'White Light/White Heat- Glasstress ' - Collateral project for the 55th Venice Biennale, 2013

A Collaboration between Berengo Glass Studio, Venice and The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London

Curated by James Putnam & Adriano Berengo
1 June - November 24th, 2013
Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Campo Santo Stefano 2847,30124 Venice
& Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art & Glass, Campiello Della Pescheria, 30141 Murano, Venice

The Wallace Collection,London W1U 3BN

Novemember 2013 - February 2014

Fashion Space Gallery, LCF, London W1G 0BJ

66 Participating Artists:including Alice Anderson, Polly Apfelbaum,Ron Arad, Ayman Baalbaki, Miroslaw Balka, Rin Banerjee, Fiona Banner, Pieke Bergmans, Boudicca, Loris Cecchini, Hussein Chalayan, Oliver Clegg, Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin, Jan Fabre,Paul Fryer,Mona Hatoum, Stuart Haygarth, Charlotte Hodes, Shirazeh Houshiary, Shih Chieh Huang, John Isaacs, Michael Joo, Joseph Kosuth, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov,Hew Locke, Delphine Lucille, Alatair Mackie, Jason Martin, Kris Martin, Oksana Mas, Whitney McVeigh, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Lucy & Jorge Orta,Tony Oursler, Zak Ove´, Mimmo Paladino, Cornelia Parker, Javier Perez, Jaume Plensa,Cai Guo Qiang, Karim Rashid, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Thomas Schutte Conrad Shawcross, Meekyoung Shin, Helen Storey,Gavin Turk, Joana Vasconcelos, Koen Vanmechelen, Zhan Wang

Invited artists were asked to respond to the theme of light and heat fundamental to glass making - light is integral to our perception of glass while heat is required to shape it. Glassblowing involves furnaces from which the molten glass is worked then slowly cooled over a period of a few hours to a few days, depending on the size of the pieces to keep the glass from cracking due to thermal stress. Glass is a magical and unexploited medium for artists to work with because unlike any other material it has such a vast range of possibilities - bright or dull, coloured, transparent, mirrored or metalic or take any number of surface treatments and textures. Hot glass can be incandescent and glow bright orange yet still be transparent when it's molten. Alchemy an early precursor to science played an important part in the history of glassmaking and glass colouring processes. Glass has been worked for so many centuries that a huge variety of techniques exist to produce a vast range of glasses with differing properties that offer artists fantastic possibilities to create work.

LINKS

http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/research/glasstress/
http://www.glasstress.org/event_2013/12                          

Link to publication - click here

Link to video - click here

Helen Stor'ey - 'Dress of Glass and Flame'u (2013) - Murano

Thomas Schutte - 'Geister'2011

Cai Guo-Qiang-'Full Body Scan:Next!' (2013)

Joana Vasconcelos 'Babylon' (2013)