GASnews

FALL 2015 VO L U M E 2 6 ISSUE 3

INSIDE

3 Letter from the President 3 Letter from the Editor 4 GAS Line: Yoriko Mizuta (1956-2015),



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Upcoming Student Member Deadlnes, 2015 International Student Exhibition Awards

GAS Board Changes 2015 GAS Conference Wrap-Up Thank you to our 2015 GAS Conference Sponsors The Contemporary Art + Design Wing at The Corning Museum of Glass

11 Maria Bang Espersen: Forms of Change 13 Glasstress Gotika: A Glass Revival 16 Sounds Like Glass: Pilchuck AiRs, John Roach,

Lili Maya, and James Rouvelle

16 A Multifaceted Artist: Marcel Duchamp

and His Use of Glass

18 Op-Ed: 3 Simple Steps to Rid Yourself

of Contemporary Art Anxiety

20 School Profile: Akita University of Art 22 Student Profile: Kazumi Ohno 23 GAS Resource Links Cover: Kiki Smith, Constellation, courtesy of The Corning Museum of Glass

GAS news

GASnews is published four times per year as a benefit to members. Contributing Writers: Kim Harty, Michael Hernandez, Pamela Koss, Suzanne Peck, David Schnuckel, Shelby L. Stuart, Kristal Walker, Amanda Wilcox Editor: Kim Harty Managing Editor: Kristin Galioto Graphic Design: Ted Cotrotsos* Staff Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director Kristin Galioto, Communications Manager Shelbey Lang, Executive Assistant Pamela Jaynes, Project Manager* Chrissy Burd, Bookkeeper* *part time/contract

Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2015-2016 President: Cassandra Straubing Vice President: Kim Harty Vice President: Natali Rodrigues Treasurer: Roger MacPherson Secretary: Tracy Kirchmann Alex Bernstein Chris Clarke Kelly Conway Matt Durran BJ Katz Ed Kirshner Jeff Lindsay

Marc Petrovic Charlotte Potter Stephen Powell Masahiro Nick Sasaki Jan Smith David Willis

Student Rep:

Amanda Wilcox



©2015 The Glass Art Society, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. Publication of articles in this newsletter prohibited without permission from the Glass Art Society Inc. The Glass Art Society reserves the right to deny applications for Tech Display, advertising participation, GAS membership or conference participation to anyone for any reason.

6512 23rd Avenue NW, Suite 329, Seattle, WA 98117 USA Phone: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.glassart.org

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GASNEWS

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

EDITOR’S LETTER

Greetings GAS members! As an artist and educator, it is a great honor and privilege to have accepted the presidency of the Glass Art Society on my home turf of San Jose, California. After co-chairing a successful conference in San Jose, I feel confident in leading this amazing organization into the future. I have been working with the Board as a volunteer since 2005 and after becoming a Board member in 2012, my life has involuntarily morphed into the GAS mission statement. I feel that I exist “to promote the appreciation and development of the glass arts.” My vision is centered on “encouraging excellence, advancing education and supporting the worldwide community of artists who work with glass.” As president, I look forward to leading this Board and membership whole-heartedly, with endless passion and dedication. I am grateful to my presidential predecessor, Roger MacPherson, for guiding this organization through a transitional period of Board, staff, and conference reorganization, resulting in a positive outlook on the future. It is my hope to continue to lead this organization with the same wisdom and grace that Roger demonstrated to us all. I also thank our exiting Board members, Jiyong Lee and Lance Friedman, for their tireless hours of dedication to the Board and Glass Art Society as a whole. In San Jose, GAS welcomed three new Board members, Stephen Powell of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky; Kelly Conway of The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; and Charlotte Potter of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. They have agreed to dedicate their time and expertise to GAS for the coming years, particularly Kelly and Charlotte who will be hosting conferences in their local communities, Corning and Norfolk, respectively. I am very excited to work with the current Board of Directors, as a group. Each member is very dedicated and hands-on as we converse about issues and topics presented to the organization on an international level. This awesome team is working together to move our organization forward into the future of glass art, while at the same time maintaining GAS’s beloved roots, history, and passion. The membership is enthusiastic about our upcoming conference in Corning, June 9-11, 2016. The Corning Museum of Glass will be showcasing their new Contemporary Art + Design Wing, while offering exciting demos in the new state-of-the-art Amphitheater Hot Shop, and Laura Donefer will be organizing her infamous Glass Fashion Show. This conference will be one to experience and remember for every member of GAS. See you on the runway! Sincerely,

The Glass Art Society conference in San Jose, full of exciting lectures, demonstrations, and lec-mos, was bookended by the Strattman Lecture, a venue earmarked for critical dialog about glass, which was attended by a standing-room-only crowd. The lecture, The Critical Vacuum, given by the collaborative group Hyperopia Projects that is comprised of Helen Lee, Alex Rosenberg, and Matt Szösz, proposed that there is a vacuous lack of criticism within the glass world. As a possible solution to this perceived problem, the conversation turned to how the glass community could model and overlap with the larger contemporary art world. There seemed to be a consensus in the room that acceptance into the “contemporary art world” has been illusive for glassmakers, but the ability to articulate why this is the case has been equally confounding. Is it the material, the history, the attitude, or perhaps the framing of the questions altogether? Is it possible that there are many examples of crossover between glass and contemporary art, or that “divide” is actually an illusion? This issue on “crossover” addresses stories on the medicine line between glass and contemporary art, and artists who are able to traverse it. David Schnuckel writes about the new Art + Design Wing at The Corning Museum of Glass (a venue of the 2016 GAS Conference), which is creating a new context for art made from glass in both its new sun-lit gallery and theatrical hot shop. Michael Hernandez covers the 2015 Pilchuck AiRs, John Roach and Lili Maya & James Rouvelle who combine sound art, new media, and glass. New contributor Shelby Stuart covers Maria Bang Espersen’s process-based glass practice. Amanda Wilcox looks to Japan and showcases Ikita University in her School Profile and Kazumi Ohno, a student at the Toyama Institute of Glass Art in her Student Profile. Kristal Walker from the Rakow Research Library, reports on Duchamp’s use of glass. I write about Glasstress’s newest iteration, Gotika. For our op-ed, Suzanne Peck provides you with three easy steps to get over your contemporary art anxiety. GASnews is an outlet for reporting, critical insight, and opinion about glass artwork, and provides space to expand the glass dialogue. Our contributors are thoughtful artists and writers who know the material and the landscape of glass art intimately. As always, GASnews welcomes submissions and letters to the editor. As you read this “crossover” issue, GASnews invites you to consider context as you prepare for 2016 conference in Corning, NY, Creating Context: Glass in a New Light.





Cassandra Straubing, GASNEWS

GAS President

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Kim Harty

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GAS LINE 2015 INTERNATIONAL STUDENT EXHIBITION AWARDS

IN MEMORIAM: YORIKO MIZUTA (1956-2015) One of the few internationally recognized glass scholars in Japan, Yoriko Mizuta, lost her battle with cancer on August 3, 2015 at the age of 59. She was the curator, then deputy director at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan. In 1998, she organized an important exhibition titled, The Glass Skin, with Helmut Ricke at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo and Susanne Frantz at The Corning Museum of Glass. She also curated Outspoken Glass in 2003, another compelling exhibition on contemporary

glass. Click here to read her article, Modern and Contemporary Glass in Japan, featured in the 1998 GAS Journal.

