GAS 2020 - Scottish Glass Society Exhibition - ON THE EDGE

For all makers and lovers of glass

The Scottish Glass Society also wishes to thank the WM Mann Foundation for their generous contribution to SGS@40

North Lands Creative Lybster, 8 – 26 July 2019

Trades Hall Glasgow, 18 – 25 September 2019

FOREWORD

by Catherine Lowe

It gives me great pleasure to welcome everyone to the 40th anniversary exhibition of the Scottish Glass Society in North Lands Creative, Lybster and the Trades Hall, Glasgow.

What you see today are exemplary exhibits from 18 artists that show the diversity of contemporary glass based on the theme “on the edge”. The Society is grateful to all artists who submitted entries, making the selection process a very dynamic experience.

The Scottish Glass Society is a registered Scottish Charity. Our mission is to promote the appreciation, understanding and development of contemporary Scottish glass by encouraging excellence, promoting and raising the profile of our members. We also try to increase participation, interconnection and collaboration of our members and our public.

Our membership includes some of the most innovative and skilled glass artists working to the highest professional standards in contemporary glass today as well as students, historians, curators, and interested organisations and individuals. We champion the work of Scotland-based artists, and our membership is drawn from artists who studied here, have Scottish connections, a keen interest in glass art associated with Scotland, or who simply want to be a part of the Society.

practice and for the wider public to experience the joys of glass.

What you see today is a vibrant and diverse group of highly visual work all using glass as the primary artistic material. Within this catalogue you will also discover more about the background and inspiration of each of the artists and see how their work responds to the exhibition brief.

The exhibition has been generously supported by Creative Scotland, North Lands Creative, and a number of individual trusts, who have donated to the Scottish Glass Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us on our way to stage this exhibition. In particular, we would like to thank our curatorial adviser Sarah Rothwell, fellow juror Karen Phillips and the staff from Vis-à-Vis. Also grateful thanks to the staff at North Lands for assisting with the installation.

We do hope that you enjoy the exhibition and will follow our other planned 40th Anniversary celebrations.

Catherine Lowe, Chair of SGS

Celebrating our 40th anniversary is a real landmark year for the Society.

Our 40th anniversary celebrations reflect the diversity and range of glass practice in Scotland, in both contemporary and traditional techniques and processes. The committee are excited about further developing partnership working with other key players in the sector in order to create opportunities for members to develop their own 2

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ON THE EDGE Glass is an exceptionally versatile and visceral medium. Its properties and ability to reflect and refract light, to be moulded and blown into a myriad of forms, captivates all those who come into contact with it.

Yet, at the same time its assumed fragility causes concern, making us feel on the edge, questioning its ability to withstand the demands placed upon it by industry, or its application within the world of art. It’s this juxtaposition of tensions however that makes it such a captivating material.

Glass draws you in. It wants you to engage with it, to see it move and flow when in its liquid form. To watch as the glassblower moves from the glory hole to the bench in their balletic dance with blowing iron and punty, breathing shape into this living ball of fire; or how a lampworker teases rods of glass with pincers and flame into sculptural entities or vessel forms; to the heat and intensity of the molten glass being poured into moulds to emerge days later to be broken free of their cases to be polished and cut to reveal something glorious and new.

We are drawn to touch and caress it when complete and inert. To feel the subtlety of textures that are created from its process of creation. Some may try and pull away, or be hesitant to hold it when it’s at its most delicate, in lampworked or pâte de verre form, scared it may break. But in the end, you become enchanted. You see its beauty through its ability to capture light, to seemingly encapsulate cloud formations in its depths; to move and flow to create dramatic sculptural forms and beautiful sinuous vessels; hard almost brutalist edifices or sharp blades of colour. It becomes something that you will be drawn back to, time and time again.

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Since the Studio Glass Movement of the 1960s when Sam Herman first demonstrated his free approach to glass blowing at Edinburgh College of Art. Or even earlier still, when Helen Munro-Turner set up the glass department at ECA in the late 1940s. And her renowned Juniper Workshop in the 1950s, allowing young designers and makers such as Valentino Rossi, who is noted to have been part of ‘a new idea that does not have any direct ancestors’1 in the terms of glass art, to experiment with the medium. Artists and makers from, and based within Scotland, have had a significant impact on how glass is perceived. Beyond simply viewing the medium as purely a vehicle for the functional. But boldly resisting perceptions of any limitations of glass as an art form.

