Breaking the Mould

Breaking the Mould Exhibition Catalogue 28.09.18 - 20.10.18

Portrait of Cathryn Shilling. Photo credit: Ester Segarra

Kiln-cast glass is created by a series of complex, and often lengthy processes. The simple definition is that, to create a particular form, glass is melted into a mould in the heat of a kiln and then allowed to solidify. This technique has been around since Egyptian times, pre-dating the development of glassblowing by the Romans, yet often overshadowed by it.

However in the latter part of the 20th Century the collaborative work of the Czech artists Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova broke new ground both technically and aesthetically. Through their work they explored the optical effects and physical properties of glass, making pieces about light and colour as well as form, often on a monumental scale. Their sculptural legacy has led to the rise of kiln cast glass as an important material for contemporary artists, some of whom normally work in other media.

In 2011 the London Glassblowing hosted Melt, an important exhibition of cast glass by a dazzling array of artists, for the launch of the book Mould Making for Glass by the internationally renowned artist Angela Thwaites.

In 2018 we are returning to further explore the qualities of kiln cast glass as a medium for artistic expression through the work of a highly respected group of artists. Their work ranges from large-scale sculptures to delicate jewellery cast from a 3D printed model.

We hope that this important exhibition while highlighting the versatility of glass as a serious artistic medium will also captivate the viewer with the sheer beauty of the material.

Cathryn Shilling, Curator

Moulds in Bruno Romanelli's studio

HEIKE BRACHLOW The unexpected.

The slightly odd, the surreal, the uncanny.

Precariousness. Stability.

Equilibrium. Imbalance.

Things that are not what they seem.

Movement. Transformation.

Questioning rules.

Puzzles. Building blocks.

There but not there.

Fragile. Solid.

Ambiguous.

The potential for chaos.

Eidolon H 31 cm x W 33.5 cm x D 22 cm Cast glass ÂŁ9,000 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

HEIKE BRACHLOW

Metaphor Aqua H 29 cm x W 44.5 cm x D 35.5 cm Cast glass £10,750 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

Aphelion H 39 cm x W 55 cm x D 33 cm Cast glass £21,250 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

SABRINA CANT

Luna Blue W 25 cm x D 5 cm Kiln-cast glass disc, multi-fused and cast sculpture. Ground and polished with 22 carat gold leaf rim. £3,250 Photo credit: Ester Segarra.

SABRINA CANT Look at me, I’m here, I see you too. I’ll share my secrets if you share your dreams.

This wonderful planet in its raw but graceful state will encompass us all. To feel alive and pure like the earth as she first began.

Through my kiln–cast glass disc sculptures I try to illustrate a kind of daydream, a portal to share these experiences. I approach my glass pieces in an unusual way, more akin to an artist painting an oil where they return again and again to layer more depths, only my canvas consists of a 3 dimensional transparent space.

I cast coloured sections, polish and then assemble them ready to be cast or fused, if necessary up to 5 firings until the desired effect has been achieved.

Dance of Venus W 36 cm x D 6 cm Kiln-cast glass disc, multi-fused and cast sculpture. Ground and polished with 23 carat gold leaf rim £6,000 Flourish W 25 cm x D 5 cm Kiln-cast glass disc, multi-fused and cast sculpture. Ground and polished with 22 carat gold leaf rim £3,250 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

Dance of Venus

Flourish

FIAZ ELSON Light, Time and Space. What you seek, is seeking you.

Fiaz Elson preparing to steam out the wax in the mould before firing

Time and Space D 34 cm Cast glass. Two-part piece. ÂŁ4,750 Photo Credit: Ian Gibbs

JACKSON FAWKES The individual views and ways of expressing themselves bring a synergy to the collaborative artworks of Sally Fawkes and Richard Jackson, which are both challenging and harmonious.

Jackson Fawkes are husband and wife, and share a large, well equipped studio in Gloucestershire. This gives rise to a fairly unique situation where both create theirown individual sculptures as well as coming together to collaborate, creating pieces with a third distinct voice.