UPCOMING DEADLINES FOR STUDENT MEMBERS It’s that time of year again! Students are heading back to school and GAS is excited to offer a number of great opportunities for our student members. GAS Board Student Representative The Student Representative functions as the primary intermediary and liaison between GAS student members and the general membership (as represented by the standing Board of Directors). This is a vital position on our Board and we encourage all eligible full-time student members in a degree-seeking glass program to apply. Deadline: November 1, 2015 More info: Click here Student Liaisons The Glass Art Society recognizes one Student Liaison per accredited school annually to represent the students and professors for that school. The Student Liaison communicates directly with the Student Representative for the GAS Board of Directors generally via email. The goal is to keep students informed about the organization, of related opportunities and to call attention to specific student needs within GAS. The liaison aids in the exchange of information between the Student Representative and their peer students, their advisors, and their school. Deadline: Fall 2015 More info: Click here

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International Student Online Exhibition The 2015 International Student Online Exhibition presents submissions from current full-time student members of the Glass Art Society. All work is required to be current (made in 2014-2015), unique and contain glass as the main material. In addition to this exhibition, GAS will invite three distinguished jurors to select works to be featured in the Juried Selection Catalogue. Deadline: November 15, 2015 View the 2014 exhibition: Click here The Thesis Shelf GAS members are graduating from MFA and PhD programs all year long. In an effort to help disseminate the knowledge these students have gathered in their theses, GAS has made some of these academic papers available to members online. If you are a GAS member whose glass-related graduate thesis has recently been accepted by an accredited-program in your school and wish to present that thesis please contact [email protected] to learn more about the submission process. Deadline: Ongoing More info: Click here GASNEWS

Each year, GAS invites all student members who are currently enrolled full-time in an accredited degree-granting program to participate in the International Student Exhibition & Sales at the annual GAS conference. In 2015, we had 46 students participate in the exhibition in San Jose, CA. We would like to thank Tina Oldknow, Dorothy Saxe, and Mary White for providing their expertise in selecting this year’s winners (listed below). Also, thank you to all of the amazing participants. Our student members are truly talented! Click here to view the photo gallery. First Place Teri Bailey, Untitled UW Stevens Point Second Place Zac Weinberg, Objects to be found 3/100 Ohio State University Third Place Ryland Gulbrandsen, Aggregate UW Stevens Point Honorable Mentions Leana Quade, Coulage Alfred University Amber Guerin, If you comb your hair 1,000 times it will grow long and beautiful San Jose State University Anna Lehner, Disturbance UW Stevens Point Elina Peduzzi, A Stitch in Time Saves Nine... if not in Time, Design! San Jose State University Kat Skinner, Untitled UW Stevens Point GAS would like to thank our generous award donors: The Corning Museum of Glass, GOTT STEAMER© Glass Shaping System, Jim Moore Glass Tools, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Salusa Glassworks, Inc., and Steinert Industries, Inc.

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GAS BOARD CHANGES by Kristin Galioto At the close of the 2015 Glass Art Society conference in San Jose, CA, the GAS Board of Directors selected a new slate of officers and welcomed three new members. Two long-standing members of the Board, Lance Friedman and Jiyong Lee, also ended their terms this year. After serving over a year as Board President, collector and arts advocate, Roger MacPherson, has returned to his former role as Treasurer. Cassandra Straubing, glass faculty head and studio coordinator at San Jose State University, is the newly elected President. Our Vice Presidents are Kim Harty, professor and section chair of glass at the College for Creative Studies, and Natali Rodrigues, who teaches at the Alberta College of Art and Design. The Secretary position has been filled by Tracy Kirchmann, educational programs manager at Ignite Glass Studios in Chicago. Joining the Board of Directors are Kelly Conway, Charlotte Potter, and Stephen Rolfe Powell. Kelly Conway is the curator of American glass at The Corning Museum of Glass. Previously, she was the Carolyn and Richard Barry curator of glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA, from 2007 to 2013. There, she curated several special exhibitions and was a key member of the team that established a hot glass studio at the Museum in 2011. Conway also led the design and reinstallation of the new glass collection gallery at the Chrysler Museum as part of the museum’s renovation project, which opened in May 2013. She received her master’s degree in the history of decorative arts at the Smithsonian Institution and Parsons School of Design. She lectures extensively on the history of glass, and is a member of the International Council of Museums, the American Historical Association, and the Association of Art Museum Curators.

Charlotte Potter was born and raised in Vermont, she is a conceptual artist and designer who holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and is trained as a traditional glassblower. Potter has been a pioneer in developing glass as a performance and conceptual medium. She has co-founded numerous performance glass troupes that have performed at institutions internationally. Potter’s sculptures, installations and performances have been exhibited worldwide at galleries, Museums and art festivals. Currently Potter is the glass studio manager and programming director at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk Virginia. Stephen Rolfe Powell has been professor of art at Centre College in Kentucky since 1983. He was named 1999 and 2000 Kentucky Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2004, he was awarded the Acorn Award for outstanding professor at a Kentucky college or university and the Distinguished Educator Award from the James Renwick Alliance, Washington DC, in 2012. Powell was featured on CBS-TV’s Sunday Morning and Kentucky Educational Television. Powell was one of eight Americans chosen for the Venezia Aperto Vetro in 1998. He demonstrated at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has been a guest teacher and artist in the Soviet Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Scotland, and Turkey. In 2011, Powell was inducted in to the Centre College Athletic Hall of Fame. Recently, Powell had solo exhibitions at The Hunter Museum in Chattanooga, The Montgomery Museum, and the Huntsville Museum in his home state of Alabama.

Lance Friedman

Jiyong Lee

Kelly Conway

Charlotte Potter

Stephen Rolfe Powell

GASNEWS

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GAS FOUND ITS WAY TO SAN JOSE FOR THE 44TH ANNUAL GAS CONFERENCE IN JUNE by Pamela Koss, GAS Executive Director After nearly 20 years, the Glass Art Society found its way back to California. GAS attendees were greeted with California sunshine and the backdrop of the City of San Jose, in the heart of the Silicon Valley. The theme, Interface: Glass, Art and Technology, was well-suited for a conference that illustrated the connections and intersections between art and science. For over 1,000 glass artists, collectors, students, and enthusiasts from 41 states and 24 countries, technology and glass set the stage for an amazing run of events throughout the three-day conference in San Jose. The local committee, led by co-chairs Cassandra Straubing, Demetra Theofanous, Susan Longini, and Steven Aldrich, did a fantastic job rallying the local glass community to offer a great program throughout the city. On Friday evening, the Gallery Hop coincided with the SubZERO festival, presenting a lively atmosphere for conference attendees as they made their way to local exhibitions. The Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Roadshow traveled across the country to support the GAS conference and was located in Plaza de César Chávez. Throughout the weekend, the mobile glassmaking studio offered the San Jose community at large, a venue for demonstrations that was conveniently located across from our lovely site hotel, The Fairmont San Jose. Attendees enjoyed walking to conference venues throughout the city, many of which were centrally located downtown. Parkside Hall and the adjoining theaters housed our Education and Professional Resource Center, Technical Display, Auction, Goblet Grab, International Student Exhibition, and lectures. Demonstrations and lec-mos by noted glass artists were offered at the nearby San Jose State University, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI), and TechShop San

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San Jose Museum of Art. Photo courtesy Team San Jose.

Jose. The Closing Night Party took place on Sunday evening at The GlassHouse, featuring a great outside deck to enjoy the warm California evening. This year, a gala dinner was hosted on Saturday evening to honor Dorothy and the late George Saxe for their vision in collecting and supporting the glass art community. The Emerging Artists Lecture Fund is now endowed in their name. The GAS Auction and Saxe Gala auction combined, grossed a total of over $90,000 and the goblet grab brought in $3,125 for the GAS Special Project Community Partnership Fund to allow local at-risk youth to attend the conference. Thank you to everyone who donated and purchased work at the conference! Thank you to our premier sponsor, Corning Incorporated, our major sponsors GLANC and the Knight Foundation, and all other sponsors that contributed to the conference.

