Archives: Artists

Contributor to ‘The Glass Quilt’ A Breath of Fresh Air: A Glass Society of Ireland collaborative Covid project, which was exhibited in the Venice Glass Week 2021.
Baile/Home exhibition, in the Working Artists Gallery, Ballydehob, Co. Cork. 2021
Home Ground exhibiton, held by West Cork Creates, Skibbereen. 2021

My recent project involved finding a maker in china to demosrate my new idea is not fiction.
(dragon egg) shows my eastern influence in the form mixing western easter egg tradition.
(dragon scale gourd) is a searching for interesting forms to apply this beautiful texture.

The project BEAST reinterprets the young generations in contemporary conspicuous consumer culture through fantastic, mysterious, and heroic characters. The artist was inspired by games and movies’ characters and made ridiculous looking beasts out of goblet components and decorative stemware designs to create the chaotic, dramatic, and competitive life of consumer culture. Many young people have fantasy of wealthy life and desire to show off their possession to compete and evaluate each other in real life. In this work, transformation of goblets and stemware to body parts are the symbol of wearing wealth that represents the power and social class of society and each character reflects the image of person in fantasy of materialistic life.

Background
The Dudley Glass Collection, provides a tangible link between peoples past and present and has the power to inspire creativity and motivate artistic expression. Such is the importance and international reputation of the Collection – which the BGF ultimately intends to seek ‘designated collection’ status for – that The Victoria and Albert Museum has offered senior level specialist curatorial support to assist in its future display and the British Museum assisted by providing the support of its Head of Community Partnerships. Additional support is also being provided by DMBC in the curatorial aspects of managing the museum contents through a Museum Collections Officer.
“The very rich collections of the museum are an excellent reflection of this important part of British industrial and artistic history and they have an international standing.”
Reino Liefkes Senior Curator and Head of Ceramics and Glass V&A Museum
Numbering over 10,000 glass items ranging from ancient glass to contemporary glass, glassmaking machinery and equipment and extensive archive materials. The Dudley Glass Collection is, quite simply, one of the finest world-wide holdings of British and international 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century glass and includes exceptional examples of cameo glass, the speciality of Stourbridge factories at the end of the 19th century.
Standing opposite the Grade II* Red House Glass Cone, one of only four remaining glass cones in Great Britain, the former Stuart glassworks were originally constructed in the 1780’s and still contain the now listed design room where Stuart’s produced the crystal glassware for the Captain’s table on the Titanic which sank in 1912. Sadly, the glass cone known as the White House glass cone, that stood on the now Museum site, was demolished in 1970 but whilst nothing of the cone remains above ground, all of the below ground structures remain and are recognised as a scheduled monument. Together, the two sites, conserve a sense of place, for Stourbridge’s glass heritage and the significant views from one to the other, contribute to their cultural significance.
Stourbridge Glass Museum Project:
Stourbridge Glass Museum will firmly re-establish the relationship between the former Stuart and Sons New House glassworks and its use, enabling visitors to engage more fully in the heritage of the site and the wider area; secure access for the public to the Dudley Glass Collection, promote cultural tourism and help continue Stourbridge’s worldwide association with glass for generations to come.

