Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Contemporary Applied Arts, London
14 June – 27 July
Reviewed by: Hilary Williams
'New Glass' draws together the sculptural work of six graduate makers who explore glass using a range of processes and techniques.
Koichiro Yamamoto originally trained as a designer of functional objects in his native Japan. It is his interest in objects and the life that vessels take on when transferred into museum collections that informs his work. His series of colourless almost ethereal pieces – casts of perfume bottles, champagne bottle and glasses exhibited in display cases to reiterate their loss of practical function – explore the concept of the 'glass still life' with beauty and quiet intelligence.
More concerned with colour and form than notions of function, Carl Nordbruch shows a range of work that unites brilliant white exteriors with richly coloured yellow or red interiors, highlighting the depth and space of his pieces. Although clearly the result of great technical expertise his work does not rest entirely on this as Nordbruch himself states, it is form not process that is most important to him.
Setting herself the task of 'capturing' fabric in glass, Japanese artist Naoko Sato exhibits two pleated forms in transparent glass. With her love of fabric and given her nationality it would be easy to instantly equate her work to Issey Miyake designs, though it is the Venetian textile artist Mariano Fortuny who inspires her. Sato's work is light and tactile capturing a fluidity of movement, a feeling that might be enhanced by increasing the scale of her works.
Sally Fawkes draws the viewer into the translucent quality of glass in three smooth, simple and perfectly proportioned forms which contrast with the beautifully worked surfaces of three other works including Isolated eyes, a wall piece made with mirror glass.
Lesley Wildman uses both metal and glass to symbolise the unity (and presumably difference) in being a twin. Her interest in basket weave results in a delicate crisscrossing of lengths of glass and metal creating both a fragility and strength.
For me the work of Michael Ruh, though technically complex and extremely competent was oddly juxtaposed with his series of highly coloured vases. Also shown are his Mr Wizard vases, containing a group of 'tools' that the viewer could arrange at will. This more abstract exploration of the vessel would have benefited from being shown separately from his more conventionally displayed vases.
Though it would be bold to draw any conclusions on the state of British glassmaking from such an exhibition, the wide range of aesthetic styles, technical expertise and intellectual rigour displayed here suggests that the material continues to inspire a versatility in skill and style that can only be to the good of any art form.
Writer detail:
HILARY WILLIAMS
is a freelance curator and exhibition organiser in the applied arts.
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