Notational Movement XVII H 8 cm x D 12 cm Cast glass, mirrored and carved ÂŁ1,100 Notational Movement XV H 7.5 cm x W 9.5 cm x L 16.5 cm Cast glass, mirrored and carved ÂŁ1,025 Photo credit: Richard Jackson

Notational Movement XVII

Notational Movement XV

SALLY FAWKES

The late Dan Klein described Sally’s work as “self-explanatory narratives full of feeling and content, communicating without any need for words, delighting the eye and setting thought processes in motion."

External Exchange The pieces above are no longer available. New pieces in this series will feature in the exhibition, please enquire.

Photo credit: Richard Jackson

JOSEPH HARRINGTON I use salt to sculpt ice as a one-off ephemeral model from which to take a direct cast.

JOSEPH HARRINGTON

I interpret landscapes through exploration of material. I focus on rugged coastlines, looking at erosion as a spectacle of discovery and generation of form, revealing a sense of the history and movement of a place. The work is produced using my ‘Lost Ice Process'.

St Helens ii (previous page) - H 33 cm x W 108 cm x D 9 cm Cast glass, lost ice process, with salt erosion £13,750 Gabbro iii (left) - H 44 cm x W 32 cm x D 13 cm Cast glass, lost ice process, with salt erosion £8,000 Moss (right)- H 46 cm x W 32 cm x D 11 cm Cast glass, lost ice process, with salt erosion £8,000 Photo credit: Sylvain Deleu

INGRID HUNTER I take my inspirations from several sources – my travels around the world, architecture, flora and fauna and, of course, from glass artists old and new.

I'm particularly interested in casting and core casting specifically. I love the complexity of casting and the intricacies the process offers. It enables me to create unusual vessels where the interior and exterior are different and enables the freedom to be ambitious.

Keepsake H 16 cm x W 14 cm x D 10 cm Core cast, lost wax ÂŁ2,250 Photo credit: Ingrid Hunter

RICHARD JACKSON Expression can only be a glimpsed moment made manifest.

First Intention VIII H 40 cm x W 25 cm x D 6 cm Cast glass with deep carving £3,875 Photo credit: Richard Jackson

RICHARD JACKSON An impression, a question, an idea, are the starting points for Richard Jackson’s work. He records impressions of things and concerns he experiences through drawing, writing and photography, and these are the source for his sculptures.

From Past Memory XI H 65 cm x W 24 cm x D 9 cm Cast glass with internal veiling and surface carving ÂŁ7,500 Photo credit: Richard Jackson

MAX JACQUARD With the material always at the centre of his practice, the journey is about constantly evolving and finding new forms of expression.

Max Jacquard is known as an explorer and innovator working with a range of kiln forming techniques. In a career of over thirty years his unique methods have always been developed in response and as a stimulus to ideas of a more poetic nature. His ghostly figure “Brick Man” in the V and A Glass collection uses fragile armour of slumped glass plates and his delicate tissue castings won the British Glass Biennale in 1996.

Semazen Clear H 55 cm x D 13 cm Core cast optical crystal with bronze mounts on marble base £2,375 Semazen Blue H 40 cm x D 13 cm Core cast optical crystal with oxides and frit tinting, bronze mounts on marble base £1,680 Photo credit: Katarina Tatamova

MONETTE LARSEN

Unfolding Transformation H 23 cm x W 33 cm x D 28 cm Lost wax cast £5,800 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

I have always been fascinated by the concept of beauty within nature; what makes something beautiful, what are the characteristics that define it as such?

MONETTE LARSEN This body of work is influenced by the underlying structures of corals, their shape, growth and movement in the sea. By exploring the mathematics of their shape, known as a hyperbolic plane, through crocheting, I create a shape, growing into its own during the process.