Artist’s Impression – Stourbridge Glass Museum
The museum will showcase fabulous designs and remarkable craftsmanship. It will tell the stories of how the imagination of ordinary working people helped create some of the world’s most important decorative art in the place in which they worked. It will seek to bring alive the wonder of glass through dynamic exhibitions, that push the boundaries of traditional interpretation in a visually stimulating and interactive environment that educates and inspires.
The aims and vision of the project include:
– Relocating the Dudley Glass Collection to a site within the Stourbridge Glass Quarter through the grant of a 125 lease of the museum buildings and a 125 year collection loan from Dudley MBC to the British Glass Foundation
– The operation of a new hot glass studio, with a glass artist in residence, where visitors can watch and interact as the artist blows and shapes works from molten glass
– The creation of both permanent and temporary gallery spaces within the new museum to enable the imaginative display of the Collection, to which there is currently no public access as it is being held in storage elsewhere
– Increasing and improving the interpretation of the Collection through the use of state of the art technology and innovative multi-media displays
– Establishing a handling collection, to allow visitors, particularly children to touch and feel different types and shapes of glass
– Establishing an ongoing programme of community curation, enabling volunteers (many of whom are ex-glass makers or family members of those who worked in glass making) to learn new skills including collections care and curate individual temporary displays of glass related items loaned by the community
– Enabling restoration and conservation and facilitating public access to important glass manufacturing archive material including catalogues, photographs and films
– Creating and equipping a new education and activity space, enabling the public, schools and other groups to access, learn and engage creatively and practically with the arts through the science and social history of glass and glass production
– The provision of glass related workshops and practical courses, helping to sustain the glass making skills that are an important part of the site’s heritage
– Developing the visitor potential of Stourbridge’s Glass Quarter
– Providing a showcase for and supporting the development of new and emerging contemporary glass artists
Ultimately, having established an exemplar Museum of Glass the BGF’s goals for the Museum are those of conservation, education, public participation and financial viability.
Project & Ongoing Funding:
In order to secure the future of the Dudley Glass Collection, the BGF worked closely with developers, Complex Development Projects (CDP) and DMBC, in the preparation of a successful bid for £2.1m of ERDF funding, to enable the overall redevelopment of the Glassworks site, including the development of the building which is now leased on a peppercorn rent to the BGF to house the Glass Museum. The development of the site included both residential and commercial properties. CDP subsequently gifted the benefit of the commercial leases to the BGF, to help fund the museum’s ongoing running costs.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has granted the BGF £980,000 toward the internal fit out and exhibition design of the museum; and the BGF has worked hard to raise partnership funding for the project from trusts and foundations (successes include The Garfield Weston Foundation £50,000, The Headley Trust £35,000, The Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust £25,000, The Clive and Sylvia Richards Charity £25,000 and The Charles Hayward Foundation £20,000).
Summary:
The Trustees of the British Glass Foundation will ensure the new Museum facilitates public access to the internationally significant Dudley Glass Collection and that the incredible stories and remarkable historical contributions made by ordinary people with extraordinary artistic talent are not left untold. The charity’s aim is to formally open the new museum to visitors in April 2022.
Thank you
The British Glass Foundation: www.britishglassfoundation.org.uk : https://youtu.be/joNPBaT1Pwc

Cabinets of curiosities
MusVerre
February – August 2022

“The cabinet of curiosities is a microcosm… […] a compendium of the whole nature”
Antoine Schnapper (1933-2004)

The cabinet of curiosities, a history compendium
In the 16th century, the Cabinet de curiositez or de singularitez was a source of erudition which enabled to understand the organization of the world and nature, but it was also an area of prestige in which the most precious treasures of the collector were exhibited. At that time, imagination was fertile and the cabinets were full of both ethnical and natural objects but also full of monsturositez. Traditionally, objects were sorted according to their class: naturalia (minerals, animals, plants), artificialia (archaeology, currency, weapons…), scientifica (scientific study instruments), exotica (plants, exotic animals, ethnographic objects)

Cabinets from the 17th and 18th centuries were home to an abundance of ethnological objects, coming from even more far-off journeys. Additionally, some cabinets from authentic naturalists were the subject of a classification and a printed inventory: they would later pave the way to the future Natural History museums. High schools, hospitals, abbeys and veterinary schools also had cabinets of curiosities which thus surpassed the strict and private setting.

In the 19th century, the boom in scientific research enabled the classification of species, the implementation of geological or archaeological research… Academic societies worked on the conservation and classification of the cabinets of curiosities artefacts. New museum institutions appeared and were home to many ethnological pieces.

Nowadays, cabinets of curiosities still intrigue people and a lot of museums try to present them “in their original state”.

The cabinet of curiosities at the prism of the contemporary world

Up until the end of the 20th century, only a few antique dealers or curious people were interested by the cabinet of curiosities phenomenon. It gradually took more and more space into contemporary reflections. Many scientific papers on the subject were released and museums tackled this question (Museum of Hunting and Nature, Oiron Castle…)

The cabinet of curiosities paradox lies in the desire to classify and organize everything in a scientific way, while giving space to fascination and wonder. The evocation and imaginary power of this cabinet of curiosities inspires artists, and especially surrealists or Picasso.

In the 21st century, while the extent of knowledge is vaster than ever and divided into many specialties, it would be pointless to claim seeing or knowing everything. The cabinet of curiosities can give this fleeting feeling of understanding the whole world in just the blink of an eye.

Exhibition at the MusVerre

The MusVerre suggests to revamp the cabinet of curiosities theme by exhibiting works, with a majority made of glass, exploring all sides of the naturalia, artificialia and even the famous monstruositez from the 16th century.

