Don’t Hassle Me. I’m Local: From Real to Imaginary, New Glass Now Artists Explore the Idea of Place

Open until January 5, 2020, at The Corning Museum of Glass, the exhibition New Glass Now aims to teach visitors about the exciting field of contemporary glass. Through 100 works of art and design in glass, the exhibition is a snapshot of the wide-ranging themes, ideas, and techniques glass artists are engaging with today. A handful of these 100 artists carry this idea of capturing a moment in time one step further by evoking a specific time or place in their work. Whether the location is personally meaningful to the artist, or completely imaginary, many of the artworks in New Glass Now grapple with how to explore or capture a sense of place.

Miya Ando (United States, b. 1978), Kumo (Cloud) for Glass House (Shizen), Nature Series

In 2016, Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Caanan, Connecticut, commissioned internationally-renowned contemporary artist Miya Ando to develop an editioned sculpture to sell at their Design Shop. Ando, known for her watercolor-like paintings on sheets of aluminum, turned to the image of a fleeting cloud to capture the calm and contemplative environment of this icon of modern architecture. In her body of work, Ando often explores the Buddhist concepts of compassion, wisdom, and impermanence. The piece she created for the Glass House, titled Kumo (Cloud) for Glass House (Shizen), Nature Series, is a glass cube containing a laser-etched cloud. She photographed this cloud above the house during a visit. The piece contains a meditative environment, inviting the viewer to gaze inside.[1] Not only is Ando capturing the calm feeling of the Glass House in a portable object, but also the singular moment when the cloud floated overhead. Impermanence, another important concept to Buddhists, is a common thread that runs through Ando’s work. She uses transparency to embody this concept, most often using the medium of glass.[2]

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The Pipemakers’ Day Has Finally Come

The Corning Museum of Glass has just acquired its first contemporary glass cannabis pipe. This is a big moment for many folks in the glass world, especially for us flameworkers. The piece, “Untitled, Corning” was created by David Colton for our New Glass Now exhibition. From my perspective as the lead flameworker at the Museum, this is a wonderful addition to our collections for many reasons. It is a beautiful sculptural object. It was made by a highly respected member of the pipemaking community. And the piece perfectly embodies many of the talking points I like to share on this unique facet of the glass scene.  

David Colton United States, b. 1974 Untitled, Corning Museum United States, Westhampton, Massachusetts, 2018 Flameworked borosilicate glass, steel 30.5 x 66 x 23.5 cm
David Colton’s “Untitled, Corning” piece has just been acquired by The Corning Museum of Glass as the Leonard and Julia Rakow Commission for 2019.

While we see evidence of glassmakers creating pipes for well over 100 years, a unique movement has developed within the flameworking world over the past 30 years. In the early 1980s, flameworking artist Bob Snodgrass unsuspectingly began what would become a uniquely American addition to the world of glass art. Combining his interests in glassmaking and cannabis, Snodgrass began selling his color-changing glass pipes to friends and fellow cannabis enthusiasts. Bob was a big fan of the Grateful Dead and he followed their concert tours around the country with many other Deadheads (fans). Deadheads have been a very free-spirited, entrepreneurial bunch and created their own sort of craft and food markets at concerts. This was a great environment for Snodgrass to sell his work. It also proved to be an effective way to get these new products spread across the United States. In the late ’80s, he began to teach his craft to other dedicated students in and around Eugene, OR.

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Under the Soot: cleaning smoke damaged glass

We clean our share of dirty glass in the Conservation Lab at The Corning Museum of Glass, but occasionally we get some unusual requests. Recently, one of our colleagues brought us objects from his personal glass collection that withstood a house fire. Soot on glass artwork and food stains on bakeware may not be the most natural connection to make; however, our conservator instincts recognized that in both cases organic materials had been heated to high temperatures, so we started by revisiting an old blog about cleaning Pyrex.

The smoke-damaged objects before cleaning

To tackle this new problem, we wondered if we could use lower concentrations of sodium hydroxide if we soaked the objects for a short period. The surface of each object and the smoke deposits varied, so we needed to work flexibly– what worked for one object did not necessarily work for all. For example, we used a higher concentration of sodium hydroxide to loosen soot on some objects with sensitive surfaces so that we could soak for a shorter time and avoid vigorous brushing.

We worked object by object, gradually increasing soaking time and/or concentration of sodium hydroxide until we could remove the soot by swabbing or brushing gently. The general idea behind our process is: soak, test, assess, then adjust and repeat as necessary.

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New Exhibition Announcement: Special Exhibition on Glass in 18th-Century Britain Opening May 2020

The Museum’s spring exhibition, In Sparkling Company: Glass and Social Life in Britain During the 1700s, will open May 9, 2020. With exhibition design by Selldorf Architects, In Sparkling Company will present the glittering costume and jewelry, elaborate tableware, polished mirrors, and dazzling lighting devices that delighted the British elite, and helped define social rituals and cultural values of the period. Through a lens of glass, this exhibition will show visitors what it meant to be ‘modern’ in the 1700s, and what it cost. 