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2015 CONFERENCE SPONSORS The Glass Art Society salutes the following for their support. 2015 Premier Sponsor

Major Sponsors

Day of Glass Sponsor

Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass Conference Sponsors

Applied Materials Foundation Fleishhacker Foundation MacPherson Construction & Design Ted and Melissa Lagreid Presentation Sponsors Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California - Jay Musler Demo Clay and Glass Arts Foundation - Jaime Guerrero & Watts Youth Group Demo College for Creative Studies | Glass - Nikolas Weinstein Lecture His Glassworks, Inc. - Johnathon Turner (formerly Schmuck) Demo Mark Murai - Nancy Callan Demo Martha Alderson - Demetra Theofanous and Beau Tsai Demo Robert M. Minkoff Foundation - At-Risk Youth Forum Southern Illinois University, Glass Program - Career Panel SJSU Glass Artist Guild Students - International Student Exhibition Venue Partners Bay Area Glass Institute The Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Roadshow San Jose State University The Tech Museum of Innovation The Glass Art Society Journal for the 2015 conference is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. GAS would also like to acknowledge our presenters who donated all or part of their honoraria to GAS: Marc Barreda, Rob Cassetti, Fred Curtis, Jeffrey Evenson, John Lewis, and Dan Schwoerer.

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TODAY IN THE CONTEXT OF TOMORROW:

THE CONTEMPORARY ART + DESIGN WING AND THE 2016 GAS CONFERENCE by David Schnuckel

The new Art and Design Wing has spacious galleries with curved walls and slatted ceilings that fill the space with natural light.

On the morning of March 20, 2015, a substantial gathering of people traveled from all around the world to witness a historic moment in the admissions lobby of The Corning Museum of Glass. A sizeable mass of curious supporters, patrons, and fanatics of the museum had claimed a rather sizeable foyer, standing shoulder to shoulder before a red ribbon. Beyond that ribbon was a white curtain; behind that curtain was an entrance to a highlyanticipated expansion; and within that expansion was the promise of experiencing the landscape of contemporary glass within an entirely new context. The attention of the lobby’s audience turned to a podium sharply at 10 am, when a series of local dignitaries and executives provided welcoming remarks to the grand opening of the Contemporary Art + Design Wing. Words were followed by a celebratory rumble of cheer that collectively came to an abrupt hush as ceremonial scissors were drawn. A brief flooding of anxious anticipation filled the air as those scissors opened; each blade positioned wide apart, straddling the ribbon, only to swiftly come

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together. Within a single cut the severed ribbon fell, an explosion of streamers descended across the lobby as the white curtain just beyond the ribbon had dropped. Gasps from the crowd were loud and distinct, a signal to mark a very special moment as an entranceway now laid before them; a passage not only to a new addition of The Corning Museum of Glass, but to a new way of perceiving the trajectory of studio glass. The Contemporary Art + Design Wing includes a spacious 26,000-square-foot building designed by the New York Citybased architecture firm, Thomas Phifer and Partners. Its exterior structure assumes the form of a white rectangular block; sleek, sizeable, and poised with stylish stoicism. However, its interior is far from predictable. Unembellished and entirely white, five immense exhibition spaces ebb and flow, composed of soft, elliptically bowing walls that separate each gallery from one another. High ceilings give way to a roof of skylights, which invite the varying radiance of the sun from day-to-day (let alone hour-to-hour) to naturally illuminate over GASNEWS

70 works from the museum’s permanent collection – each piece seldom revealing itself the same way within a given year. The galleries are separated by theme and each hosts a minimal number of objects, large-scale projects, and installations relating to nature, the body, material, history, and design. A special exhibition space hosts a rotating display of a singular and spatially-extensive installation work by a contemporary artist approaching the notion of light. Kiki Smith’s Constellation serves as the initiatory work to launch this ongoing project. Beside the gallery space is the equally spacious Amphitheater Hot Shop, located in the former Steuben Glass Factory. A walkway joins the Contemporary Art + Design Wing to the 500-seat amphitheater, a performative stadium with terraced seating and a viewing balcony circulating around the theater’s outer perimeter at the gallery-level. Down below, at the theater’s forefront, is an elaborate glassmaking stage, built for serious hot glass investigation, with state of the art equipment and utilized by the skillful museum staff glass workers for public demonstrations, and to host visiting artist programming, performances, and public glass-making events. If the new galleries next door represent a contemporary approach to how artists and designers think through glass, then the amphitheater exhibits contemporary approaches to how artists and designers physically handle it. The Amphitheater Hot Shop informs a viewing public how making with hot glass can be done, but more exciting is the programming designed to challenge artists to try new hot glass processes that we have yet to discover. Although it has been several months since the highly-anticipated opening, the Contemporary Art + Design Wing still elicits as much excitement now as it did this past March. The ideas that had driven

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Bertil Vallien working the the Amphitheater Hotshop, which seats 500 people.

its design – a complete devotion to light, spaciousness, and complex nuances that contribute to its total neutrality as a viewing space – allow the visiting public to truly ‘see’ the nature of each individual piece. These works are not only a testament to a higher standard of technical proficiency, but, more importantly, reveal the sophisticated range of artworks in which glass serves as a vehicular medium for ideabased, content-driven exploration. If The Corning Museum of Glass were a book in progress, this new chapter is freshly written and specifically designed to read in the present tense. The space doesn’t feel as much like a museum as it does a sanctuary; a sacred place that holds the attention of its visitor in a state of wonder. For those who consider themselves a seasoned CMoG patron, the new wing still has potential for impact; a place to allow for moments of rediscovery. In fact, the Contemporary Art + Design Wing utilizes glass – by way of technology – to make opportunities for new and unforeseen moments of revelation. GlassApp can be accessed by a visitor’s phone or device to find supplemental text, images, and video about a work and the artist responsible for making it. The app is not only an opportunity to enhance one’s experience of a singular piece, but further evidence of the new wing’s intention for visitors to ‘see’ the contemporary collection GASNEWS

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within a broader dialogue. In fact, this idea of generating informa-tion and energy around the artworks inspired the theme for the 2016 GAS conference in Corning, New York. Creating Context: Glass in a New Light will be hosted for the seventh time at The Corning Museum of Glass from June 9-11, 2016. “We are delighted that the Crystal City remains a venue for this important conference,” says President and Executive Director of The Corning Museum of Glass, Karol Wight. “Because glass remains the center of much activity in Corning, we take pride in being a repeat venue and in being able to naturally combine art, science, technology, and community.” “GAS has placed [the upcoming] conference in a unique context surrounded by glass resources that just do not exist anywhere else in the world,” notes Steve Gibbs, conference co-chair and senior manager of hot glass programs. The ancient to contemporary glass collections, the Rakow Research Library, The Studio and the Innovation Center already define Corning’s hosting legacy as one of tremendous diversity. “[But] the highlight for GAS members will be showcasing the stunning new Contemporary Art + Design Wing,” says Christine Sharkey, conference co-chair and director of community affairs at Corning Incorporated. “Corning is such a mecca for the glass community,” adds

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Amy Schwartz, director of The Studio. “[The Conference] will be a big gathering of new ideas and a reunion of old friends.” Expanding upon the conference theme of creating context, curator of American glass and GAS Board member, Kelly Conway states, “The whole idea of creating context is really about creating relationships. That’s really what GAS is all about, right? We love to come together and relate our experiences and our knowledge to each other.” Notions of history and tradition with the Corning area are complemented by the new wing’s associations with innovation and new possibility, facilitating a dialogue about the present state of contemporary glass, its relation to the past, and what that could imply about its future. Conway continues by saying, “Corning’s legacy as a center for glassmaking is unparalleled. There is a constant reinvention of art and industry alive in Corning, which has existed for nearly 150 years. The GAS conference is a vital part of our community awareness about trends and forecasts in artistic and educational developments in the glass world.” To further redefine context within the upcoming conference, CMoG features an abundance of performative space for glass workers to demonstrate a wide variety of glass-making processes. “The daylightfilled Amphitheater Hot Shop, Innovations

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Kiki Smith's Constellation in the Special Projects Gallery, which is dedicated to temporary projects including large-scale installations.