Today across Scotland, from the far north in the highland and islands, to the lowland belt; in rural idylls where Byre’s become galleries and bothies become studios. To sprawling urban centres where contemporary glass art and craft is represented within museums and galleries, juxtaposed with artefacts of Scotland’s national heritage; to pop up studios where you can watch at first hand the skills of an engraver or lampworker. Scotland’s glass artists and makers are continuing to challenge our perception of the possibilities of glass, exploring the stress lines between historical concepts and contemporary ideology, often creating works that revaluate our understanding of their chosen medium. Be that through the application of new technologies or the exploration and development of processes. Exploring narratives both political and social, or by straddling the art/science divide to create contemporary works of Glass.

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p.31, Glass 1959, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning Glass Centre, Corning, New York

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This year’s 40th anniversary exhibition, On the Edge showcases a number of individuals working in Scotland whose practise is challenging the possibilities of glass as an artistic medium. For instance, within material exploration, we have the work of Gregory Allis and Lauren Puckett, both recent graduates of Edinburgh College of Art. Allis explores ideas of sustainability and recycling, creating works using cathode-ray tubes from television sets, which owing to its industrial past has echoes of the chemical and electrical exposure they were under, which reveals itself as beautiful, haunting happenings within the depths of his cast pieces. Whilst Puckett seeks to subvert our ideas of perfection by altering the mould making process to increase the possibility of fusion and fraction, creating highly textured cast works which incorporate both the waste mould and the polished glass, making you question if it is really glass.

Political and social issues that are pertinent to today’s society, and how we deal with both contemporary and historical acts of human impact upon the land and on one another, is evident within the work of stained-glass artist Pinkie Maclure and glass artist Brett Manley. Maclure’s work the Lament for the Seas on a Great Auk discusses how indigenous flora and fauna has been lost due to the environmental impact of heavy industry and over fishing on the delicate marine eco systems of Scotland. Whilst Manley looks to raise the question of the legacy of slavery, not just as a historical issue, but a current problem which continues today, where countries can still be seen to take over other neighbouring countries physically or economically.

colours that surround us. From the turbulent grey skies, to the steely blues of the Lochs, and the peaty tones of the moors to the vibrant greens of the glens. Rosheen Young for instance has been inspired by Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’ which reflects her time spent in the Cairngorms, to create her topographical piece Frozen Water which evokes the sense of a frozen landscape. Whereas Catherine Carr’s beautiful, delicate knitted and crocheted glass structures are inspired by the textiles traditions of the islands.

Scotland today is a thriving hub within the world of glass. Edinburgh College of Art is one of the oldest centres of excellence to teach glass within the UK, with many of its graduates choosing to remain in the city because of its unique facilities. Whilst North Lands Creative in Caithness is internationally renowned for its programme of exhibitions, workshops and symposiums that looks to celebrate the possibilities of glass as an art form, and create an intimate gathering for the glass community to come together and showcase the work of emerging and innovative practice in the field of glass.2 This exhibition is a wee snapshot of some of the creative, dynamic and thought-provoking practitioners who are creating truly innovative works within the medium of glass.

Sarah Rothwell, Curator, Modern & Contemporary Design National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh

The landscape, industrial and artistic heritage of Scotland is a continuing source of inspiration for those who practice in this beautiful country. One can’t help but be influenced by the subtle palette of 6

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https://northlandscreative.co.uk/

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CATALOGUE GREGORY ALLISS

INGE PANNEELS

Transparent Flow, 2019 ____________________________________ 10

Off the Map, 2015 ________________________________________ 19

CAROLYN BASING

LAUREN PUCKETT

Stilled Life, 2019__________________________________________ 11

The Contaminant as Actor, II, 2019 ___________________________ 20

CATHERINE CARR

ANNICA SANDSTRÖM AND DAVID KAPLAN

Pineapple One – Pewter, 2017 and Pineapple Two – Mother of Pearl, 2017 _____________________ 12

Twilight, 2018 ____________________________________________ 21

HANNAH GIBSON Recycling Narratives, Whispering Sweet Nothings, 2019 ___________ 13

SIOBHAN HEALY Apothecary, 2019 _________________________________________ 14

JESSAMY KELLY Glacial Mind Landscape, 2019 _______________________________ 15

ALISON KINNAIRD Storm, 2012 _____________________________________________ 16

PINKIE MACLURE

CATHRYN SHILLING Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, 2016 _________________________ 22