Detail of a Mirror in wood frame, Probably England, London (glass), and Scotland (frame), carving attributed to William Mathie (fl. 1739–about 1761), based on designs by Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779), about 1760. H. 174 cm, W. 105.5 cm, D. 12.5 cm. The Corning Museum of Glass (2018.2.8).

The exhibition will also include a specially created virtual reality reconstruction of the remarkable and innovative spangled-glass drawing room completed in 1775 for Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786), and designed by Robert Adam (1728-1792), one of the leading architects and designers in Britain at the time. An original section of the room (which was dismantled in the 1870s), on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum) in London, will be on view in North America for the first time as part of the exhibition. It will be accompanied by Adam’s original colored design drawings for the interior, on loan from the Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.

Robert Adam (1728–1792), design for the end wall of the drawing room at Northumberland House, 1770–1773. Pen, pencil, and colored washes, including pink, verdigris, and Indian yellow on laid paper. H. 51.6 cm, W. 102.1 cm. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London (SM Adam, volume 39/7). Photo Credit: © Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Photography by Ardon Bar Hama. 
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Featured News

New Exhibition Announcement: Special Exhibition on Glass in 18th-Century Britain Opening May 2020

The Museum’s spring exhibition, In Sparkling Company: Glass and Social Life in Britain During the 1700s, will open May 9, 2020. With exhibition design by Selldorf Architects, In Sparkling Company will present the glittering costume and jewelry, elaborate tableware, polished mirrors, and dazzling lighting devices that delighted the British elite, and helped define social rituals and cultural values of the period. Through a lens of glass, this exhibition will show visitors what it meant to be ‘modern’ in the 1700s, and what it cost. 

Detail of a Mirror in wood frame, Probably England, London (glass), and Scotland (frame), carving attributed to William Mathie (fl. 1739–about 1761), based on designs by Thomas Chippendale (1718–1779), about 1760. H. 174 cm, W. 105.5 cm, D. 12.5 cm. The Corning Museum of Glass (2018.2.8).

The exhibition will also include a specially created virtual reality reconstruction of the remarkable and innovative spangled-glass drawing room completed in 1775 for Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786), and designed by Robert Adam (1728-1792), one of the leading architects and designers in Britain at the time. An original section of the room (which was dismantled in the 1870s), on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum) in London, will be on view in North America for the first time as part of the exhibition. It will be accompanied by Adam’s original colored design drawings for the interior, on loan from the Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.

Robert Adam (1728–1792), design for the end wall of the drawing room at Northumberland House, 1770–1773. Pen, pencil, and colored washes, including pink, verdigris, and Indian yellow on laid paper. H. 51.6 cm, W. 102.1 cm. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London (SM Adam, volume 39/7). Photo Credit: © Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Photography by Ardon Bar Hama. 
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The Corning Museum of Glass Partners on Glass Competition Show Blown Away 

The Corning Museum of Glass is thrilled to share news of an exciting collaboration on the forthcoming Netflix series, Blown Away, which will bring the art and beauty of glassblowing to television screens around the world. A visually compelling process often described as “mesmerizing” and “captivating,” glassblowing has never been the subject of any major TV programming—until now.  

The art glass competition show created by Marblemedia, an award-winning entertainment company based in Toronto, Canada, Blown Away features a group of 10 highly skilled glassmakers from North America creating beautiful works of art that are assessed by a panel of expert judges. One artist is eliminated each episode until a winner is announced in the tenth and final episode. A co-production with Blue Ant Media of Toronto, Blown Away will air on the Makeful channel in Canada before coming to the Netflix platform worldwide later this year.

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The Studio announces 2019 Residencies

Today, The Studio announced the 2019 Artists-in-Residence recipients: twelve artists from around the world who will each spend one month at The Studio, researching and experimenting with new techniques to further their work. Additionally, two artists and two scholars have been selected for the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Artists and the David Whitehouse Research Residency for Scholars, respectively. These recipients will spend up to three weeks in the Rakow Library, utilizing the vast holdings to inform their practice or area of research. Each resident will provide a public Lunchtime Lecture during their time at the Museum, describing their inspirations and work at The Studio and the Rakow Library.

2019 Artists-In-Residence at The Studio

Shinobu Kurosawa & Jim Butler
February 24-March 24; Public lecture on March 14

Shinobu Kurosawa, Happy Christmas.
Shinobu Kurosawa, Happy Christmas.

Translated literally, the Japanese word tonbodama means dragonfly ball. Since 2000, flameworker Shinobu Kurosawa has been making tonbodama beads that depict traditional Japanese landscape and nature scenes in glass.

In her March 2019 residency, Kurosawa will use The Studio’s resources to continue her research on tonbodama and expand her flameworking skills as she explores new possibilities in Japanese beadmaking.

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