I add layers of complexity through the making process by refining and altering the piece after turning it into a solid wax, like the forces of nature alters the perfect model in the natural world. Through the wax modelling process the piece is carefully cut and carved before letting the glass casting process control the glass flow adding complexity and depth to the piece.

Experimental Seashape VI H 10 cm x W 5 cm x D 12 cm Lost wax cast glass £750 Photo credit: Katerina Iacovides

PETER LAYTON Some you win, some you don't.

These new pieces have evolved from my previous hotworked pyramidal forms entitled Icecaps, made with Elliot Walker. These latest versions have developed with help from Tim Rawlinson, my future son-in-law, through lengthy moulding, kiln-casting and coldworking processes to achieve their final form.

The diffusion of amorphous, flowing internal colour is the spontaneous result of prolonged heating and gravity during the kiln firing. There is a Zen-like lack of control in this part of the process that appeals to me enormously, particularly in contrast to the polished hard-edged surfaces of the exterior form.

Shard H 40 cm x D 23 cm Hot worked and cast glass, cut and polished ÂŁ8,200 Photo credit: Alick Cotterill

LOLA LAZARO HINKS I hope to engage with our deepest connection to light and darkness, and our relationship to space itself, essentially exploring the very way we visually perceive.

Echo D 30 cm Cast glass and steel ÂŁ8,000 Photo credit: Alick Cotterill

ALISON LOWRY The 'empty' dress alludes to absence, time passing, and lost memories.

I am interested in textiles and clothing for the stories that they can tell us- about the time period they were created, the maker who stitched them and the wearer.

My sculptural pieces are created in my studio in Northern Ireland using the technique of pâte de verre, and are inspired by antique or vintage clothing.

Estelle H 46 cm x W 34 cm Pâte de verre, silicone, nylon fibres £1,800 Photo credit: Glenn Norwood

JOANNE MITCHELL The work aims to invite questions on humanity, exploring themes around identity and identification.

Joanne recently completed her practice-based PhD in glass, in which she developed a new technique employing digital technologies to precisely control air entrapment as a tool for artistic expression in kiln-formed glass.

The integration of waterjet cutting and CAD/CAM with more traditional processes enabled new, complex shapes and forms in glass and air which had previously been impossible.

The series makes visible the intangible, and explores air as a metaphor for thought, memory, and the immaterial.

Host I H 19 cm x W 19 cm x D 5 cm Kiln-formed float glass with multiple layered and controlled air-entrapment ÂŁ740 Photo credit: Colin Rennie

KATE PASVOL The way that glass can be used to capture and manipulate light is a property that really interests me and I try to use this to create three dimensional effects in my work.

Kate's her work is inspired by her walks in the Welsh hills. This series attempts to evoke her experience of moving through the landscape.

Climbing Pen Y Fan H 40 cm x W 8 cm x D 26 cm Open kiln-cast glass on slate base ÂŁ2,500 Photo credit: Mike Coles

TIM RAWLINSON

Labyrinth H 16 cm x W 16 cm x D 16 Cast-blown glass, cut and polished ÂŁ5,000 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

TIM RAWLINSON I seek to achieve a quality akin to when ink falls into water and the colour spreads and flows on the liquid. Ultimately the interior becomes a painting, a composition in layers and refraction.

Tesseract H 15 cm x W 15 cm x D 15 cm Cast-blown glass, cut and polished ÂŁ5,750 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

DAVID REEKIE

Blue Figure I H 33 cm x W 16 cm x D 10 cm A series of lost wax cast glass figures with enamel colours in the glass £2,500 Photo credit: David Reekie

DAVID REEKIE In these pieces I explore the different forms of dignity, prejudice and miscarriage of justice.

During a residency at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, I worked on a series of drawings and abstracted figures based on the character of Ned Kelly an outlaw in 1880’s Australia.

Ned Kelly was an intelligent man who, through prejudice and miscarriage of justice, was led into a life of crime and violence.

