A.Schramm: Glassmovement
Agnes Schramm, curator from Slovak National Gallery:
Glassmovement.nl , article from folder to the exhibitions in
Bratislava, Budapest and Viena, 2004.
Glass - this everyday and dissparaged material, but despite that, so unusual and mysterious. It was known to the oldest cultures of the human civilisation. The secrets of glass blowing and casting were guarded by generations of artistic craftmen of ancient Greece and Rome. The colourful beauty of glass mosaics of Byzantine architecture continued in fragile blown vessels within Venetian glass workshops. The rays of sunlight squeeze through the stained glass of gothic cathedrals creating mystic and majestic feeling. The shimmering lustre of cut glass caraffes from masters of Czech glass founderies in the age of renessaince and barroque had no resonate in the glass art of European countries even today.
The exhibitions of creative personalities making an inpact in today´s Holland are offering us, by means of the Glassmovement.nl project, a summary of happenings in the world of glass sculptures and objects. Artists in the same way as their precessors during the many centuries, experiment with and discover the secrets of glass in its unlimited possibilities of formal and meaningful expession. Understanding glass as a material equally changed glass into an exiting mysterious and exclusive medium.
Even if Mieke Groot, Caren tromp, Mieke Pontier, Sabine Lintzen, Willem van Oijen and Elizabeth Swinburne labour at the edge utilitatian territory, the shapes of their vessels, vases, bowls etc., with their understanding of colours, their invention under or on the surface of the object are in harmonious equilibrium with their aspiration to seep into the laws of sculptural works. The sculptures of Simsa Cho, Rachel Daeng Ngalle, Mari Mészáros, Antoon van Wijk and Gareth Noel Williams represent the differences in interpretation of the human body with ironic, dramatic, poetic magical but also spiritual expressions and with full spectrum of colours in the compositions from borrosilicate or plate glass.
On the other hand, works of Carl van Hees and Laura Heyworth give a new meaning to the union of disciplined architectural shapes while taking advantage of expressive influence and structure of coarse and smooth surfaces. Conceptual tendences with human texture are shown in the works of Deborah Hopkins and Lisa Gherardi with their penetration into the archeological and laboratory enviroment.
Abstract, shapeless, erotic and genetic symbols in the art works of Barbara Nanning, Cees van Olst, Richard Meitner and Effie Halkidis subjugates the form of melted and blown glass matter into their unique optical nuances. Susan Hammond and Frank van den Ham in their dramatic interpretation of liquid enviroment and beautiful detail yields products that take advantages of the flexibile quality of pouring and forming pieces with grand feeling and inventive shapes which speak to us with themes of nature.
The estetics of current artistic activities, taking place on the Dutch cultural scene, represent new glass sculptures in new meaning and understanding. Synthesis of light and colour, the penetration of surfaces and details, fragility and strength, illusion and rality bring to the spectator an exciting view and an unforgetable experience.
Ágnes Schramm, curator