Stage, The Studio and Courtyard Stage all will be ground zero for demonstrations every morning of the conference,” says Gibbs. “Excellent views, seating, sound and video systems can accommodate large groups of attendees to give an up-close and intimate experience – even at the large venues accommodating hundreds of observers.” Gibbs continues, “The sheer number of people able to watch demonstrations has never been available at a GAS conference before.” Yet there’s also the context of Corning, a small community nestled within the hills of the Finger Lakes, that indirectly influences the nature of the upcoming conference. The charm and intimacy of its locale lends way to the idea of stronger interactions taking place between GAS members, the conference programming, and the Corning community. “Corning is a small town and there are fewer distractions than in [larger metropolitan sites],” points out Beth Hylen, the Rakow Research Library’s reference and education librarian. “We need places

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and events where people can congregate and make [new] connections.” The addition of the Contemporary Art + Design Wing helps solidify The Corning Museum of Glass’s place as the world’s leading institution dedicated to a single material. The versatile facility has long articulated the historical and contemporary evolution of glass, and this new wing creates a space for a future narrative to unfold. The new wing promises to impact the 2016 GAS conference in a similar way by providing a platform for its attendees to not only rediscover contemporary glass, but to reevaluate our individual places within it, and consider exactly where we’d like the field to go. David Schnuckel is an artist and educator, currently serving as visiting assistant professor to the glass program of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

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MARIA BANG ESPERSEN: FORMS OF CHANGE by Shelby L. Stuart Maria Bang Espersen’s first memories of glassblowing come from her childhood visits to her grandparents’ village in northern Denmark. They took her to a shop crowded with colorful vases, cups, candleholders, and wine glasses lining the shelves. In the back of the store, one could stand behind a brown rope to watch the glassblower at work as he dipped an iron tube into the furnace and pulled out fluid orbs of molten glass. The wide-eyed child stood wonderstruck at the swirls of glowing color that looked like soft orange taffy. When it was time to leave, she lingered behind as long as possible to watch the liquid-like material take form. Espersen was twenty-four before she returned to the passion of her childhood. In 2005, she abandoned her studies in art history to begin her education in glass at Engelsholm Højskole in Denmark. From there she studied at the Kosta School of Glass in Sweden, followed by three more years at the Royal Danish Academy of Design. She remembers her growing fascination with glassblowing, which made even the shortest school vacation seem

Maria Bang Espersen, Things Change, (detail)

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Maria Bang Espersen, Craftformation

too long if it meant she did not have a studio to work in. The year that Espersen graduated from the Academy was also the year that she won a 2012 International Glass Prize in Belgium for her work entitled, Obsession. The sculpture is a twisted candy-like piece of clouded glass that looks soft enough to melt in your mouth. She freezes the moment that captivated her as a child, the brief window of time when glass is something in between a melted liquid and a solid form. It is a moment that resists categorization or classification. It is the moment of change. It is a state that Espersen has quickly become familiar with as her growing career has taken her from internships, to residencies, to award ceremonies, to solo exhibitions and group shows around the world. Her life has become one of almost constant movement as she travels wherever the opportunities are waiting, whether that is Iceland, Germany, England, Norway or the desert of Oregon. The artist’s constant

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exposure to new people and cultures has contributed to a central element of her work that is always questioning the permanence of any one perspective. She has become increasingly interested in people’s addiction to absolutes. “We are very quick to say that something is true or false, but everything is in-between. I no longer believe in those extremes,” says Espersen. Glass, often thought of as a rigid and fixed material, has become her medium to expose the fallibility of our own expectations. In a video titled, Craftformation, Espersen explodes a large bubble of glass and then collects the soft shreds into a pile with her bare hand. The heap looks more like a glistening ball of feathers than the shards of sharp glass we have come to expect after an explosion. In another video called, Drinking Glass, she has shaped the glistening strands into a cup and filled it with red wine. As she drinks from the frayed rim, the wine trickles like blood down her face making the viewer aware of his or her own violent associations with broken glass,

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Maria Bang Espersen, Drinking Glass

despite the softness of the cup in her hand. “Seeing is not a neutral act,” she explains. “Everything we see is constructed by our own experience.” Espersen is not only concerned with destabilizing the expectations of others, but also her own. The artist’s relationship to glass is hardly a static one. She leaves room for the glass to surprise her. “It has always been the interaction that has fascinated me more than the final product. I am not interested in already established techniques. I want to really investigate the material to see what is possible, to push it instead of doing what I’ve always done before.” Espersen’s most recent work reflects the shift toward glass becoming a more active participant in her art. At the S12 Gallery in Norway, she exhibited a series of vases entitled, Things Change. Rocks are incorporated into the smooth surface of the vases, and it is only a matter of time before the tension between the two materials will cause the vessels to crack. She is not seeking to create objects of traditional beauty and form, but to discover how the medium can perform,

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even if that means a vase eventually exhibits itself as a pile of broken glass. “The glass world seems obsessed with control,” says Espersen, “but I want to take the attention away from the glassblower to see what the material can do on its own. Even deconstruction can be a positive transformation.” What is bound to keep Espersen’s work relevant and engaging is the fact that she never does experiments on the glass that she is not also willing to undergo in her

own life. This fall, the fluidity of Espersen’s existence will take yet another form as she leaves behind the now familiar life of travel in order to pursue her graduate studies at CalArts in California. Despite a growing and already successful career in glass well underway, Espersen is eager to shed ideas about what her art should be, or even what medium it will take, in order to continue her transformation. “It is about who you become,” says Espersen. “My work has a lot to do with instability, and who I am has changed multiple times over the past 10 -15 years because I am curious and open to change.” Change is the constant we can continue to expect from Espersen’s work as she generates new ways to melt down the perceptions we have long taken for granted in order to let reality take us by surprise. This year Espersen has been awarded the Talent Award of the Jutta Cuny-Franz Foundation, DE and the KPPrize, DK. Her work is currently on show at DG15, DK and International Glass Prize, BE. Later this year her work can be seen at the following group exhibitions: Biennalen for Kunsthåndværk og Design, DK; Substance, DK; European Prize for Applied Arts, BE; European Glass Festival, PL; as well as a solo show at BWA, Wroclaw, PL in the fall. Shelby Stuart is a freelance writer based in Basel, Switzerland. Maria Bang Espersen, Topography of a Square III