Another Kind Of Dignity I H 38 cm x W 19 cm x D 14 cm Lost wax cast glass ÂŁ7,000 Photo credit: David Reekie

BRUNO ROMANELLI

Bruno Romanelli working in his studio

Overarching themes of form, colour and light inform Bruno’s work.

Within these themes, geometry, symmetry and harmony are explored to create technically complex pieces that belie their simplicity.

Kari H 48 cm x W 28 cm x D 6 cm Cast glass ÂŁ6,250 Photo credit: Andy Smart, AC Cooper

BRUNO ROMANELLI Inspired by the sublime to the mundane, light and its transmission informs each piece. Glass is the perfect material to explore this idea with the myriad ways in which it interferes with the light that is reflected, refracted and transmitted through it.

Pallene H 46 cm x W 26 cm x D 6 cm Cast glass. ÂŁ5,500 Photo credit: Andy Smart, AC Cooper

ANTHONY SCALA Quantum reality is in constant flux. Particle is my own humble homage to the fundamental quantum building blocks that make up our reality. To create this piece, I decided to use a combination of cast opalescent glass, and hot sculpted glass to accomplish the desired structure of bubbles within the piece.

My aim was to devise a solid unyielding geometric structure, and enclosing a transient and seemingly ever-fluctuating nucleus, signifying the many mysterious quantum particles simultaneously existing in multiple states, places, and even times.

Particle H 23 cm x D 15 cm (including base) Opalescent cast glass and hot glass, laminated.

Bespoke stainless steel rotating base ÂŁ12,500 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

ANTHONY SCALA

Anthony Scala coldworking the central cube

Singularity H 17 cm W 12 cm H 12 cm (including base) Free-blown hot glass in a core. Outer shell indicolite optical glass with semi-reflective mirroring. Bespoke stainless steel rotating base ÂŁ7,800 Photo credit: Ester Segarra

THE LEATHERMARKET 1995 - 2009

ANGELA THWAITES Using a range of digital and physical modelling methods, responses to visual research are developed into tangible, tactile forms and translated through casting techniques, into glass. It is not the flawless regularity that the digital process appears to promise that motivates its use, rather its potential to combine with the material presence of the handmade, to produce previously ‘unmakeable’ forms and structures.

Glass is an expressive medium with faithful and faithless qualities: it can translate and reflect, perfectly; but it is also distorting, subverting intentions and meanings. Within the work, viewers can find connections, not always comfortably, to themselves, their own physicality, fragility and strength, humour and awkwardness.

Amber Globey H 4 -6 cm 3D model, printed £525 (part of a group of 5)

ANGELA THWAITES

Angela Thwaites making her moulds

Vessel H 23 cm x D 15 cm 3D model, printed Individually priced from £250 - £500 Group of 5: £1,550

ANDREA WALSH These transcendent works become luminous explorations of our perception; meditations on colour and light Andrea Walsh, an artist of focus and quiet dedication, developed her exquisite contained box forms in 2015, following a research trip to Japan. At once straightforward and extraordinary, they speak of preciousness and care, and reflect a deep consideration of formal values.

Materials become more ambiguous, and the works themselves more abstract. The enclosed volume of the vessel becomes not simply a space for physical containment, but an arena for diffuse and reflected light.

Alun Graves Senior Curator, Ceramics and Glass Victoria and Albert Museum

Pair of Contained Boxes Pale Cooper and Gold, Nude and Platinum H 7 cm x W 10 cm D 8 cm Lost wax cast glass, fine bone china, 22 carat burnished gold, burnished platinum ÂŁ9,500 Photo credit: Shannon Tofts

This catalogue presents a small selection of pieces by artists featuring in 'Breaking the Mould'.

Please contact Gallery Manager Gena Johns to purchase, request more information about the work, or inquire about a bespoke shipping quote.

London Glassblowing regularly ships work across the UK and internationally.

London Glassblowing 62-66 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3UD londonglassblowing.co.uk gallery@londonglassblowing.co.uk