that their experience there is one that greatly affected their practice and the results of it.  It is this hypothesis that was the idea behind “Round Trip”, an exhibition that took place in Eau Claire Market in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in September, 2010.  The five artists involved in this exhibition all had ties within their glass work both to Canada and Australia.

Chris Boha was a Calgary resident for ten years, and graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2003.  Prior to relocating to Adelaide to complete his PhD at the University of South Australia, Chris travelled extensively working and studying with numerous glass artists around the world.  His piece in “Round Trip”, entitled Three Small Bags … Thirty Years of Stuff reflects the universality of the feelings that come with relocating and being limited on what can go with you.  Suspended from the ceiling, it is a copper and wooden boat, with glass buildings on top.  Inside each is a cloudy figurine, the forms of which are broken down by the glass that houses them.

While Boha’s piece deals with the emotional aspects of home and what home means when you relocate somewhere, Melanie Long’s work conversely takes a more whimsical approach to her time in both countries.  Melanie was first in Australia on a student exchange in 2008, and after graduating from ACAD the following year, she returned there to work as a studio assistant.  Her piece, entitled Canadian Cod Cabaret of Canberra, is a culmination of her experiences in both Calgary and Canberra.  Her hot sculpted fish, with big red lips and tall boots, have a burlesque feel to them particularly as they are displayed on small, glittery stages.  These works are particularly tongue-in-cheek as both Calgary and Canberra are landlocked cities, with neither being particularly laden with sea life.

Jaan Poldaas; Rare Fruit; 25 cm, 10 cm; hot sculpted glass, 2010; photo: Jillian Logee

Jaan Poldaas has had a different experience in Australia.  His time spent as a resident at the Jam Factory in Adelaide has given him a keen sense of design, and this is evident in the works he displayed here.  Using coiled clear glass he focuses on the exterior shape of the glass and the distortion evident through the clear.  In other pieces, rings of red that are just off centre offset the clear glass. In placing them slightly off centre, he defines both the forms and the space they inhabit. The placement of the pieces is essential.  In some cases they are almost touching; in others, they need small amounts of space for the shapes of the pieces to be able to be really considered.  They communicate with one another and while each would be a beautiful object on its own, there is so much more to contemplate when they come together.

Natali Rodrigues; photo: Jillian Logee

Natali Rodrigues is currently the Head of the Glass Program at ACAD, but her path through Australia took place when she did her Masters degree at the Australian National University.  Her pieces in this exhibition deal with notions of scale.  Small solid pieces of transparent coloured glass are dwarfed by larger, densely coloured textured pieces which share a similarity of form. 

The relationship between things is also something that Katherine Lys deals with in her work.  Like Boha and Poldaas, Lys continues to call Australia home.  The impact of the Australian climate has had a profound impact on Katherine’s work.  The slow, meditative qualities are evident in pieces that are wood turned.  This quality is then translated to her glass pieces, the forms of which are complimented by the wood pieces.  Each of her pieces form a relationship to the one next to it.  In some cases this is quite literal, with a string of beads connecting one piece to another, and in other cases this is implied, with forms that mimic or compliment one another.

What is most evident from the work in this show is that an experience abroad remains personal to the individual involved.  From the emotional aspects of departure and arrival, to the nuts and bolts of what is learned somewhere new, each artist involved in “Round Trip” has managed to show us that no two trips from Canada to Australia are the same.