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GLASSTRESS GOTIKA: A GLASS REVIVAL by Kim Harty There is only so much you can say about artwork that you haven’t seen in person. Like many artists, I’ve followed Glasstress carefully via books, periodicals, and the Internet for its four iterations (2009, 2011, 2013, and now 2015), but have not been lucky enough to travel to Venice and witness the exhibition firsthand. My interest in Glasstress is not only in the art, but the effect that the exhibition is having on the landscape of glass. In an interview with GASnews, Adriano Berengo notes, “In recent years, the market for art using glass as a medium has been on the decline, not only in Murano. I think and hope that Glasstress has helped to resuscitate that market.” Glasstress has been widely successful in its aspiration to embed glass into the contemporary art market, but the implications of its success stretch much further. Glasstress is redefining what glass means to Venice and its artisanal economy and is creating new possibilities and opportunities for glass artists to contextualize their work. In Gotika, the 2015 iteration of Glasstress, curator Dmitry Ozerkov of the Hermitage Museum and gallerist, Adriano Berengo invited artists to make work that responded to ideas of the Gothic or NeoGothic. The exhibition is primarily on view at the Franchetti Palace which, restored in the 19th century, provides a Neo-Gothic backdrop of red walls, a marble staircase, and Corinthian columns. Historical objects from the Hermitage Museum, like medieval helmets and drinking vessels, add resonance of the contemporary artwork they accompany. The Franchetti Palace contrasts the rugged interior of Berengo’s glass studio, where several larger installation works are on display. The work in Glasstress runs the gamut of styles and techniques, though many of the pieces reference traditional techniques. In his exhibition essay, Ozerkov states, “Artists want to be in the vernacular and to use medieval techniques, and refer GASNEWS

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Erwin Wurm, It's a Cross

to exorcism, eschatology, death and resurrection, alchemy, magic crystals, and the search for the Holy Grail.” As is often the case when contemporary artists are asked to work with glass, some of the works are exquisite and others are predictable, despite their high production values. Glass’s material properties shine in Erwin Wurm’s sausage-like cross, but fall flat in Jake and Dino Chapman’s glass skulls. There is stained glass from Wim Delvoye, which shows x-ray panels of bodies with chains, keys, and rings imbedded inside them. Delvoye’s oeuvre fits perfectly into the Gothic theme and it is pleasing to have it in such a copasetic atmosphere. Joana Vasconcelos’s fantastical stained glass window, with protruding glass and fiber appendages that weave in

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and out, is cartoonish and delightful. Partially due to Glasstress, chandeliers have quickly become a popular glass trope employed by contemporary artists such as Fred Wilson, Cerith Wyn Evans, Javier Pérez, and Josiah McElheny. In Gotika, Petah Coyne and Song Dong are added to this prestigious list. Petah Coyne created a densely-colored saccharine chandelier, complete with Venetian flowers and beaded necklaces. Her maximalist and mixed media aesthetic lends itself well to such an exuberant piece. On the other hand, the chandelier titled, Glass Big Brother, by Song Dong has a modernist aesthetic and is comprised of glass surveillance cameras that feel like the glass is forced upon them. Although some pieces are more satisfying than others, overall, Glasstress produces glass artworks that address the material and its history in unexpected ways. Studio glass artists are often left wondering whether it is even possible that their work be included in Glasstess, or whether it is exclusive to artists who have proven themselves in contemporary

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Wim Delvoye, Calliope

galleries. When asked if there was room in Glasstress for artists who make glass, Berengo responded, “Yes, of course... we always do try to invite those artists who work in glass and make the art themselves.” Berengo added that Bertil Vallien, who makes large hot castings; Marta Klonowska who uses broken shards to create life size glass animals; and Andrea Salvadore, a photorealist who works in mosaic; have all been included in Glasstress. Lino Tagliapietra and Judith Schaechter have also participated in previous Glasstress exhibitions. Berengo explains, “So you see, in the end, it comes down to the art and what it says, not the hand that makes it.” The location of the exhibition is critical to the meaning and importance of Glasstress, where Venice’s history as a center of glassmaking for centuries is shown alongside the Venice Biennale, the most important international contemporary art fair in the world. It makes sense to Berengo that glass art would be included in the Venice Biennale because “glass is for Venice the genius loci or the spirit GASNEWS

of the place... Murano glass has always been recognized as a mark of excellence throughout Europe.” In a paradox, while the biennale mints anything that it touches, including glass, as important contemporary art, Venice is nursing a dying tradition of glassmaking where the global economy has deteriorated the cultural specificity and exclusivity of skill that made Venetian glassblowing a vibrant economy. However, revitalizing Venice is not the goal for Berengo, rather, it is a perfect backdrop for what he calls, “a ‘little’ mission” to break down the glass ghetto. Recently, he's seen his project crossing boundaries. Berengo notes, “when I go to art fairs, I see that fine galleries like Lisson show works by artists like Shirazeh Houshiary whose brilliant sculpture was made with 2000 glass bricks we fabricated. Now in New York, I see that Fred Wilson’s Iago’s Mirror, that we made in black Murano glass, is shown at the Pace Gallery. And now we work with Petah Coyne and Galerie Lelong in New York, and Mat Collishaw from London, whose incredible Black Mirror series was shown in the

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Song Dong, Glass Big Brother

prestigious Gallery Borghese in Rome.” Ozerkov’s exhibition essay helps articulate why ideas of the Gothic concept are critical to Venice’s identity as both a center for tradition craft and contemporary art. He states that Glasstress explores “how deep medieval ideas and stylistic parallels influence contemporary art.” He notes, “the Gothic style was the first international movement in visual arts and architecture,” but also sees that the international movement can collapse into unintended consequences like “making vernacular products global...” He continues, “they come to Murano with cheaper glass produced abroad, and persuade globetrotters to fill up their houses with silly souvenirs.” In the meantime, “As in the Middle Ages, professional art has become entertainment for the elite because it requires time that most of us do not have.” In a sense, Ozerkov is arguing that contemporary art is the only next step possible for the glassblowers of Murano – in the midst of the increasingly inequitable globalized economy – that the new paradigm demands it, for the global elite. GASNEWS

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He concludes, “The Gothic question is raised by living artists... are they good or bad [middle] ages?” Gothika is perhaps Glasstress’s most political theme yet, and shows an awareness of contemporary art’s relationship to other types of artists, like the glassmakers of Murano. Dmitry Ozerkov fully embraces the cultural and political implications of Glasstress and willingly critiques the conditions that have lead to a global economy of contemporary art; Berengo adamantly pursues the need to create a space for glass in this international art market; artists and fabricators continue to create ambitious pieces, contextualized in an global dialogue of contemporary art. Between the ambitions of Berengo, the context of Ozerkov, and the brilliant work of the Venetian maestros, Glasstress creates a space to recognize and address multiple histories and futures for glass art. Kim Harty is an assistant professor of glass at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI.

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SOUNDS LIKE GLASS: PILCHUCK AiRS, JOHN ROACH, LILI MAYA, AND JAMES ROUVELLE by Michael Hernandez Dale Chihuly has an incredible legacy that continues to perpetuate the presence of glass in many facets of contemporary art. He has integrated glass into mainstream culture, and most of us have had (numerous) conversations with friends and strangers about his triumphant chandeliers and ceilings in Las Vegas, or the magnificence of Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle. However, I would argue his greatest contribution to our community is much more shrouded. Chihuly’s most influential act was establishing a program that enables artists from other fields to explore and hybridize glass with their practices. The artist-in-residence program at Pilchuck Glass School, developed by Chihuly early in the school’s history, has fueled crossover in a wide range of creative practices and contributes to an ongoing development of the possibilities with glass as a versatile, expressive medium. While many AiRs at Pilchuck are sculptors, a growing number of musicians, sound, and new media artists are coming to the school to explore their ideas. Over the last two summers, a few artists and collaborators have stood out for their experimentation with sound (also noise, music, instrumentation, and composing) and the synthesis of digitally controlled media with(in) handmade objects. These artists made a significant impact on the Pilchuck community, and vice versa, through the integration of their practice with glass processes and their experimentation with glass as a tool for sound making. These artists have found success to be the crossover of material (glass) and practice (music), where the form of each becomes blurred in the experience of the work.

