It is Monday and I feel that it is about time that I write about what I thought of the International Symposium of Architectural Glass. It was held at the National Glass Centre in the city of Sunderland. The theme of the symposium was "Working with light as a means of interaction between space and mind".
The opening key speaker was Judith Schaechter with a truly inspirational speech about, well, inspiration itself - the 'AHA! moment. That was a highlight of mine, I also had a chance to speak with her and ask her briefly about her work. I relayed my own situation, struggling with tradition and contemporary in my glass practice and asked how she sees herself. She said that she is often 'left-out' of the glass scene in America as is influenced and practices stained glass techniques. She is greatly inspired by the medieval stained glass and this is clearly reflected in her glass through colour, pattern, composition and subject matter.
Alex Beleschenko spoke about his work saying that "architectural glass is at its best when it reveals itself over time" - glass with hidden secrets.
Carrie Fertig's piece called 'Homing' was quite resonant with me. I was drawn to the scale of the work, the site, the interaction and sense of inclusion that it had too. Each piece was carefully worked by hand and suspended individually to make a whole. I feel that I am inspired by it because of the craftsmanship involved, because she worked with every piece and how important that was to the finished work.
At this point, the discussion began to evolve around the question of 'intimacy' of the work and the processes involved - I feel that this was more directed at the larger architectural commissions but also at the cost involved in working in glass. Sometimes it is cheaper to get someone else to make it but then is the integrity of the work lost? Where is the craftsmanship in that? This was generally opposed to as the artists in question Alex Beleschenko and Judith Schaechter were both able to show that they both retain close contact with the glass during the process of fabrication - they were both very passionate about this as they are, quite clearly, very passionate about their glass.
Then Aidan Williams spoke - I'm not sure if I quite followed it exactly but my notes read about how we as people bring our own preconceptions into every space we go in. We all have memories and layers that we implant into a space - we wear them. That's about all I can make sense of but it was a very intriguing talk.
It was a great eye-opener to the contemporary architectural glass scene today with speakers from Europe, UK, Ireland and America - and a strong Swansea presence!
Another personal highlight was getting to meet Peadar Lamb and Debbie Dawson, both Irish stained glass artists that I greatly admire. Hopefully, I can meet them again and actually ask them some questions as they did most of the asking!
Links:
National Glass Centre: www.nationalglasscentre.com
Judith Schaechter: judithschaechterglass.blogspot.co.uk
Peadar Lamb: www.peadarlamb.com
Debbie Dawson: www.debbiedawsonstainedglass.com
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