In complete opposition to the refined works usually exhibited in the MusVerre, the scenography is considered as immersive in order to surprise visitors and let their imaginary minds transport them.

As for every cabinet of curiosities, a classification is suggested:

 The microscopic world
At a natural state, the diatoms, unicellular planktonic organisms, produce glass thanks to silica. From this surprising discovery, we propose works from contemporary artists, either for the use of diatom glass (Stéphane Rivoal and Lucile Viaud), or for the representation of cells (Anne-Lise Riond-Sibony) or because they exaggeratedly make viruses look bigger (Bernd Weinmayer)…

 Under the ocean
In the 19th century, Léopold and Rudolf Blaschka, two Czech glass-makers, used a blowtorch to make hundreds of very realistic biological models. Their invertebrate marines were, for instance, sold to museums, aquariums and universities to be used as study models.

Nowadays, the marine environment still fascinates artists who try to reproduce the abyss magic (Yves Chaudouet), create sea monsters (Jaromir Rybak) or classify their works by themselves in the style of a cabinet of curiosities (Steffen Dam)…

 Glass herbarium
The classification of plant species has always been at the heart of curiosity collectors’ preoccupations. The creation of the Royal Garden of Medicinal plants in the 17th century stimulated plant research as well as their preservation.

We propose artists using plant material as their source of inspiration (Julie Gonce), others representing plants in a really realistic way (Dafna Kaffeman) but also artists depicting nature in a subtle and poetic way (Iris Haschek) or in an excessive way (Jason Gamrath).

 Artistic entomology
As for plants, collectors of days gone by tried to classify the insect kingdom and kept loads of specimens, which is still the case in Natural History Museums.

Contemporary artists take this entomological world over, in a poetic way (Judi Harvest), a playful way (Jan Fabre) or a disturbing way (Rose Wylie).

 Fantastic menagerie
In the 16th century, many curiosity collectors used to get only a single piece from distant animals (a tooth…). Their imagination then flied to picture an animal in its entirety: that is how narwhal defense would commonly become the unicorn horn.

The hybridization of shapes in contemporary art brings artists to reinvest in those fantastic creatures: some work from naturalized animals (Julien Salaud, Kohei Nawa), others reify eggs (Othoniel), and others focus on the hybridization between species (Koen Vanmechelen).

 Human productions
Thanks to the development of distant explorations from the 17th century, curiosity collectors could satisfy their desire of artificialia by ordering new objects directly to the travelers: weapons, currencies, furniture… In addition, scientific machines, automaton or ancient objects also aroused their interests.

This section would enable MusVerre objects from the ancient collection to be exhibited: glass swords, barometer but also from the contemporary collection (Julius Weiland). Furthermore, many artists create bizarre objects which would perfectly fit in: glass armor by Patrick Neu, giant eyes made of glass by Vincent Breed…

 Vanities
The Kiosque will be dedicated to the notion of vanity, which evokes in a symbolic way the mortal destiny of human beings and makes people think about the frivolity of the world pleasures. As they became a painting genre in their own right in the 16th century, those still-life paintings would often fit in the cabinets of curiosities of European collectors.

Following the two World Wars, contemporary artists tackled the question of the vacuity of existence and reinvested in the vanity theme.

Under the Kiosque, a vanity borrowed from the Flandres museum in Cassel could communicate with a still-life painting by Eliott Walker, a glass skeleton by Adel Abdessemed, or even a skull by Jan Fabre.

 Pharmacopeia
The space of the Echappée could be used for the exceptional presentation of a set coming from the Heuclin pharmacy.

This pharmacy was built in Sars-Poteries in 1898 by Thémir Heuclin (a glass-maker descendant). The pharmacy set of jars made of blue glass, with tags made of porcelain and showing scientific names which are sometimes mysterious, takes us back to another time.

I use print and kiln formed cast glass to explore family stories and those domestic spaces where we gather and create our own personal material cultures, I’m interested in finding the form and internal hints that can capture the memories of these once occupied spaces.

Often playing with light, colour, pattern and perspective, underpinning my work is a desire to make it beautiful, simple, accessible and fun.
My latest project ‘Fungi’ is a reflection of my wonder at this under-explored kingdom. Each mouth-blown glass sculpture is unique and can stand alone or work well as a collection.

Wolves and Little Red Riding Hood feature a lot in my work currently. I make small copper-foiled panels of hand-painted kiln-fired glass and coloured glass pieces.