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Lili Maya and James Rouvelle in the studio. Photo by Peter Kunhlein.

The collaborative team of Lili Maya and James Rouvelle interact with glass as a multifarious instrument. Some of the inspiration for the glass instruments came from their interest in crossover artists such as Bohyun Yoon and Carrie Fertig. Their work at Pilchuck dealt largely with studies of vessel form. Resonance was a key element of investigation as each vessel (some incorporating water to add complexity to the reverberation) was struck or bowed. The sounds created from these instruments ranged from deep and guttural to airy and even piercing. Maya and Rouvelle also used small electromagnets that moved ball bearings around the inside of glass vessels, that accompany the resounding notes with sharp, playful pings. Maya and Rouvelle’s compositions are meditative and seductive, yet playful in the improvisation of movements and interaction/collaboration within each piece. The artists describe their approach, “For our performances we grouped objects in terms of their tunings and timbres GASNEWS

making tuning changes (by reshaping, or filling vessels with water) where necessary to create a specific temperament. Once we created a temperament, we improvised extensively with it and developed compositions for it. Our compositions are a mix of rehearsed sections/gestures connected by improvisation. While we usually decide how to start and end, the pieces are largely determined during the performance.” Brooklyn-based artist John Roach explored a range of sound, noise, and instrument creation while engaging the environment and community of Pilchuck. A range of experiments, from selfcontained object/instruments to a Fluxuslike happening where the artist invited an audience to both create and perform their own instruments, developed into a macrocosm of musical products and experiences. Roach’s influences in the sonic capacities of glass are broad; from the melodic tunes of the Glass Armonica invented by Benjamin Franklin to the dissonant works of Justice Yeldham, whose

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range of sounds recall everything from a chainsaw in a sheet metal box to a bullfrog on LSD, amplified by broken sheet glass that Yeldham mashes into his face while breathing, convulsing, and yelling. Roach actively took field recordings around the Pilchuck campus that gave substance, depth, and an entirely new perspective on activity in the creative environment. These recordings were then developed into compositions. These were not based in notation, but rather an assemblage of mixed and distorted sounds that originate from both field recordings and instrumental bricolage. This style, relative to the mid-century musique concrete, forms a fantastic narrative that engages the audience’s imagination through configurations of harmonic and cacophonic sound. While the sound works stand on their own, the experience of viewing Roach’s hodgepodge instruments is delightful. These Rube Goldberg-esque constructions mix small electrical devices for movement and magnetism with candy-colored glass vessels...some handmade, some from the previous night’s indulgences. Roach’s work conveys a feeling of entropy. While his materials are mostly inorganic, the work captures and displays

elements of destruction, creation, and transformation. Roach embraces this in the process, residue, and products of the hot glass studio. The artist describes his interest in the unique material qualities, “Glass objects, whether utilitarian or decorative (windows, glassware, bowls, lenses, vases, etc.), are commonly associated with delicacy, transience, refinement, and polish. The objects themselves; however, are teeming with an energy that comes from their violent birth; a transformation of matter akin to alchemy and a pliability of form that borders on the fantastical.” Pilchuck Glass School’s artist-inresidence program provides a unique contribution to the glass community. The approach to glass as a material for a broad spectrum of research, undertaken by artists that are untrained in the medium, is invaluable. The AiRs develop their work amongst the community of students, staff, instructors, and gaffers, who often all contribute to the success of the artist’s work. AiRs such as John Roach and the collaborative team of Lili Maya and James Rouvelle, make significant developments in our understanding of glass as medium for objects, tools, experience, and performance.

John Roach sound object. Photo by the artist.

Michael Hernandez is an artist and assistant professor at Palomar College, residing in San Diego.

Lili Maya and James Rouvelle bowing glass. Photo by Lili Maya.

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A MULTIFACETED ARTIST: MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887-1968) AND HIS USE OF GLASS by Kristal Walker

Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Villon's studio, Puteaux, France, c.1913 by Anonymous photographer. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Marcel Duchamp’s art is familiar to many casual museum visitors; particularly recognizable are Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) and his readymades – Fountain (1917) and L.H.O.O.Q. (1919) – recognizable “found” objects Duchamp transformed, altered, and elevated into artworks. But, Duchamp is also notable for several sculptural works incorporating glass. In 1915, Duchamp began work on the most famous of these works, Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, also known as The Large Glass, a process that would occupy him for almost a decade before he abandoned it in 1923. In addition to The Large Glass, Duchamp also produced other notable works using glass during this period: 3 Standard Stoppages (1913-1914) and To Be Looked At (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour (1918), which he called his “small glass.” As with his other work, these sculptures have evoked a wide range of responses,

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from passion to disdain, clarity to confusion, and seem to pose more questions than answers. One question that has been partly answered by Duchamp himself is: why glass? Duchamp believed the material properties of glass provided a vehicle to move the work and the viewer beyond the physical piece. In conversations with author Arturo Schwarz concerning The Large Glass, Duchamp said: “I used transparent glass again to get away from any possibility of placing this work in a material world. I wanted it to fly off completely, to escape all conventions.” He added that the transparent quality of glass provided the “effect of depth instead of that annoying feeling the background of a painting has.” Duchamp revealed more of his thoughts about glass when The Large Glass was broken in 1927, en route from its exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum to the home of its owner at the time, Katherine Dreier. Duchamp’s reaction was unsurprising. Upon seeing the damage he said, “But the GASNEWS

more I look at it, the more I like the cracks, because they are not like shattered glass. They have a shape. There is a symmetry in the cracking, the two crackings are symmetrically disposed, and there is more; I see in it almost an intention, a curious intention that I am not responsible for, in other words, a ready-made intention that I respect and love.”1 The physical strengths and weaknesses of glass as a material were clearly of interest to Duchamp. Duchamp’s interest in glass influenced artists from his own era, including his brother-in-law, Jean Crotti (1870-1958), with whom Duchamp shared studio space in 1915 just as he was beginning work on The Large Glass. Crotti began to use glass in his own work, even creating a portrait of Duchamp constructed from wire, metal, and glass eyes. Crotti, fascinated with the interplay of glass and light, developed a technique he called gemmaux. Gemmaux, or gemmail (singular), translates literally in French as “enamel gem.” The technique involves “layering and adhering pieces of colored glass onto a panel in order to create compositions that are meant to be viewed in front of a light box or illuminated from behind.” Crotti persuaded artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, among others, to reinterpret their paintings as gemmaux panels. Several of The Corning Museum of Glass’s gemmaux have been recently conserved and placed on display. Today, artists like Tony Cragg testify to Duchamp’s continued influence. Cragg, whose Blood Sugar (1992) is on display at CMoG’s Contemporary Art + Design Wing, notes that after Duchamp’s ready-mades appeared, sculptors began to see beyond traditional materials like stone, wood, and clay. “The vocabulary of materials for making art was expanded… [if you take an object]…but change the terms around it, the language associated with it…you effectively transform that object.” Cragg’s sculpture, titled for its likeness to a glucose

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Blood Sugar, Tony Cragg, 1992, Glass & Adhesive, dimensions variable, H. about 90 cm, W: 210 cm, D:210 cm. Corning Museum of Glass, 2011.3.115.

molecule, is constructed from vases, goblets, and other blown glass objects adhered to sheet glass. The Corning Museum of Glass houses the work of a variety of artists who have been inspired by Duchamp’s provocative ideas and by his work with glass. There is even a short animated film on YouTube by Dennis Summers that imagines The Large Glass as it would appear in motion. If you are intrigued by Duchamp, you may want to explore a few of the books and websites below or contact the Rakow Research Library for a more comprehensive list of research.