AMANDA SIMMONS The Terns, 2019 __________________________________________ 23

MOONJU SUH I Dwell With _____, 2019 ___________________________________ 24

LAURA TURNER Colour Splatter of Pâte de Verre, 2019 _________________________ 25

ROSHEEN YOUNG Frozen Water, 2019 _______________________________________ 26

Lament for the Seas on a Great Auk, 2015 ______________________ 17

BRETT MANLEY Africa Totem Bowl and Empire Taker Totem Bowl, 2017 ____________ 18 8

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GREGORY ALLISS Transparent Flow, (2019), Image: Gregory Alliss

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CAROLYN BASING Stilled Life, (2019), Image: Carolyn Basing

With a background in science and engineering, Gregory is primarily a self-taught glass artist who is interested in the influence of traditional glass making techniques on the industrial production of glass and vice versa.

Carolyn is a glass artist, designer, maker and educationalist. Her work in glass comes from a love of material; its strength and fragility, its technical challenges and its ability to gather light and to encapsulate and distort imagery.

Transparent Flow is part of an experimental series that explores both scale and form to strike a balance between the medium’s transparency and the inner space trapped within. The investigation combines two methods of kiln casting and is about finding the limits of the material. This approach is sympathetic to the source material, the glass from cathode ray television screens. The making process capitalises on material properties to create the cellular patterns. These patterns represent both the flow of the molten glass and the information that flows across the optical boundary of the object.

In Stilled Life, Carolyn’s intention wasn’t to create beauty, as nature is rarely pristine, but instead she deliberately sought accretions and flaws. She manipulated and degraded the casting processes, creating wax flow patterns, bubble-adhered surfaces and over-steamed moulds taken almost to point of failure. From a polished cone of conception, the glass grew to show signs of life with all its distortions and imperfections.

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CATHERINE CARR

HANNAH GIBSON

Pineapple One - Pewter, (2017), Image: Sara Porter

Inspired by the role of women in textiles, especially her grandmother, and mindful of her Scots-Irish ancestry, Catherine creates beautiful, delicate knitted and crocheted glass structures, in which each individual stitch can be seen & where the openwork of the design casts striking & dappled shadows.

In Pineapple One - Pewter and Pineapple Two – Mother of Pearl (2017), Catherine draws on the iconic ‘Pineapple’ patterns to push the technical boundaries of glass to its limits. By using traditional tools to create an innovative range of crocheted glass vessels, these works are still recognisable as the soft textured, decorative doilies of yesteryear but transformed into solid, yet fragile contemporary glass objects. Each piece of glass is crocheted entirely by hand. It has been fired several times in a kiln and coloured with lustres and manipulated into its final form.

Time and Tide Wait for No Man, (2019), Image: Beytan Erkmen

Hannah is a glass artist who is passionate about sustainability and recycling, using only 100% recycled glass and found objects. Capturing the nostalgic imagery of childhood and exposing hidden narratives through cast sculptural glass stand at the core of Hannah’s work.

In her series, Recycling Narratives, Whispering Sweet Nothings (2019), Hannah explores our relationship and interaction with glass as one that has never been as close as it is today.

Living on the edge of constant technological innovation, we now spend each day screen watching and touching glass in the form of mobile phones.

Sweet Nothings are unique Cast Glass figures, usually found in pairs, whispering ‘Sweet Nothings’ to one another.

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SIOBHAN HEALY

Apothecary, (2019), Image: Siobhan Healy/Lighthouse Photographics

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JESSAMY KELLY

Glacial Mind Landscape, (2019), Image: Marzena Ostromecka

Siobhan is a Scottish artist and designer who specialises in work in glass and crystal. She has produced glass commissions for public buildings and sculptural works for museums and public spaces.

Jessamy works predominantly in kiln cast glass combined with ceramic aggregates.

As an artist, she seeks out natural phenomena that allow her to capture a fleeting, transience through her chosen mediums.

In Apothecary, Siobhan depicts examples of scientific glassware, an endangered craft on the edge of extinction. Elements have been handmade from borosilicate glass, which is able to withstand breakage and extremes of heat, and some repaired historical items from Pyrex. In order to preserve these traditional crafts, Siobhan seeks to highlight the features of this very precise and specific element of the glass making landscape.

Landscapes are changing fast, Glacial Mind Landscape is a statement on the conceptual framework of the Anthropocene that states human activity has fundamentally influenced and changed our climate and environment. Inspired by the Chinese approach to mind landscape painting, this series of work relates to the act of creating landscape from the mind, to represent the changing state of landscape in the medium of glass. This work asks us to view a frozen moment in time to question and capture what we have lost through human activity.

