Nives Marcassoli OF FIRE AND WATER Fused-cast glass hot worked
Nives Marcassoli DI FUOCO E D’ACQUA Fused-cast glass hot worked Testo di Bobo Santo Otera
A THIN SHADE
Vibrant transparent works of art… parts of the body... hands chasing the last instants of an azurish light. They are blocks of transparent glass encompassing aquatic mementos. Colours in search of light, internal vibrations emerging from the solid mass and within the cold shining glass, they find rest. Nives Marcassoli’s most recent creations, have not waived towards the traditional difficulties found amongst glass artisans, but after having overcome the themes of transparency and its rhetorical and ethical implications, she feels that these weighty vibrant glass sculptures are their to remind us of the continuous mutations of matter and the mysterious sounds of our planet. The themes are reoccurring, denied or exploited childhood, a stone skimming game on a local river… and the body… where the drawing becomes the undisputed protagonist amongst the mysterious movements of the glass which imprisons it. Nives contrives the colours of her creations in a sentimental “furnace” made with fragments from the world, bodies inside other bodies seeming to say... At dusk whilst driving home after a brief visit to her workshop, I was surprised of my vivid recollections of those soft azurish nuances where a hand encounters a cloud.” Bobo Santo Otera December 2010
Bobo Santo Otera (Belvedere Marittimo CS 1953) Bobo Santo Otera is a researcher of folk traditions and a singer. Artist Sculptur and teacher of reductive oxidizing techniques and traditional and experimental furnacing methods. He has had numerous exhibitions and settings where he studies the relationship between vision and perception.
Dialogo fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2010 cm 36 x 24 x 5
Vibrazioni fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2011 cm 38 x 33 x 5
Luce fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2011 cm 35 x 32 x 5
Vita fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2011 cm 28 x 38 x 5
SerenitĂ fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2011 cm 28 x 35 x 5
Eros fused-cast glass hot worked anno: 2011 cm 39 x 33 x 5
Paesaggio 1 sand casting hot worked anno: 2011 cm 35 x 17 x 3
THE ARTIST
Born in Ranica, near Bergamo, ( Italy)in 1959, Nives achieves the fashion designer diploma and in 1983 moves in Pavia. Her artistic path begins with painting: in 1985 becomes one of the founders of “Associazione Arti Visive Marabelli di Pavia” (AR.VI.MA), exposing in collective exhibitions. During the ‘90s begins approacing the glass world, realizing furnishing works and complementary furnishing. Continues studying the glass fusing techniques working with a few artists: in ‘92 with Jirg Kleiner (Switzerland) and from ‘94 with Miriam Di Fiore, becoming her student for many years. In 2000 takes her first experience with the furnace with the artist Tom Rowney (Australia) to the Creative Glass in Zurich. In 2001 is assistant of Miriam Di Fiore during the international glass class organized by Centro Studio Vetro in Murano. From 2000 begins working to the glasses in the SS.Crocifisso’s church in Pavia, entirely designed and realized from her; in 2001 completes the face glass, in 2003 the side glass windows of the main altar and in 2007 the glass window on its top (with a total surface of about 100mq). In 2002 is teacher at the glass fusing classes in Tuscany to the Pandora association and exposes her works in Murano. In 2005 takes part at the residential class in Hot-Cast-Glass, by the artist Mitchell Gaudet (New Orleans), to the Pilchuck Glass School (Seattle - WA). In 2006 realizes for the Vernate’s municipality (Milano - Italy) an interpretation in glass fusing of an opera of the US artist William Congdon, placed inside the Pasturago di Vernate’s cemetery In 2010 the sculpture GICHI SOSPESI ( Suspended Games) is placed inside the Nuovo Centro Culturale”Roberto Gritti” in Ranica(BG); this work presents the author’s insight on infancy, game and child labor in the last century and nowadays. September 2010” Di Vetro e d’Acqua” exibition. Sculptures made of glass in order to catch the sky, to link them with eart, to subordinate them the fire. As a guest, she shows her latest works in the floating section of the Club Vogatori Pavesi, fused-cast glass, inclusion of glass masses, drawing and precasting prepared by herself, mixing fusion and hot working. April 2011 He’s one of 30 glass-artist selected to show her works to 2°Vitrofestival Romont (Switzerland)
THE TECHNIQUE
Fused-Cast Glass Hot Worked Fused-cast glass hot worked This technical definition was coined by the artist herself to define her own work; a mixture of drawing, warm-glass techniques, crucible drip and mold casting. - The early experiences with drawing and painting emerge here with renewed poeticity. Bodies as landscapes, body parts as segments of a single soul. Drawing on glass, created “from life” and hot fixed. - Fusion of glass slabs, repeatedly melted with the gradual addition of further glass within the slab, both ground or powdered, which creates the “atmosphere” in which the drawing will be set. - Fragments of coloured glass are dripped directly into the crucible, so that they can merge at high temperature. In such a way, single blocks of unique hues are created and added to a personal colour palette. These blocks are used as broad brush strokes, which strengthen and complete the “painting” by being cast together in a mold with the drawing and the warm glass. - Mold casting: once the whole glass mass is fused, the last, crucial operation involves submerging the whole work in molten glass. With the last manual intervention, the author impresses the movements of a water surface on the fluid mass, as if shaken by underground vibrations. - Cold working completes the process. By recreating a little “furnace” in her laboratory, Nives gave birth to this new technique, which paves the way for novel artistical interpretation.
Catalogo D’ARS Edizioni realizzato in occasione della mostra personale di Nives Marcassoli dal 12 al 31 Maggio 2011 Spazio multimediale - ufficio annunci economici Galleria 9 colonne - SPE - quotidiano IL GIORNO Via Tadino 30 - Milano Copertina: Eros - particolare www.nivesmarcassoli.com Foto e progetto grafico: Roberto Gatti
Fondazione Oscar Signorini - Milano via S.Agnese - Milano tel: +39 02 860290 www.fondazionedars.it