Kristal Walker is a digitization assistant at the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass and holds degrees in studio art and education.

1. Arturo Schwarz. The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, Delano Greenidge Editions, 2000.

Suggested readings: T. de Duve. The Definitively Unfinished Marcel Duchamp. MIT Press, 1993. Alice Goldfarb Marquis. Marcel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bare. MFA Publications, 2002. L.D. Stefel. The Position of Duchamp’s ‘Glass’ in the Development of his Art. Garland, 1977. Calvin Tompkins. Duchamp: A Biography. Holt, 1998. Tout-Fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal [http://toutfait.com/] GASNEWS

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Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. 1912. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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OP-ED: 3 SIMPLE STEPS TO RID YOURSELF OF CONTEMPORARY ART ANXIETY by Suzanne Peck There is a great divide between the contemporary glass world and the contemporary art world. Contemporary art doesn’t include glass and has ghettoized us to some forgotten, fussy decorative corner. Your years of skill acquisition and development of a personal artistic vision mean little if you work with glass. Your material obsession lands you in an extremely marginalized world. Your work is too “glassy” to be looked upon as anything but contemporary glass. You will never show work alongside true contemporary art. You will not be relevant to the contemporary conversation unless you employ xyz medium in addition to your glass. I call bull$#!&. Witness the artist ingénue, the magical unicorn, in her clean, bright studio, creating her work. The golden dewy sunray of the

GLASHAUS The International Magazine of Studio Glass

German/ English, 4 issues p.a. 42 Euros Dr. Wolfgang Schmölders Glashaus-Verlag, Stadtgarten 4 D-47798 Krefeld (Germany) Email: glashaus-verlag @ t-online.de Web: http://studioglas.jimdo.com

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muse has kissed her. She is bestowed with creativity that flows out of her, unencumbered by fear or doubt, and she makes the art. The Good Art. People who hunger to consume beautiful, theoretical, conceptually nourishing objects/images/ forms/ideas will flock to her and give her money. Also, she eats only chocolate covered almonds and gooey cheese and yet her skin is flawless and her arms toned. I call bull$#!&. The above are latent but curable anxieties that often brew in the minds and hands of talented makers. There is no alchemical magic that creates The Good Art that savvy art connoisseurs want to show/ see/buy. And there is certainly no medium that sidelines this possibility. Read on and you will find 3 simple, and hopefully useful, steps to help rid you of your contemporary art anxiety. If you can master these 3 steps you will avoid what is certain to be the most boring and least productive part of your artistic life: blaming glass for your troubles .1 1. Confidence What a lack of confidence does to artists, myself included, is make you spend innumerable hours considering whether you are “good enough”, whether your work is to everyone’s taste, whether people understand your practice. Every artist has these anxieties – every maker, every conceptualist, every writer, every creative. For glassmakers, you might spend time wondering if glass is what is holding you back, and if you should abandon the medium all together. Don’t. Our glass training is unique. We work with others in conditions that most people find totally horrific. Glassblowers are capable of skilled dexterous labor and subtle but specific communication paired with the physical intensity of skin melting heat. Mold makers can imagine the inside of an object, and then use an array of GASNEWS

industrial materials to make the thing to make the thing. Flameworkers can read the subtle temperatures of fire. Neon benders can control light. We know how to make things with our hands and our minds. We are basically gods.2 It’s not really about whether the commercial or critical market thinks that glass is relevant, it’s whether your work is relevant. And here’s where that sticky wicket of confidence enters the scene. Confidence is knowing that yours is a singular, unique, and beautiful snowflake worthy of both critical and commercial success. How, then, do you cultivate confidence? See #2. 2. Know what you’re about You have accrued the fabled 10,000 Gladwell hours towards becoming proficient at glassblowing or casting or flameworking or some other glassy pursuit. This is not enough, and you know it. Being excellent at your craft is crucial, but not everything. Maybe you’ve read Deleuze, de Botton, Adamson, Benjamin, or some other heady theorist. Maybe you studied meteorology. Maybe you’re obsessed with 1960s pop music. Maybe you are engaging with materiality itself, you are interrogating glass for its glassiness. Maybe you see your ideal context as feminist art, maybe you want your work to breach the pages of Artforum or be included in a biennial somewhere. Maybe, although you work in glass, you consider yourself a “painter” or a “sculptor.” Great. Whatever. The point is: your work is not just glass. It’s the total accrued output of a singular artist with her own experiences, interests and desires. Glass might be the vehicle, but what makes The Good Art is the driver and all the baggage the driver packs into the car (Whew – did I stretch that metaphor too thin?) In art, like in any industry, the people that are the most successful are the people

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who are the most knowledgeable. The informed and engaged artist can make the most deft and sensitive moves within their field because they understand it from a number of different angles. I like to think of this as a kind of expansion of the (generalized) glass world desire for virtuosity. Yes to virtuosity! But virtuosity that is bigger than just technical prowess. Expansive knowledge in whatever equation one’s particular practice demands: art/ material history, fluency in contemporary themes and conversations, as well as a deep understanding and curiosity into the corner of the universe that one’s work is exploring. You know what your work is about – cultivate the vocabulary, speak your own language, be authentic, be unique, and work it. 3. Same-Same or They’re just like us I currently work for a well-known, commercially and critically successful artist. Without delving into specifics, it is safe to assume she is in your art history books and you may have had to give a presentation on her in art school. Let’s call her Famous Artist. I am Famous Artist’s project manager and I am privy to the most minute and intimate details of her creative process.3 Working for Famous Artist has helped dispel the myth (or fantasy) of the contemporary artist working in the clean, quiet, ethereal land of ideas. Famous Artist works her tail off in every possible capacity. I’m certainly not so cynical that I don’t believe in ingredients of magic and talent and the ability to create space within oneself where purity and truth can live and push out the maddening chatter of the real world. Some version of this is necessary. The not-so-secret-secret about the contemporary art world is that it is the same as any brand of success: We spend 10% of the time making The Good Art, a bit more if lucky. The rest of the time is just plain hard work getting The Good Art into the world. What I have discovered working for Famous Artist that there is a HUGE amount of hustle, even if you have been GASNEWS

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famous for 25 years. The considerations that go into the gestation, conceptualizing, and the realizing of the work has very little to do with the specific medium the work is made out of. The work consists of holding the intent of the artwork up and trying to balance upon it the limitations of the budget, the idiosyncrasies of the hosting institution and the eventual audience experience. All of that plus hustle. Creative Capital, a New York-based organization that supports artists both monetarily and professionally, tells it like this (paraphrased): Being an artist is the same model as running a small business. Except, until you are in a position to employ people, YOU are the small business in its entirety. One person, until financial success is achieved, has to play the role of CEO, CFO, production and communications. Not to mention making The Good Art. Notice here there is no mention of medium or method. Because THE WHAT DOESN’T MATTER NEARLY AS MUCH AS THE HOW. It is our responsibility to make the glass conversation more interesting and diverse. The contemporary art world doesn’t care about glass, the same way it doesn’t care about anything. Because, and here is the biggest secret, the contemporary art world isn’t any different from the contemporary glass world. These are arbitrary lines, drawn on a map of anxiety. Burn that map. Pave your own way. Be the artist you want to be. And when all else fails, fake it ‘til ya make it. Suzanne Peck is an artist writer and educator who splits her time between the United States and Australia. 1. *This might be a transcript of an ill attended self help workshop given in a hotel room at a GAS conference some years ago. 2. Just kidding. But we are gifted with skills that are extremely desirable in other creative fields. 3. While I’m not sure how this fits into ridding yourself of contemporary art anxiety, I do want to note that Famous Artist employs numerous glass-world folk in various roles in her studio. She doesn’t make work with glass and she still hires glass people? Why? She notes that ‘her glass crew’ has the work ethic, problem-solving abilities, hand skills and community mindedness that she looks for when creating her team. Go, go glass world!