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ALISON KINNAIRD Storm, (2012), Image: Robin Morton

Alison is one of the world’s leading engravers, with work in public, royal and private collections throughout Europe, America and the Far East. The glass ranges from small intimate pieces, to architectural installations which incorporate light and colour. A recipient of many awards and winner of many competitions, her contribution was recognized in 1997, when she was presented with an M.B.E. for services to art and music.

Storm is about extremes of weather and emotion displayed in the fragility of glass, the brilliant colours of the light and the movement of the unclothed figure.

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PINKIE MACLURE

Lament for the Seas on a Great Auk, (2015), Image: Pinkie Maclure

Pinkie is a self-taught glass artist who uses the beauty and allegorical heritage of stained glass to stimulate debate about important contemporary issues and to link the characters of the past with those of modern life. She uses the medieval techniques of painting, firing and leading and experiments with layering, engraving and mixed media.

In Lament for the Seas on a Great Auk, a widow sings a lament for the poisoned seas while standing on the back of a great auk, a bird hunted for fuel until it became extinct in the 19th century.

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BRETT MANLEY Africa Totem Bowl, (2017), Image: Brett Manley

Off The Map, (2015), Image: Kevin Greenfield

Brett first studied glass making at evening classes and now runs art courses in Kerala, India. She takes her inspiration from travels, nature and photography and seeks to constantly experiment and push the boundaries in her own artistic practice and in her teaching.

Inge is an artist and academic whose creative practice engages with space and place. She established her studio in Edinburgh in 1998, now working from her studio in the Scottish Borders, on public art projects for public and private institutions across the UK and has exhibited internationally.

In Africa Totem Bowl and Empire Taker Totem Bowl (2017), Brett challenges the viewer to think about changing juxtapositions of power and culture. The African woman and the ‘Empire Taker’ at the heart of their respective bowls are opposites, but equal and important.

Off The Map forms part of the Map-i, a long-term research project that considers space and place from a human perspective. The universal quest for understanding a sense of place is fundamental to the human condition, and underpinned the work of 16th century cartographer Gerard Mercator, whose maps informed this body of work. The boat is a symbol of our human instinct to go and explore; the Age of Discovery being emblematic of our innate need to go and explore and ‘conquer’ the world, setting sail and explore beyond the boundaries of human knowledge; to sail off the map.

These pieces are created as part of a contemporary desire to understand our shared past in order to challenge our present and our future.

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INGE PANNEELS

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LAUREN PUCKETT

The Contaminant as Actor, II, (2019), Image: Lauren Puckett

ANNICA SANDSTRĂ–M AND DAVID KAPLAN Twilight, (2018), Image: Shannon Tofts

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Lauren is currently a student at the University of Edinburgh. Building on discourses of beauty, she explores the idea of imperfections. In her work, Lauren asks if fundamental flaws in the construct of a work can add to the overall depth and richness of a piece. By altering traditional methods of mould-making, her work intentionally causes fractures and fusion, challenging notions of perfection.

Annica, a student at the Glass & Ceramic Department at Konstfack, Stockholm, was attending an intensive introduction to glassmaking at Orrefors Glass School where she met David, who, by way of Vermont and Edinburgh had completed two years at the Glass School. The Scandinavian training and workshop experience has greatly influenced their work.

The Contaminant as Actor, II takes as its leaping off point the problematic of imperfections in craft aesthetics. By removing flint from the contact layer between plaster mold and glass, Lauren intentionally creates fractures and fusion, challenging the notion of perfection through a high gloss, flawless finish.

The horizontal lines of colour in the glass panel Twilight are on the edge - between abstraction and figuration. Made from two sheets of blown glass, their edges were once ground flat. Taking these sheets to fusing temperature allows two pieces to become one and square edges to be soft and round, leaving the liquid quality of glass still in evidence.

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CATHRYN SHILLING

Cloaked Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, (2016), Image: Ester Segarra

Cathryn is best known for her trademark glass cloth pieces which utilise the Venetian glass cane techniques. The canes are made by drawing molten glass into fine threads of no more than one or two millimetres.

Cathryn’s most recent body of work, Cloaked, explores the relationship between fabric and the human form. Clothing conveys so many things. Not only does it provide protection against the elements, it also broadcasts your position and identity within society, as well as reflecting your mood and emotional situation. Her pieces explore these themes and the associated misconceptions and judgments that we are all guilty of making.

AMANDA SIMMONS Collision Risk (Tern), (2018), Image: A.J.Simmons

Amanda has worked with glass for the past 16 years, graduating from Central St Martin’s School of Art & Design before relocating to Dumfries & Galloway in 2005.

Amanda makes kiln formed glass objects, playing with gravity in the kiln. Manipulating mass, heat, colour and time, she aims to create complex, elusive work that has intense colour and pattern which reacts to the light it is placed in. She uses opaque glass powders to construct her work because of its varying translucency as the form elongates in the kiln.

Her most recent work has come from two intense weeks on residency at Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness.

The pieces stand tall like characters in a play, conveying the essence of inevitable tragedy to be found in life, love, war and death.

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MOONJU SUH

I Dwell With _____, (2019), Image: Moonju Suh

Moonju’s background is in Graphic Design, with a particular focus on drawing characters. Much of her work seeks to give viewers feelings of happiness and playfulness.

The I Dwell With _____ series represents the artist and her feelings in the form of Matryoshka, also known as Russian dolls. Moonju believes that many people hide their true feelings in order to become a part of modern society and thus her life is like a ‘Matryoshka’. The work is made of similar shapes; different sizes of multiple dolls which can be nested together. When put inside each other the individual parts become one whole body.

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LAURA TURNER

Colour Splatter of Pâte de Verre (2019), Image : Laura Turner

Laura found her love for the technique of Pâte de Verre in her second year of her Applied Arts course at Glyndwr University. She adores the control and patience required to create a single vessel. The vessels in this display are part of a 64-piece exhibition which, when in order, display an image of a splash of colour.

These crystal clear Pâte de Verre vessels are illuminated by blue and purple splatters; comprising a true-blue shade and dark aubergine purples. The vessel is then effortlessly balanced on a metal frame and mounted on the wall. These vessels balance on the edge of delicacy, beauty and strength, where thousands of pieces of glass are slightly fused together to form an unbelievable structure; balancing on the edge of possibility and grace.

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ROSHEEN YOUNG Frozen Water, (2019), Image: Rosheen Young

OTHER CELEBRATIONS To celebrate its 40th anniversary SGS will be holding a series of talks and events across Scotland.

Following a successful career in education, Rosheen studied glass at City of Glasgow College and University of Sunderland. Rosheen was greatly inspired by Nan Shepherd’s ‘The Living Mountain’, which tells of time spent in the Cairngorms in all seasons. Shepherd describes water in a constant state of freezing and thawing - ‘on the edge’. Frozen water can be ‘crystal clear or translucent’; ‘crimpled, crackled or bubbled’.

ON THE EDGE will open in Glasgow at The Trades Hall, 85 Glassford St, 18 - 25 September. Alongside it will be an open exhibition of members work responding to the theme Celebration!

In Frozen Water, ‘Crystal clear’ cast glass floats frozen above art glass in that state of flux. The fused glass is held in a light box. Sharp, clear edges of cast glass give a window to emotions and feelings representing people, environments and memories and anticipation of future experiences.

People will be able to learn more about the history of SGS at a retrospective exhibition held at Dunoon Burgh Hall, St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh and The Lighthouse in Glasgow from October to December.

There will be a chance to hear from artists directly through talks and curators led tours at National Museums Scotland and Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Try your own hand at glass making by participating in a workshop.

For more information on upcoming talks and events see the SGS website and social media channels.

www.scottishglasssociety.com @ScotGlassSoc @scottishglasssociety facebook.com/groups/ScottishGlassSociety

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JOIN SGS We would love you to join the Scottish Glass Society!

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS ARE: PROFESSIONAL ________ £35

CORPORATE __________ £70

STUDENT _____________ £17

FRIEND OF SGS ________ £25

(if you are from outside the UK, please add £5)

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

Professional, Student and Corporate members receive the following benefits: • Eligibility to enter our annual exhibitions • Member profile page on the SGS website, with full access to edit information and image gallery • Submit news, event information and opportunities directly to the SGS website • Monthly e-bulletins of all the latest SGS news and information • Annual printed journal featuring articles on SGS members, activities, exhibitions and awards • Contact with a wide-ranging network of Scottish glass artists, collectors and enthusiasts • Regular social events, including visits to exhibitions, talks and the annual AGM • 15% discount from Warm Glass – email them a screenshot of your Member entry

For more information and to become a member, see our website.

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scottishglasssociety.com

Image: Transparent Flow, (2019), Gregory Alliss