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SCHOOL PROFILE: EXPANDING GLASS EDUCATION IN AKITA: UNIVERSITY OF ART AND AKITA CITY GLASS PROJECT by Amanda Wilcox

Takahito Komure and students

Akita University of Art, located in Akita, Japan, was recently developed into a fouryear university of art from a two-year junior college of arts and crafts. The University supports five diverse departments, also known as courses, that exist amongst four basic philosophies: creating new art fields, utilizing and expanding the traditions and culture of Akita, nurturing global human resources that will be sent out into the world from Akita, and contributing to community development while advancing together with the local community. The five departments, titled Arts and Roots, Multidisciplinary Arts, Creative Manufacturing Design, Communication Design, and Landscape Design, nurture these ideals of modern Japan while withholding a deep veneration for traditional culture. The teaching staff consists of Ken-ishi Matsumoto, Takahito Komure, Rysuke Imanaka, Yasuhiro Ando, Atsuhiro Yamaoka, Kou Kumagai, Ikuko Ando, and Kaori Mori. The students' first year is lecture-based and divided amongst all five departments. In the second year they are able to choose two departments to study from, while

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exploring various media. Students choose and apply to one department in their third year, fostering an in-depth relationship with a particular material, in preparation for the fourth year that focuses on advancing technique and developing graduation work. Head professor, Takahito Komure leads the glass department, part of the Course of Creative Manufacturing Design. As stated on the school’s website, this course “considers monozukuri,” (loosely translated to made things or thing making), “as the manifestation of the wisdom of culturally and historically accumulated materials and techniques. Students will learn to establish a concept for the ideal form of mono, and employ design techniques for production and distribution, thus allowing the art of monozukuri to contribute to the creation of harmonious relationships between person and person, and humans and nature.” This empathetic design approach towards “thing making” illuminates the appreciation and focus of a foundation heavily built in technical skill, which is present in the majority of Japanese craft education. Nevertheless, students are encouraged

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to expand upon these traditions and create concept-driven works in order to, “reinterpret local culture from the base of the culture, climate, and nature of the Akita region…” Last year, Sean Salstrom, previously an associate professor at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, began working with the University of Akita, alongside the City of Akita, to produce the Akita City Glass Project. The project’s main goals are to ignite public interest in glass arts through hands-on education, visiting artist lectures, and demonstrations, as well as provide a viable studio space for the glass community to flourish in Akita. Since the University is currently hosting the only glass studio in the area, many students move to various cities after graduation in order to continue working with the material. This city-funded glass studio would enable students and artists in the community to invest in their stay in Akita, while growing a market for galleries and showrooms to prosper. Three major events were held last year where artists from abroad such as

Katherine Gray, Amy Rueffert, and Brian Corr, traveled to give lectures and glass blowing demonstrations. This coming year there will be four events, beginning in August with Osamu and Rumiko Noda from Nijima, the Japanese collective “Glass Around 70’s” in October, Peter Ivy in December, and Matthew Szösz in February. Salstrom is hoping for the cityfunded studio to be up and running within two years, and the forward momentum of international artists supporting the effort surely demonstrates the reality of this project meeting that goal. Akita is growing and strengthening its glass community and proves to be a desirable destination for education, work, and residency. Amanda Wilcox is a candidate for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in glass, expanded media and visual culture studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work focuses on understanding the human experience through analyzation of memory, technology and history.

Akita University of Art glass studio

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STUDENT PROFILE: KAZUMI OHNO by Amanda Wilcox Kazumi Ohno, Ark of Dreams

As an Advanced Research Studies (ARS) student at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (TIGA), Kazumi Ohno explores her ability to bridge the traditional and contemporary practices of working with glass. Inspired by viewing the factory glass workers as a child, she moved to Toyama after high school to attend Japan’s only public educational institution. TIGA houses around forty students, five instructors (two that are foreign), and five teaching assistants. In addition, two foreign instructors visit each year to teach one-week workshops. The Institute also supports an established artist-in-residence program and research students system. For the first year of Glass Certification Studies (GCS), students learn the basics of glass and art theory in 2D and 3D expression. The second year begins with level II hot glass, cold glass, and kiln working, then allows for individual conceptual focus for final graduation work. The ARS program is similar to graduate school, where a student’s sole purpose is to grow as an artist through open access to the studios and class time with the school’s top professor, Jin Hongo. During the past four years, Kazumi has chosen to focus on glassblowing

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and coldworking under the guidance of her respectable instructor’s nurturing curriculum. Kazumi explains, “I am inspired by the brilliance of glass and traditional glass cutting techniques from Bohemian glass in the late seventeenth century. My mentor and teacher Czech glass artist, Stanislav Müller, has been an inspiration and guide as I explore the material and make objects out of glass.” Maintaining respect for tradition is felt to be important, as is carving an avenue for contemporary frontiers to flourish. Evident in her works, and beautifully displayed in Line of Seed, is the technical attention to detail and sensitivity to aesthetic form. The material is appreciated for its inherent brilliance. Panes of glass capture depth from one another’s transparency, while light accentuates the perimeter undulations that demonstrate Kazumi’s precision in craft and patience in character. Less abstract is her piece, Stationary, which displays the tools necessary for precise construction. Scissors, straight edge rulers, a pencil, an eraser, and what looks to be a sharpener and crayons, are organized in such a manner to make one recognize their

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Kazumi Ohno, Line of Seed

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CLASSES & WORKSHOPS preciousness. These tools may also be symbols of elementary education, as a child learning basic artistic expression. Kazumi continues in explanation, “I am also inspired by a wide range of objects and the world around me including, but not limited to memory, natural objects, and old machines.” The dichotomy of her interest in old machines and her work’s lustrous, delicate nature is intriguing, yet, the seamless application of the proper mechanics of objects creates a rich connection. The study of old machines also provides an understanding of time passed, as well as remembrance of childhood. The idea of time passing, time kept in memory, and time imagined within intangible spaces, presents itself within her work, Ark of Kazumi Ohno

Dreams. A ship suggests a vehicle able to propel a forward motion; a machine pronouncing an ability to stride gracefully within the tempers of the ocean’s currents, while transporting life from one space to another. The object speaks deeply into the voyage of the imagination and necessity of movement into the unknown. When asked to describe her intentions, Kazumi illuminates further this fascination, offering a conclusion to her creative process, “The ship was produced from the world of my fantasy. The world of a fantasy continues spreading, without stopping. Even the fantasy makes it think that it is a dream. A dream is born from the world of a fantasy and a trip starts. In the trip, a ship carries a dream. The dream to see, the dream pictured to itself, and all the dreams are put, And it flies about. A new trip connects a dream and it shows the new world.” Amanda Wilcox is a candidate for the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in glass, expanded media and visual culture studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work focuses on understanding the human experience through analyzation of memory, technology and history.

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FALL 2015

VOLUME 26, ISSUE 3

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